 |
| Kerri Lisa and Alexis being silly |
 |
| Toasties & Cheetos! |
 |
| Outside 7-11 haha |
The next day the weather was not great again and we spent the day relaxing. We had a lovely dinner with Lisa and some of her friends at a nice steak restaurant up in the mountains.
Sunday we met with Lisa for breakfast and bumped into Beulah and her friend Lindsey. We invited them to come with us to a small island off the coast called Nang Yuan. We had such a great day snorkelling, tanning and walking up to the look out. It was amazing! We finished up by enjoying a lovely Italian meal with the girls and prepared for our move the next morning!
 |
| At the Look out at Nang Yuan |
 |
| Snorkelling! |
 |
| Feeeesh! |
 |
| Kerri, Lisa, Lindsey, Lex & Beulah |
We moved to Ban's Diving Resort in the morning, hung out with Lisa as she worked at the Fishbowl cocktail bar and then began scuba theory with our incredible Canadian instructor, Krista.
 |
| Ban's Diving Resort |
We went over classroom materials and then spent the afternoon in the pool getting used to our scuba equipment and basic skills. Although Alexis spent an hour in the pool, scuba was not for her. That evening,
while Kerri did homework, Lex and Laura met up with Lindsey and Beulah for a drink. Laura went home as she had to get up early for diving, and Alexis spent the night dancing with Lindsey.
Wednesday was our first day diving in the sea!!! The first dive was pretty scary, Laura and Kerri were getting frustrated with the buoyancy and weight underwater, really felt like diving may not be for them. But the second dive was ABSOLUTELY amazing!! It was the coolest thing we've ever done, you truly feel like you are on Planet Earth haha. We could not wait to get in the water on Thursday morning!
While Kerri and Laura were diving, Lex snorkelled and had relaxed day. The scuba and snorkel is amazing in Koh Tao!
That night we had another delicious authentic Thai dinner at Su Chili for with Lisa and one of her best friends Luca. To prepare for an early rise for the last day of scuba, Kerri went home to sleep and Laura and Lex went on night walk on the beach and then met up for a drink with Beulah and Lindsey at Lotus Bar.
The second dives were just as amazing as the first two! We swam around coral, saw a ton of fish (trigger fish, puffer fish, angel fish, butterfly fish), and practiced our buoyancy in "buoyancy world" swimming in and out of rings and hoops. Lisa accompanied us on our dives as well because she is working on completing her PADI Dive Masters Course. We LOVED the diving so much, wanted to continue with our PADI Open Water Advanced course so we could scuba at 30 metres, however we didn't have enough time or money to do it this time. It is something that Kerri and Laura definitely want to complete in the future!
 |
| Scuba! |
 |
| We're READY! |
On Thursday, while Laura and Kerri were diving, Alexis slept in then was invite on a motorbike adventure with Lindsey, Beulah and David. They rode down to the southern part of the island and had a delicious shake at the beautiful and charming Freedom Bar on Freedom Beach. Then they drove around, got a little lost but was tons of fun. Then went and had an amazing lunch and hike up in the mountains. It was a great day, and Lindsey was such a champ to drive all day!
The next morning we booked tickets to Koh Phanang then Laura, Lex, Lindsey, Beulah and Kerri rented a long tail boat to take us around the island snorkelling. It is a contender for the most Struggle Cityyy experience yet. Our first stop was at Freedom beach where we had coconut shakes. Then we went to shark bay and did some cool snorkelling, it was overcast so not amazing - until on the way back to the boat Lindsey took off and we swam after her and saw a shark! The water was deep but it was reallllyyy cool. On our way to our next snorkel spot, the boat jerked forward and the engine gave out. The driver began calling his friends and we knew it couldn't be good. There was another Thai man on the boat sitting in the front, who came and sat between all of us and then reached under the bow of the boat looking for something. After shuffling around for a minute, he pulls out a bamboo bong and proceeds to smoke sitting in between all of us in the small boat. He only offered it to Laura and she politely declined as we all giggled hysterically. After getting properly stoned, he walked up to the front of the boat and began to change into a sarong bathing suit - which essentially is a cloth diaper on a grown man. All we could do was laugh. About 20 mins later, another long tail boat arrived and towed us - rope around the front of the boat - to shore at Shark Bay. We all donned our snorkel gear and got in the water. In about 5 feet of water, Alexis spotted an octopus and called everyone over to check it out. We watched as two fish tried to mess with the octopus and it changed colors about 10 times trying to get away - it was so cool! We also saw massive schools of fish and some really cool corals close up as we were in shallow water. Heading back to the boat, the engine was fixed and we were off. Well at this point the sky was dark and wind has picked up and the rest of our trip was a Bamboo Island flashback. We got soaked and cold and all considered wearing life jackets as we went over waves and watched water splash in the boat. Needless to say, we were happy when we finally got back.
 |
| Freedom Beach Bar |
We had a nice dinner with friends then went to a Ladyboy show, which was ridiculous. We had a few drinks at Lotus and Ban's and enjoyed our last night in Koh Tao. Laura and Kerri finished the night out right getting in the pool and making friends who ladyboys who they taught how to do the no-lip face.
Of course the next morning we hd a hungover struggle cityyy transport going to Koh Phangang - but we made it! Now we are resting up as the fool moon party is on Tuesday!
Overall Koh Tao was amazing! We had the best time with Lisa who took such good care of us and we made tons of awesome friends. Lisa has an amazing close circle of friends who were so sweet to be so inclusive and show us such a great time. We all agreed that Koh Tao was our favourite of the Southern Thailand islands and can see why it would be easy (and dangerous!) to live there. We ate the best food, Laura and Kerri discovered a new awesome hobby and nothing like making some new amazing friends to make it feel like home.
Xoxo,
Laura the baby whisperer, Kerri the fish whisperer and Alexis the kitty whisperer
No comments:
Post a Comment