We took a very comfortable but long coach journey from Hua Hin to Chumphon pier for the catamaran to Ko Tao. The whole 7hr journey was overcast and during the crossing it looked positively stormy but we sat out on the deck and got blown about but not wet.
A cute little bungalow feet from the beach at Palm Leaf Resort is our home for the next four nights. At the far north of Sairee Beach, it is an idyllic spot with a few loungers on the shore and a small restaurant.
Ko Tao means Turtle Island and offers some of the best scuba diving in the Gulf of Thailand. We walked along the beach – need to keep up with a little light exercise – which was lively with a huge number of dive schools, massage joints, tattoo parlours and day long happy hour so we were pleased to be staying at our end of town!
The weather has been warm but a little changeable which has meant we’ve seen the bay in several different lights …
The highlight of our stay was Chris’s 65th birthday which dawned a little grey, but that wasn’t going to deter us from embarking on a round the island snorkelling tour by long tail boat. First stop was Thian Og Bay aka Shark Bay, one of the few places on Koh Tao where we might have caught a glimpse of a little shark. Fortunately we didn’t, but the coral reef was shallow and it was easy to watch the fish swimming in and out – black and white striped ones, bright blue ones, angel fish, yellow ones, multicoloured ones with rotating bright green fins which we think were parrot fish and a silver pointy one that we found out was a barracuda. Next stop was Hin Wong Bay where we saw an immense shoal of silver and yellow fish, staying together as one yet moving all the time … fascinating. In Mango Bay we saw another huge variety of fish feeding on the coral, with some quite large fish too. The fish really were the stars of our trip but until we upgrade to Go Pro or similar, you will just have to imagine how lovely they were.
Our next stop was the marine park of Ko Nang Yuan island, where lots of boats were moored and not quite sure what to expect, we walked up the jetty.
We passed a large number of people, snorkelling in a shallow lagoon as we walked round the island then climbed through woodland to the viewpoint – quickly to avoid marauding mosquitos! This gave us the iconic panorama, which from a distance doesn’t quite show how busy it was.
We chose not to snorkle or stay longer as we had far preferred our other stops, and returned to Palm Leaf for lunch.
The afternoon proceeded with a rest on the beach, a swim and even cake.
The sky put on its best show yet at sunset, then we walked down the beach for cocktails, ate curry in a sparkly restaurant and watched the fire show next door.
One more day of chilling and a final Ko Tao cocktail …
… before we move on tomorrow to the next of our trilogy of islands … Ko Phangan.
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