Thailand - The Land of Smiles

Ko Tao

After five glorious days in Ko Samui, we left our little home and headed for the ferry to Ko Tao. It is the smallest of the three islands in the Gulf of Thailand.

uh, ko tao... on the map...

It is a mere 21 KM squared (sorry can't find the little sign...) and is about 70 KM off the mainland, but could be in the middle of the ocean for how "undeveloped" it is. Koh Tao means Turtle Island, so named for all the turtles that used to breed there. It became famous in 1899 when King Rama V visited and engraved his monogram on a rock at Jor Por Ror Bay near Sairee beach.

King Rama V rock.

From 1944 to 1947 the island was used as a political prison. The prisoners were all pardoned and the island was abandoned. A few years later a couple of brothers settled their families on the island and became the first real residents.

Ko Tao has only become a tourist destination in the last 10-15 years, which makes it much less developed than its neighbours, Ko Phangan and Ko Samui. Most people go to Tao for its dive resorts, but there is plenty for the non-diver as well.

High-speed catamaran

We arrived mid-day. We took the high-speed catamaran ferry directly from Samui. The trip took about and hour and a half, and we were lucky enough to make some friends on the ride over. Soren and Simon were on a dive holiday from Denmark and we spent the next three days hanging out with them.

Our new friends Soren (L) and Simon.

Arriving in Ko Tao.

After arriving we headed to Sairee Beach up the coast from the main harbour Mae Haad. Sairee Beach is about 1.7 KM long and has the best night-life on the island. There are tons of restorts to stay at, restaurants to eat at, and bars to drink at. We stayed at the Lotus Resort whichs was a step up in quality and price from Amity on Samui. We paid 600 baht a night for our fan/cold shower bungalow which was a short walk from the beach. It was twice the price, but also twice the size and better located.

Sairee Beach

Our days on tao were spent mostly lazing on the beach. We did visit the beach at Mae Haad, but were rather disappointed by it. The water is very shallow on both of the beaches, which made for poor swimming. We really only sat in the water to cool off, thought the water was so warm that it was almost like taking a bath.

The beach as night fell.

We did take a day trip to Nangyuan Island, which is a kilometer off the north end of the island. We took a boat taxi there for about 100 baht each (including pick up at the end of the day). That was the best part of the Tao experience.

On the taxi-boat... it was very wavy.

One of the sandbars on Nangyuan.

Another sandbar (and me)

We rented snorkel masks and I bought an underwater camera. It is actually a resort that is privately owned and you have to pay 100 baht to get on the island, which is actually three small island joined together by sandbars. It was beautiful. The snorkeling was amazing, the sun was shining and it was probably our best day at the beach.

Hello!

It's "super underwater Ranya"!

These fish positively glowed!!! They were NEON.

The cool purple anomaly under the sea.

Killer fish!

While I was snorkeling these striped fish kept biting me. I had a cut on my leg that was healing and they kept attacking it! They were the coolest fish because they swarmed around me and kept coming up close to my mask to stare at me. Still can't figure out why they would try to eat my cut though, maybe they are that kind of fish that eats dead flesh...

Evening were spent hanging with our Dutch friends. Our first night there was actually my "birthday" - since we weren't going to be together for the real day, I chose that day to be it. We went out for dinner with Soren (Simon stayed at the bar) and then we hit the beach bars. We ended up at Dry Bar, which was possibly the coolest bar I've ever been to.

Dry Bar - sorry it's night, but I never got there in the day...

The bar itself is built into a tree and surrounding it are platforms with cushions to sit on. Some of the platform are over the water when the tide is in, so you feel like you are almost a part of the sea. I shared a "bucket" of "crapple" with the boys (it was literally a bucket of cranberry, apple, and vodka *see picture). We hung out until the wee hours of the morning - it was a great birthday. Ranya gave me the second part of my birhtday present - a "Greek" bracelet to replace the one I lost. The first part was a very pretty green dress.

Me and the bucket of "Crapple".

We also spent quite a bit of time at the Lotus Bar. They had a very nice area on the sand as well as a platform over the water. They had a nightly "sunset happy hour" and the best part - fire jugglers! I took tons of photos of them, but will only share a couple of the best with you here.

The Lotus Bar at sunset

Juggler 1.

Juggler 2.

Ko Tao was little piece of heaven on earth. We did notice that the service wasn't up to the same "touristy" standards as Samui. I can only figure that the tourism industry is still new there and perhaps many locals feel resentful to the "rich" tourists invading their home. Really, though, it was one of the best legs of the whole trip.

We headed back to Ko Samui the day before our flight back to Bangkok, but that is a story for another time... so stay tuned!