Ello
Got combined tickets for onward travel from Bangkok to Koh Samui for train, bus and ferry (£15), all sleeper cabins and aircon recliner's were fully booked so ended up with recliners with fan. Needless to say none of us slept well. Boarded the train at 19.30 and arrived at 7.15 at Surat Thani, grabbed some breakfast at a little cafe whilst waiting for the bus to the ferry port.
Jim and Kathy settling in for the night....the long night ahead
Bus took about about 1 1/4hrs, then 45mins on a catamaran ferry. Was a lovely trip over and we saw Dolphins on the way. Then got a Songthaew to Lamai, where we'd prebooked a room. Bit too touristy for us, nice white sandy beach though and a good street food market. The sea was so warm! Like a bath.
Lamai.....
Stretch Jim
Met a dodgy pirate on the beach
Next morning we got a taxi to Baan Tai on the North of the island. Stayed in a fab place called Baan Kuasakul. Great little bungalows in a garden, with a little pool and a great local open sided restaurant. Only £8 a night! Amazing. The sea was pretty shallow, but further up the beach it got deeper and did a bit of snorkelling. Matt did a bit of fishing, teaching Kathy and Jim who both loved it and caught their first fish each. A lovely few lazy days, strolling, swimming, fishing and eating. Oh, and playing cards.
Our lovely neighbours Kathy and Jim
Me watching Ghekko............watching me
April 10
Ferry to Koh Tao at 8am, two hours later we arrived. We'd been looking forwards to this island as we planned to do our PADI Diving course and had emailed 'Master Divers' dive school which was just to the right of the jetty in Mae Haad where we arrived on The Lomprayah ferry. Went straight to Master Divers and booked ourselves in to start at 1pm! Found 'Save Bungalows' 2 mins up the road where we got a room for £12.
We had to get signed off by a doctor, more of a formality really, £2 for blood pressure check and pulse reading. Matt and I then spent the afternoon in the classroom watching videos and answering multiple choice questions. Kathy and Jim set off for a walk.
We were lucky enough to have a dive photographer follow us on the second day, all the shots are taken by him......
How not to do it, my foot slipped on the side just as I jumped
April 11
After a bad nights sleep we had an 8am start in the classroom, then after getting kitted out with equipment we went out on a dive boat at 12pm. We went to 'Japanese Gardens', one of the top 5 snorkelling sites in the world to do our first set of skills. First we had to do a swim twice around the boat, and then tread water for 10min. Matt was lucky, he could just float upright with his head out of the water without doing any work! Then we had to kit up and jump off the boat, then swim to shallow water.
Was really weird having all the dive gear on, getting used to the fins and buoyancy device and kneeling on the sea bed. I was doing ok with the skills up until the full mask fill, where you have to let your mask fill with water, then clear it by blowing through your nose. I flunked it and panicked 4 times before getting back on the boat. Matt carried on for another hour. He was gutted that I got out. I was frustrated and upset with myself for screwing it up. After a chat with Tom, our German instructor I decided I'd give it another try tomorrow. Was really unsure whether diving was for me though.
April 12
An even earlier start. I met Tom at 7am (Matt walked me down for moral support) and kitted up, we then went straight into the water from the beach. Amazingly I managed to do the mask skills today and even did a full mask removal, put back on and clear! He then took me through the next lot of skills to catch me up with Matt. All pretty exhausting, then had to go out on the boat for 2 open water dives and more skills. I found out from Kathy later that Matt had been spying on me and worrying that I wouldn't crack the mask skill.
Here's Matt after completing the no mask swim
No mask swim
The relief afterwards! Yay. Matt didn't think I'd do it!
Butterfly fish and me
Banner Fish, Matt, me, Tom
The next day we did 2 open water dives at Twins. It was great because Kathy and Jim came out on the boat with us to do a 'discover scuba' taster dive. It was the 1st time either one of them had tried it. Jim loved it and paid to do 2nd dive, we saw him at about 12 metres and waved at him. His instructor saw a shark!
The day after we did 2 more dives at Shark Island and Aow Leuk. It was amazing, we saw so many fish, coral, giant clams, moray eels, starfish, brightly coloured sea slugs, barracuda, puffer fish and too many others to mention. No sharks though :-/
As we completed our last task, the emergency ascent, a storm blew up and it started thundering and lightning. We climbed aboard, but visibility had dropped so much that the captain couldn't get a bearing. After circling he spotted the island and we made it slowly in to shore.
We then had to do an exam. I hate exams. My mind goes blank. I can forget my address under pressure! I hated it. Anyway, it was all over by 2pm. What an intense, knackering 3 days it was. Glad it's over!
We are OPEN WATER DIVERS! :-) :-)
Aaaaaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhh. Emergency ascent. You have to make that sound on the way up on one breath, then orally inflate your BCD at the surface. We both did 1st time, yay.
The rain started on cue for 'Songkran' festival. It's their new year festival where everybody throws buckets of water over each other to wash away sins and bad luck, but it gets out of hand with loads of westerners getting in on the act and using super soakers.
Actually it gets a bit dangerous as they fire at people on mopeds. We got absolutely soaked through to the skin whilst out walking. One western guy ripped off my poncho and poured 3 buckets of iced water over me! I shouted at him. Loudly.
April 14
Up early. Again. Caught the 6.30am 2hr ferry back to Donsak on the mainland, then a bus to Krabi, had a spot of lunch and decided to push on to Koh Phi Phi. We stayed in Tonsai town in a guesthouse called 'Baan Tai' run by a lovely, crazy Chinese lady called Miss Lee. She was funny! It was like staying with a strict auntie.
Next day we went on a long boat trip out around Koh Phi Phi Le to visit Maya bay, the famous beach from the film/book 'The Beach'. The trip out was so choppy, big waves, bit scary at times. I donned a life jacket! No one else did. They laughed at me though. Comic timing apparently.
We stopped in a great (calm) bay for snorkelling, it was fantastic, teeming with fish. Also stopped at Monkey beach where the Macques come down to meet the boats and beg for food.
Two peas in a pod!
A snake Kathy spotted in a tree
After that we took a ferry back to Krabi for a night before heading to Hat Yai (4 1/2 long hours in a mini van) to catch the train to Malaysia. Kathy treated herself to some new converse trainers, way cheaper here than at home.
Krabi, a lovely promenade along the river front, I've never been to the Everglades, but I imagine it to be a bit like this, the river winds through the mangroves. We ate at the street food market and stayed in a great little guesthouse for £4 a night!
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