Week 7 (Koh Tao and Koh Pang Nan)

Week 7

Koh Toa (20/11/07 - 23/11/07)

We had a nightmare journey to get to our next destinations: Koh Toa and then Koh Pang Nan. We booked a bus and a ferry ticket through a tour operator at our guesthouse. When we got onto the bus it was a local bus and there weren't many westerners on board, it was only 6 hours later when we arrived into Surat Thani that some of the other travellers realised that their bags had been opened and things had gone missing.

We had paid for a night ferry to take us to Koh Toa, but when we got to the tour operator the ferry had been "cancelled" and she conveniently had a hotel that she recommended. We weren't sure if this was a con, but being in the middle of nowhere we went to look at the hotel, which seemed nice enough (kind of).

The next day we caught another "express" ferry to Koh Toa, we were assured it would only take 3 hours however it ended up being 7 1/2 hours and it was a very rough ride!!
However, arriving on the island we were blown away with its beauty. The photo above is from our little bungalow near "Freedom beach" and the photo on the left is taken from the restaurant.

We had decided on a really lazy few days here in Koh Toa, I was still on seriously strong painkillers after my bug and was in bed by 9 most nights!! So we just took advantage of the beautiful scenery, warm sea and tried out some snorkeling.

Koh Phang Nan (24/11/07 - 27/11/07)

We caught a ferry over to a larger island called Koh Phang Nan, the beaches were a lot better here. We thought it was going to be really touristy as this is where the Full Moon Party is held every month, but we instantly really liked this island. We found it really hard getting accommodation, however we did find a bungalow with some other travellers 5 minutes from the party and we knew it had to be too good to be true. This photo is our bathroom, I'll say no more!!

The Full Moon Party was great, 11,000 people crammed on a small beach worshipping the moon. We managed to find some people amongst the crowds that we met on Koh Toa, which was really great as we got on with them so well.

We spent the whole night dancing, watching fire works and fire dancers, getting ourselves painted with UV body paint and of course sampling the local alcohol :)

That was until Rob and I got split up, which was not funny, there were so many people everywhere, we both luckily met back at the bungalow at 7am and watched the sunrise and went for a morning swim. After not sleeping for 30 hours we had a well earned nap after lunch.

After so much partying and not much sleep we were really tired and were really looking forward to relaxing on the beach for the next few days, especially as we are leaving the south islands for Singapore on 28.11.07.

We even treated ourselves to a bungalow that has a flushing toilet!!
Every night we watched the most beautiful sunsets over the sea. We both had a Thai oil massage at our resort's beach spa, which was amazing and so relaxing. We will be sad to say goodbye to these islands as we have some great memories from here, but we are very much looking forward to Singapore and Australia...

And for those who are wondering about the state of Robs beard, yes it is getting very long and very ginger. People have been calling him a leprechaun!