Koh Tao

The next day we got a boat to Koh Tao which is small Island north of Koh Pha Nang and is a divers haven. With 60 different dive companies trying to sell you their courses and accommodation it's hard to chose! So after lots of research we went with the lady who was most persuasive and offered us a free taxi! So we, along with some others, were packed in the back of a pick up truck and driven to our hostel unfortunately (yes you've guessed it) it started to rain and really rain! So we arrived at our destination dripping wet with wet bags! It soon cleared and we were quickly booked into our hostel and onto Dive courses. As I've already done my Padi course we weren't together and didn't get any shots of us in our wet suits (what a shame!) so instead here are some pic's of us enjoying the nightlife of Ko Tao...

This is the route we had to take to our hut which was easy at the beginning of the night but as Dan found out not as easy coming back!

Here are some of Dan's friends from his Dive Course you can see why they got on (taking it very seriously early night's before their first dive in the morning!)

We were enjoying a nice Italian when realised someone had joined us, the biggest gecko i have ever seen..

After an afternoons dive together and Dan's course being completed, (what we thought would be a quieter night) we decided to go out with Kate's dive friends...

Which of course turned out to be the opposite (God damn those buckets).

So after a few buckets we ended up in a tattoo shop and no it wasn't Dan getting a tattoo this time.....

So with Dan's dive course completed and a course in buckets completed we felt it was time to leave so the next morning it was up early and off on the longest (and worst) journey of the trip to Phuket.....

Koh Pha Nang - Bottle Beach and Haad-Rin

So off we went on the boat to Bottle Beach....

It wasn't as nice as we thought but that may have had something to do with the clouds? So what does any traveller do if there's no sunbathing to be had and no TV in the room.....? Do your washing (thanks mum for the peggless washing line)......

Oh and then you reward yourself with a Pina Colada (and a beer for Dan!).......

Then you get changed for the evening and tell the waiter to keep the cocktails flowing...

We woke with hangovers but to this view so not all bad....

Then is it ws time to go - saying goodbye to Johnny Depp our friendly host :)

So we thought we better go check out Haad Rin which is where all the full moon party's happen (well actually everywhere seems to do half moon, black moon, blue moon, any excuse to have a party if there's a moon or not!) Black moon is the weird one as there just isn't a moon and the sea was really flat bizarre anyway I digress! Haad Rin is quite cool becuase you can get to the sunrise beach and sunset beach in a 5 minute walk here are a few pic's from sun set beach.....

We found a bar to watch the rest of the sun set well it was a tree house bar which was amazing....

The next day we hired a moped to explore and yes you've guessed it, it rained so we parked up the moped and went for a thai massage - it's a hard life being a traveller! The most comical thing about it was the girl trying to massage Dan who's a bit bigger than your average customer!

Koh Pha Nang continued.....

Dan was getting bored again - there's only so much sun bathing a man can do - so we decided to hire a moped (sorry Dad - I did wear a hemlet though!) to explore the island which was brilliant as it only cost 4 pounds for 24 hours which is so much cheaper than taxi's and easier than hiking up and down the hills! We got a map (yes I was map reading!!) and went for a look about.

Due to my excellent map reading I directed us to a water fall sign and thought it would be an easy stroll to a gorgeous view, well I was right about the view but not about the stroll it took some climbing (and nerve) but it was worth it.....

Don't think we are so lucky to always have sun, not long after these pic's were taken the heavens opened - it's as though someone upstairs knew we'd taken a bike out!!

Luckily rain doesn't last long here so enough time to find another waterfall before lunch....

As the weather reminded us of home we decided to have ourselves a Sunday Roast at the Mason Arms - Koh Pha Nangs first English boozer.....

After that we headed off to explore some more and found another gorgeous beach and took a few pic's (we're getting the hang of the camera now!)

(thanks shelly for the hidden cameraman idea!)

As well as finding some waterfalls and beaches we also made a friend in Koh Pha Nang, well she actually be-friended us!

This is Ruby, they say that dogs can be loyal but this was ridiculous she followed us everywhere, sat under our sun bed, even followed us up and down as we swam in the pool and slept outside our bungalow at night, this was all before we starting feeding her (yes fatal mistake) then it got very hard to say goodbye, as we think she'd decided we were her new owners and even ran up the road chasing our taxi when we left (gulp).

Next stop Bottle Beach which we were told you could only get to by taxi boat (in the lonely planet!) but later learnt when we spotted car and bikes that you could get there on the dodgy roads but hey-ho we made it there and got a fun boat ride out of it, the taxi boat man obviously didn't think my bags looked as heavy as Dan's and carried his for him - what a gentleman I am travelling with he just followed and left me to struggle on the rocky terrain - which at one point was barbed wire (I am not joking either!).....

Koh Samui & Koh Pha Nang

Ok change of plan we didn't leave Chaweng as after we'd updated the blog we went to meet a friend in a bar and one bucket (that's alcohol for those that haven't tried these delightful drinks!) led to another and we ended up in an Irish bar then an open air club. Safe to say the hangover delayed our departure!




























Sooo we finally left chaweng after a few goodbyes (you'd think we would have had enough of those!) see below Kev & Hannah.















We spent one night in Buddha beach which was very quiet compared to Chaweng and a gorgeous beach almost to ourselves where we got out a jet ski to keep Dan entertained. This is the view from our room.....















Watched our first of many sunsets..... cue Daniel Hasslehoffe and Pamela Lawrence!




















So we set off early to catch the ferry to Koh Pha Nang, after a smooth voyage we arrived to many people offering us a taxi, we tried to barter to no success they really weren't playing, if we'd realised the mountainous journey we were about to take we may have considered walking it - and i've got a lot of bags!!















But the hair-raising hills were all worth it when we arrived at Haad Yao which is north west of Koh Pah Nang and our fave so far......















In time for breakfast by the pool....














Not only is this place gorgeous but we managed to find the best accommodation for half the price right by the beach with decking out front.....














Like Koh Samui the beach came a live at night but with a much more chilled atmosphere.....















Ok that's it for now will update again soon as we're quiet behind on our 'blogging' takes ages to upload Kate and Dan x