20th/21st January 2018

And ZACK! Suddenly, the first 25 days, and thus almost the first third of my journey, are over. Tomorrow (Monday), I will take the ferry back to Chumphon, from there by bus to Bangkok. I will spend Tuesday in the city again before I eventually head to the airport in the evening. However, my flight to Brisbane does not depart until midnight. 😊 

I am a little sad that the first chapter is already over. Now that I am finished packing, I am also looking forward to continuing and the real 'traveling' begins. Thailand was not really a 'backpacker' trip, but simply a vacation. A very, very nice vacation! 😊😊😊

20/01/2018: I used yesterday to spend a lot of time on the beach and to read. I had breakfast at my favorite café and had curry for dinner at one of my favorite beachfront restaurants. The funny thing is: I met up with Alex, a former outdoor theater member, and his girlfriend for dinner. They have been on vacation in Thailand for a week. We had met about six months ago during the last 'ANATEVKA' performance at the theater and found out that we were planning a trip to Thailand at the same time, so we jokingly mentioned meeting up. I was very happy that it actually worked out! 😊 Only the weather didn't quite play along. It was quite cloudy all day, and the sunset didn't show its best side either. 😅 But:

😅 

Fortunately, the weather changes very quickly here. Yesterday and today, I lay on the beach in the same spot, and while it looked like this yesterday...

...it already looked like this again today:

😊

21/01/2018: Today, we were supposed to go diving one last time in the afternoon. In the morning, I took care of some organizational matters, booked my ferry and bus to Bangkok, finally paid for my stay, the dive course, and the fundives at the reception, and bought a few things for the journey. At noon, we all set off together. I took the opportunity to take a few more photos so that you can get a better idea of how things work here.

On the right, you can see Ban's Restaurant, and on the left, the beach, which is usually quite small in the morning. 😅 The restaurant is right next to the dive shop. At the dive shop, you register for your dive one day in advance. The staff then prepares your equipment bag for you, which you only need to check shortly before departure. You have to make sure that everything is there (fins, BCD (buoyancy control device), wetsuit) and that everything is the right size. After that, we get on the small speedboats:

We then ride these boats to the larger boats in 2-3 minutes. Ban's has a total of three large boats. Today, the second boat was right next to ours, so I could take wonderful photos. 😊

The lower deck is where the drying table and tanks are, which I already told you about. On the upper deck, we wait after assembling our equipment until we reach the dive site; this sometimes takes half an hour. I really enjoy this part. You get to talk to the other divers, have a beautiful view of the open sea and the island, and if you're lucky, you can also sunbathe. 😊

Here is another photo of the drying table.

On the front bench, you can see a tray with fresh pineapple and melon, which is served between the first and second dive. Soooo good! 😊

The dives were soooo great! The visibility was the best it has ever been, we went to Chumphon first and then to Red Rock, two of my favorite dive sites. There were soooo (can you imagine how I'm telling this? 😅) many fish, and as always, the corals amazed me. I went diving with James again, who also guided me on my last night dive. During the second dive, I discovered two red and white mantis shrimps, and I was very proud of that.

On the boat, I also met Maxim again, who was on board as a fundiver. He actually convinced me to go diving again tomorrow morning. My ferry doesn't leave until 3 pm, so we should be back around 12:00 pm from the morning dive, theoretically fitting well. I am now also very excited that I will say 'goodbye' to this island like this and that today was not my last dives after all! ♥

I spent this evening meeting a friend of a friend. It's crazy, but apparently, anything is possible through the internet and today's communication. I had never seen Nike before, but she is a good friend of my friend Sarah, who messaged me yesterday and told me that her friend would arrive on Koh Tao today. Phone numbers were exchanged in a flash, and a meeting point was arranged. Nike and her friend Franzi are traveling in Southeast Asia for two months and will now be on Koh Tao for three to four days. 

We strolled through Koh Tao's alleys, had dinner together, and had a last cocktail at the Fishbowl Bar on the beach with live music. It was a lovely evening! 😊

Now it's already 2:00 am, and I have to get up at 6:30 am at the latest for my dive. 😅 I just finished packing and even though it was already so late, I didn't want to withhold this diary entry from you. Look, here's a before-after photo of my packing process. Where did all these things suddenly come from???

Now, everything is packed except for my bikini, towel, and shampoo. I am looking forward to my (really) last dives tomorrow, a final lunch on Koh Tao, and then to continuing my journey! 😊 Of course, I will take you with me ♥

The next diary entry will be from Bangkok again! See you soon!