Overnight Ferry - Koh Tao Island to Surat Thani and Krabi, Thailand

Hi all! 

Hope you are all feeling fantastico today :) if not just cause life is good, but for the fact that Canada won our second gold medal for hockey - BOOYAH!! So proud!

Anywho, Cyn and I braved the overnight ferry from Koh Tao to Surat Thani on the mainland on our way to the western side of the southern tip of Thailand. 

There were two floors on the ferry, both with huge bunker rooms that were filled with double bunk beds. It was like a giant sleepover party. 

I am (not so secretly) glad that I had my awesome travel buddy for the ride, it would have been pretty close quarters with a stranger haha. Oof. 

About half an hour after we left the pier, the lights were turned down and people got a bit hushed and tried to settle in for a few hours of sleep. The ferry left Koh Tao at 9:30pm and was set to arrive at around 5am in Surat Thani. 

And then the waves started. It was a tad terrifying, and there were times when the motor stopped in order to crash through a wave. As I said, terrifying. 

Yet, despite the crazy rocking of the boat, we actually managed to get some shut-eye and arrive alive. 

We were shuttled to a random office through the company we booked the bus with and waited a while. 'Big bag at the back!' We were one of the first people to arrive, so our bags were at the bottom of a mountain by the time we were set to leave. All part of the travelling experience in Thailand ;)

We were transferred by white van to Krabi. I passed out during the 2 hour ride, but woke up to amazing mountain views passing by the window. The west side is absolutely gorgeous and SO different from the east side. 

We hung out at another random office for about an hour, until all of the madness of people trying to get buses to their respective destinations died down a bit. Things just take a bit more time here than you expect. 

We grabbed a van ride to Ao Nang near Krabi, ready to start our adventures on the west side of the peninsula! 

Chillin' on Koh Tao Island, Thailand

Turns out this is the longest amount of time that we have spent in one place so far during our time in Thailand. 

I convinced Cyn to do her open water diving course, so we have been here for 4 glorious days full of sun, sand, diving and fun. 

As a side note, I am SO proud of her for doing the course! She had a bit of an incident where she inhaled water on her second dive and couldn't cough into her regulator (the hose you breathe through) so she panicked a little and ascended. She calmed down, coughed a bunch, and decided to go back down. It's hard to do that when you have your first scare under water, but it totally paid off - she is now PADI certified, so proud :) 

The most adorable diving center dog 

We got free accommodation through our courses (sunshine inn), and it was a bit of a sketchy place. Bare bones, no sheets on the stained beds, a yucky bathroom, but we survived. 

We are staying at the south end of the island, but have also heard that Sairee beach on the west coast is awesome too. 

If you're not here for diving, don't fret! There are awesome snorkelling places just off the beaches, and you can do day excursions to nearby islands and see turtles(!!) and also do some sea kayaking. 

If you are looking for a chill place to hang out, with cool little bars and restaurants and a good vibe, I would def recommend coming to Koh Tao. 

Be sure to book your accommodations in advance, especially if you are coming after the full moon party. Tourists kind of come in waves to this place - it starts in Koh Phangan and Koh Samui (for the poor suckers like us who didn't book a place in advance) and then people disperse to the nearby islands, like Koh Tao. 

The beaches here are beautiful, and there are cool rock formations along the coast. One of the guys that I did my advanced course with said that they look like they could stand up and walk away. I know, so poetic ;) 

Anywho, we're taking the night ferry and bus to the west side of the peninsula tonight to do some rock climbing. So pumped! 

Hope all is well in the world with everyone, catch you on the flip side. 

Diving with Buddha View in Koh Tao, Thailand

Sawaty kah! Hello! 

I have been MIA for far too long, sorry about that. As I mentioned, I'm posting a bunch of posts now that I finally have solid internet connection. 

We have been in Koh Tao for about 4 days, and I have absolutely loved it! The vibe on the island is super laid-back, and pretty much everyone that lives or stays here is diving. That's my jam ;) 

I decided to do my advanced open water course with Buddha View Diving, and highly recommend them. They are not the largest diving school on the island, but they sure can deal with a high volume of students - there are packs of people doing their open water, advanced, dive masters, instructor course and straight up fun dives. 

I was able to do some pretty awesome dives during my time here. I went on a wreck dive, to see the sunken Suttaka ship which was a US patrol ship during WWII that was given to the king of Thailand as a gift and he decided to sink it near Koh Tao to help develop the diving tourism in the area. Smart guy ;) 

I also went on the regular deep dive to 30m and a buoyancy control skill dive (we did some awesome 'swim throughs' which essentially means swimming through an enclosed place in the coral. Turns out I love swimming through things...wrecks, corals, caves, it's an awesome feeling to look around and be totally surrounded by new and exciting things). 

My favourite dive was the night dive. I did one while in Dahab, Egypt but I didn't really enjoy it since my mask was fogged up and I was super disoriented and worried that I was going to hit the sea urchins on the bottom - they come out at night, and man are there spikes ever big and scary! 

Anywho, I am SO glad that I went for another night dive here. It went super smoothly and I felt kind of like I was floating in space. Some people had the blue flashlights, which light up certain coral and fish in neon colours. So cool! 

The best thing though? Luminescent plankton. We covered our torches at one point and waved our hands around. It was like fairy dust, for reals. I was in pure bliss mode. My instructor made fun of me because I kept doing it throughout the dive, but I couldn't help it! 

We surfaced a bit far from the boat, so we swam back on our backs while gazing at the stars. Epic. 

One dive site that you MUST check out if ever you go diving here is Chumphon. It had the best visibility of all the daytime sites and had amazing coral with huge schools of tessler fish and barracudas. It was so much fun to swim through them. 

I realize now how spoiled I was diving in Egypt: every site was gorgeous with an overload of beautiful coral to look at and great visibility. The 'vis' here isn't so awesome, with dust particles all over the place, and you learn to appreciate it when you see each and every fish or crab or whatnot. 

Overall, I'm so happy that I decided to go for my advanced, and I'm excited to do more wreck dives in the future. 

The diving scene here is awesome, everyone is so friendly and it's easy to strike up a conversation with anyone since everyone has something in common: the love of the depths of the ocean. 

Divers also know how to party. A couple of instructors graduated while we were here so there was a huge party at the Buddha Bar where they did their 'snorkel test'. Aka wore a blacked out mask and got a bucket full of alcohol donated by people in the crowd down their snorkel. Fun times were had by all ;) 

Everyone was still up at the crack of dawn to get their equipment together and head out on the boat for a full day of diving. All in a days work, I suppose. 

I understand how people get sucked into this sport. And spend all their life savings on it haha. Will I do my dive masters? Maybe instructor course? Not 100% yet, but it sure is appealing ;)