Koh Tao 14th-17th April: The diving island

Since transportation in our residential area on Koh Samui was also poor in the morning, we were comfortably driven to the pier with the hotel shuttle. We started late with the cheap ferry of the company 'Songserm' towards the small sister island Koh Tao. First too hot, then too cold, without legroom and delayed, we sailed for 3 hours over the sea.

It didn't get any better when I convinced Lisa to start a cost-saving 2 km walk in the heat with a backpack - but the main thing was we saved €3 ;) To avoid starving, we fortified ourselves beforehand in a nice plastic chair restaurant with friendly staff (note: sarcasm). The ordeal continued when we arrived at our beautiful resort 'Seashell': the receptionist couldn't find our booking until it was noticed that Lisa had booked for June instead of April :( Since we wouldn't get the money back and luckily they still had a bungalow, Lisa accepted the hefty surcharge and we could finally go to the room.

When the Wi-Fi also caused problems and the mood turned sour, we wanted to cheer ourselves up with the ocean. But we couldn't go swimming due to the low tide and the numerous boats...

It got better when we booked our snorkeling tour in the evening (Koh Tao is THE diving island with numerous providers) and had dinner in a burger restaurant recommended by the travel guide. The sweet potato fries and the meat were great, but I ruined the taste with a blue cheese I ordered (yuck)...

We were finally released from this day at 11 pm ;) The next day was all about relaxing. After 10 hours of sleep, we had a cozy breakfast on the beach.

Lisa went back to sleep and I swam a few laps in the resort pool. After another hour on the beach, where I got my first nasty sunburn, we had sweet potato fries for lunch again. Then I motivated Lisa to go shopping on the unfortunately overpriced island.

I found nice souvenirs, a hippie sunglasses, and a metal straw (which I always carry with me to produce less waste with my shakes). We watched the sunset sitting on beanbags and sipping shakes (mango-coconut-banana) in a beach bar.

We topped it all off with a coconut oil massage overlooking the sea (this time even with a facial and head massage!).

On the next morning, a pickup truck (this time we were really sitting on the loading area) picked us up for our snorkeling trip.

We went out to sea from the 'Oxygen' provider's base with about 100 people.

The nice and crazy guides informed us about the 5 dive spots we would visit.

The first stop was the island 'Nang Yung', where we had 2 hours of time. We actually wanted to go to the viewpoint first, but after a sweaty climb where we had to wait at a mosquito hotspot, we went back down.

Just 3 meters from the coast, an unexpected underwater paradise with corals and various colorful fish began!! When I was further out, Lisa suddenly started waving wildly, just like one of the guides - I thought I had forgotten the time (time flies) and had to go back to shore. Instead, the guide had spotted a shark, which I missed successfully with my swim back (reef shark, about 2 meters long) :(( Back on the ship, there was a small lunch in a plastic bowl, tasty cookies, and fruits. At the next stop, Mango Bay, we were allowed to jump into the water from the upper deck of the boat :)

In the last spot, Shark Bay, a small shark and a large sea turtle were actually sighted, but once again I was completely elsewhere...although I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time, the snorkeling trip was totally worth it: the feeling of weightlessness, the tingling of the corals, the close contact with many fish, and the sunlight falling into the sea were definitely worth it.

At 5 pm, we were brought back to the hotel by pickup truck. We had delicious shrimp noodles for dinner at a typical Thai restaurant.

We enjoyed the last evening on the island with an ice cream and bought Lisa a slightly overpriced pair of pants (the islands are very expensive!) that she couldn't get out of her head for 2 days. Unfortunately, we couldn't share our experiences because the hotel's Wi-Fi wasn't working... (it's annoying when you depend on it).

By the way, on this evening I also learned a little bit about the Thai language (yes, no, thank you, and hello, I'm quite good at now). I hadn't heard the word that the travel guide recommends as goodbye anywhere, so I asked about it. Unfortunately, I had already said it to people many times and always received strange looks: apparently it means something like 'Goodbye forever'... From now on, I should just say bye bye ;)

So bye bye!