Koh Tao is an island so beautiful that it looks fake, too perfect to be real. It is located in the Gulf of Thailand near Koh Phangan and Koh Samui. The beaches are beautiful and under water is the little mermaid. It’s a divers paradise and the dive industry here is working hard. Like most dive islands it’s a good place to party …
July 10: Finally the sea!
We traveled several hundred kilometers in just 7 hours, on a perfect highway. On the edge of the highway, pretty little hedges. An air-conditioned bus trip, with all modern comforts. No chicken or goat inside, only tourists.
Arrive at 3am from the mast to the port. We are waiting for the boat for another 4 hours at a local travel agency. Everyone is patient in his own way:
Some of whom Sylvain sleep on the floor in a room apart. A funny show (see video section). Others are on the internet, watching a movie, playing guitar or even chatting at the bar while drinking a beer.
After 1h30 on the boat, Koh Tao approaches already. A small island covered with coconut trees, parsemmee ca and the pretty little wooden bungalows. The rocks eroded by the sea are so smooth that one would almost think of a movie set.
We stay in a wooden hut on stilts with sea view ready from the central beach where everything is happening: Sairee Beach.
Koh Tao despite its small size (we cross the island on foot in one hour) is the Thai capital of diving. Most tourists here are there for that. We too, and we start the next day.
Francois takes a big slap on his first dive. Thousands of multicolored fish everywhere, bizarre and varied corals and anemones cover the bottom of the sea, the water is at 30 degrees, perfectly transparent. Ouuaaaahhhhhhhhh !!! impressive when you know the North Sea at 10 degrees, perfectly gray with 3 gray fish and 2 lobsters.
After that is the escalation of the incredible: turtle, big naughty sharks, spotted rays, muraines, and especially …. the whale shark (extreme luck)! The whale shark is the biggest fish that exists, it can be more than 10 meters. Good ours is a beautiful baby of 4 meters.
Francois also takes some diving lessons. At the end it reaches 20 meters deep. Not too bad.
The rest of the time (when we do not dive) it’s hammock, beach and swimming. Even in mask and tuba we see lots of pretty fish. Francois finds himself even facing a shark 2 meters. It does not attack it, but it’s not reassuring. We travel the island on foot or scooter. It’s Seb, a guy meets on the boat, who takes us behind him.
The further we go, the more we meet French and Spanish. These people like it to be in the lost corners.
Most of the tourists remain plants on Sairee beach unable to move further.
It is sure that here every night is the party and it’s tired. It happens on the beach with good music, fire jugglers, and cocktails served in small buckets of beach (the famous buckets). There are a lot of small babes who wriggle. Sylvain comes alive, nice kid.
At night we become even more aware of the beauty of the village. In the trees the red, blue, yellow lamps … color the beach, streets and scultures in varnished wood that run through it (giant heads, animals, or even a huge dick in varnished wood …).
More than a week passes like that quietly. Yet Francois begins to lack adventure and small lost corners. Gillou arrives July 16th in the neighboring island. We leave for Koh Phangan to wait for him there.
