Koh Tao

Koh Tao was four days of travel, planning, sun, and scuba! We had heard from many people (mostly those we met in New Zealand) that Koh Tao was great for scuba diving. Since Doug and I are both open water certified we decided to try it out. 

Getting to Koh Tao required a long ferry ride from Koh Samui and then a taxi ride to where we were staying. The first night we stayed in a random hotel that we found in a Lonely Planet Traveler's book. The hotel was nice and we had a clean room but didn't have any plans of staying there longer. 

Doug and I both had friends who had stayed at another place on the island known as Big Blue Divers and that is where we headed next. We stayed at Big Blue 2 (their newest complex) and were surrounded by people of all ages who also came to Koh Tao to dive. Doug and I booked a 4 person dorm room because on the days we went diving we paid half the room cost instead of the full. It was cheap and we loved that! 

Now, I should note that Doug is usually the one who books our hostels, guesthouses, and hotels because (as he and I have both learned---many...many times), he is the overthinker in this relationship.  But I could see he was tired after the ferry ride so I decided that I would book Big Blue 2. I did so and things went smoothly. I paid the deposit, got the confirmation email, yes! 

And then.... About an hour after I had booked it I got another email saying something along the lines of: "Thank you for your deposit Lydia. Your ending balance is 13,400 Thai Baht. You may pay the rest of the ending balance when you check out of Big Blue 2." 

My response? 

WHAT?!? 13,400 Baht?!?! It was supposed to be like 4,200 Baht (which included room fees and diving/equipment fees)! Of course, the ONE TIME I book something, I totally mess it up. How in world I did that, I have no idea. So, I had a minor freak out and Doug calmed me down saying "we'll figure it out the next day." 

He's sweet, but I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the fact that I totally screwed it up. You know the feeling when someone does something wrong and they should have just let you do it in the first place. It's that "I told you so" feeling. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Doug was enjoying that moment....dang it! 

We went to Big Blue 2 the next day and met Steven, an instructor that we would eventually see again on our dive boat (Fyi, he sounds exactly like the genie in the oh-so-popular Disney film, Aladdin.) 

I explained to him what had happened and luckily it was all a big misunderstanding and the fault was on. their part and not mine. (Take that Doug! I am capable of booking things afterall.) Luckily everything worked out. We had a nice four person bunk bed room all to ourselves because no one ever showed up to stay in the other two beds. 

We hung out at the beach the first day and explored the town a bit. It was nice but definitely an island for mainly divers. 

We found a few presents for people and meandered through the plethora of road side stands. I even convinced Doug to get a pedicure with me because our feet looked absolutely disgusting and the pedicures are super cheap in Thailand.

I laughed the whole time he got his pedicure because (#1) he is super ticklish and was squirming around the whole time and (#2) well.... his feet were absolutely volatile. The lady had to put on bigger glasses when cutting his cuticles because things were flying everywhere. I'm honestly surprised she didn't take out a handsaw and a pair of pliers. 

We ate a later dinner after the pedicures and went to bed straight away. Well- Doug did at least. We were diving the next morning at 6:30am and though I tried to go to sleep the photo of the whale shark on our dorm room wall haunted me all night. 

Whale sharks are massive, beautifully scary animals and we had the potential to see them on our dive. Any kind of shark sounds scary to me no mater how big or small it is. I've seen the movie, Jaws, and I've unfortunately watched the movie, Shark-Nado way more times than I care to admit. I didn't really care to see one but Doug (of course) was all about it. 

We woke up early the next day, got fitted for our wetsuits and gear and packed up. 

We loaded on to a small boat that took us further out to our dive boat for the day. 

I was nervous because neither of us had ever done a boat dive. 

However, both of our dives that day went great. We dove with two other girls and another dive master also named Steve, whom I thought shared a strong resemblance to how I would picture Jesus to look. (So that was reassuring at least.) 

Our first dive went great. We saw lots of fish and coral. I only hit Doug in the face one time and he only kicked me once. Swimming beside another person underwater is not the easiest, especially when you have all that equipment on you. Both of us agreed after that dive that we were getting better at the "relaxed breathing" method underwater. Despite my fears, we did not see a shark. The dive was super relaxing and overall easy. 

Our second dive that day was a bit different. The visability wasn't as clear, but in all it was still a decent dive. Doug and I did a swim through, which is where you basically swim through an underwater cave-like structure. It gets a bit closterphobic, but wasn't too bad. However, on the other side of the swim through we were welcomed by a black and white banded water snake (totally poisonous by the way). 

It stayed about 4-6 feet away from us and was fun to watch. I texted my parents about the snake after the dive- my mom was not too happy about that one! Whoops! 

Our second dive lasted about an hour and once complete, we got back on the boat, took off our gear, and snacked on fresh pineapple and watermelon. The rest of the day we relaxed and swam on the beach. 

That night we planned some more for our trip to Phi Phi Island. We went to a little travel hut and booked all of our necessary means of transportation for our trip to Phi Phi. The man we booked through was not the most organized person so we weren't exactly reassured but we just rolled with it. 

That evening was spent doing laundry in our room. My friend, Audri gave me a portable washing machine bag for my birthday, which we've used numerous times to clean our clothes. It is super handy and Doug and I admittedly have a lot of fun using it. Plus it's kind of a nice little arm workout. Thankfully we never ended up getting two other roommates so we were able to hang and dry our clothes all throughout our room! 

Koh Tao overall was a nice island to stop at for a few days. We would have stayed longer had we wanted to dive more there, however the clarity wasn't the best. Therfore, we were excited to journey towards Koh Phi Phi where apparently at this time of the year, the view is spectacular underwater. 

Our last morning in Koh Tao we woke up super early, hopped in the back of a taxi truck and caught a ferry to the mainland. Once we reached the docks we had a break for bit so we both ate something and used the restroom quick. Much to my surprise the toilet I was to use was only about 6 inches off the ground......don't...even...ask. 

We then caught a bus to Krabi and then got in a van for a bit and then boarded another ferry until we finally arrived in Koh Phi Phi. 

It was a total of 12 hours travel time but we made it to Phi Phi alive and well! 

We've been in Phi Phi for a few days now and it is absolutely gorgeous. The diving has been amazing here and we have plenty more stories to share. And just to keep you guessing about the next post I will say this. One of my greatest fears came true in Phi Phi and it happened under the sea :) 

Thanks so much for reading! We appreciate all the texts and messages we've been getting from our friends and family. I promise we will try to bring the warm weather back with us :) 

Have a great day!