After the chaos of Ho Chi Minh city, a
tropical island sounded like just what we needed. The island of Koh Tao fully lived
up to our expectations. The island looks like it could have been used to film Jurassic
Park. Mountains covered in tropical forests go straight into white
beaches and aquamarine coves. The whole thing is surrounded by fabulous
reefs which made for excellent SCUBA lessons and snorkeling. For the first four days of our stay, we took PADI SCUBA classes.
The head of the school was Andy, the bald, British, former chemistry
teacher with the great jokes. How much does it cost a pirate to get his
ears pierced? A buckaneer! We started diving almost immediately. The reefs were as colorful
as you'd imagine them to be, and full of incredible fish. We saw loads
of barracudas, and even two large reef sharks. Although we were divided
into different classes, we all had our final dive together, and
finished it off with an underwater photo shoot. None of us are likely
to forget our diving experience any time soon.
There was plenty to do besides diving; we lounged in hammocks by
the cove, walked into town and got amazing Thai massages, and took Thai
kick boxing classes. One particularly memorable day, we rented kayaks
and paddled around the nearby coves for hours, with breaks for
snorkeling and a delicious lunch. The killer sunburns were well worth
it. One evening towards the end of our stay we bought the large, hot
air balloon-esque, paper lanterns that were so popular on the island.
We all wrote our wishes for the group and ourselves on the paper before
setting them on fire and letting them go. We had a few near misses
where our lanterns got stuck in island trees, but eventually they all
flew off across the water, and the island didn't burn down in the
process. All told, it was a fun and relaxing break between
Ho Chi Minh and heading back to the land in Northern Thailand.