Throughout our whole time in Laos, we went back and forth between traveling further south in Laos then heading into Cambodia, and going straight from Vientiane to Bangkok then down to the islands. Given that we had been dreaming of beaches for months now and travel in Laos is painfully slow, we finally opted for the latter.

After sailing across the border, 20 km from Vientiane, we accepted the services of a “taxi” driver, who took us the 500m to the train station. Having no map we had no idea it was so close!

We managed to get tickets for the evening train leaving in a few hours, as well as tickets for the next morning, from Bangkok down to Chumphon, where we would catch the ferry to Koh Tao (Koh being Thai for island!).

I found the sleeper train tough this time – hot and too bright, and I still can’t get used to wearing eye shades! We arrived in Bangkok just before 7am, with a delay on the tracks just outside the station, allowing us the see the food vendors preparing their carts for the day in the slummy area around the station.

Just time for a quick bite and a quick shower (pay toilets and showers in the station) and it was back on the train again. The seats were comfy and the scenery was not bad (mostly flat with lots of palm trees), plus we were even given drinks and food, so the seven hours were relatively pain free.

Arriving in Chumpon, we headed for the nearest travel agency and bought tickets for the night boat to Koh Tao, leaving at 11pm. All the travel agencies there have free showers and coffee, so we mostly hung around there, watching movies on TV, though a visit to the night market turned up some tasty bites.

It was finally time to head to the boat, so we crammed ourselves into a minivan blaring terrible rock music and drove to the pier. The night boat is the slowest (and cheapest) way to get to the island and it’s a cargo boat delivering supplies-anything from pineapples to bricks-that they have fitted with about 25 sets of bunk beds.

Roland slept like a baby on this trip, but for me it was nightmarish: sweltering hot despite the a/c, killer mosquitoes, and at some stage, whether due to a mosquito bite or to the tiger balm we were using to calm our bites, my bottom lip swelled to giant size. All in all, most uncomfortable and little sleep was to be had that night.

The boat pulled in around 5am, so we walked off in the dark and in the rain, and decided that the best plan would just be to park ourselves in a restaurant, eat something and figure it out from there.

In the end, Roland set off to find us somewhere to stay, having a precise idea of the bungalow on the beach he wanted, and I stayed and read my book. He basically scoured a third of the island on foot til he found what he was looking for. And was it ever worth it!

Even after four days on the island, seeing dozens of resorts, ours is definitely the nicest, tucked back among the palm trees, flowers and boulders, overlooking a curved, white sandy beach.

Our bungalow:

View from the bungalow:

Our beach as seen from the taxi boat that took me there:

and the ocean from the restaurant of the resort (nice view for dinner!):

For the first two days we rented and ATV to explore the island. Out of principle, I don’t care for the things, but most of the roads are so bad that a normal bike would be impossible. Most people travel around on taxi boat.

The first day we found a nice spot for snorkeling:

There were loads of colourful fish and many different kinds of coral. Unfortunately, as the tide was low, we got a bit trapped by the coral at one point and Roland became a little too acquainted with it, scratching up his shoulder. As coral cuts can get badly infected if the coral leaves its spores in the skin, we carefully cleaned it up. There would be a repeat performance with his foot the following day, and it’s a bit more worrisome as it’s not healing well yet. So, it’s a good idea to keep your distance from the coral, also because it damages easily and too many careless fins and kill it.

The following day we headed a bit further up to Mango Bay, another popular diving spot, in the north of the island. While we thought the roads were bad before, this road was hideous, and I often had to get off and walk up as Roland maneuvered up the hill.

You can’t really see the steepness here, but it basically straight up with huge holes and rivets all over the place:

Mango Bay:

On the way home we stopped in one of the bigger towns to check out a dive course for Roland.

Koh Tao is THE diving spot in Thailand and more people get certified here than anywhere else in the world (maybe second to Cairns). Considering the island is pretty tiny, it means dive shops, dive boats and divers everywhere, and prices are pretty good.

In the end Roland signed up for a two day Advanced Open Water course, which is the level I have. It’s not a very intensive course, only involving 5 dives, including a bit of navigation, search and recovery, a night dive, and most importantly, a deep dive. Being “advanced” allows you to dive to a depth of 30m (only 18m otherwise), so there are more dives open to you.

Roland off to his course…

…while I spent a relaxing couple of days on the beach.

Before leaving the island, we took advantage of the good prices and did a couple of half days of diving together, including a night dive. Generally, the price of the dive (boat out, dive accompanied by a dive master, all the gear) cost about what you’d normally pay to just rent the gear at home!

The dive sites were pretty crowded as there are always about 5 dive boats at any given place, but we had some nice dives, with lots of fish to see! So it turned out to be a very relaxing and enjoyable stay on “turtle island” (as that’s what Koh Tao means), though the turtles were scarce!