Charlie kindly allowed me to sleep on him for the whole 8h journey to Koh Tao - a small island in the gulf of thailand - so I luckily missed out on the crazy German man and his thai boyfriend who had to run to the toilet every fifteen minutes for another joint. At about 5am we were dumped at a small port which looked like a shack in a torrential thunder storm - i've never seen anything like it. Hundereds of travellers were all cramped under this tiny covering. We were told it was the wrong port and rumours flew around that we could be there for days so there was a huge rush to a tiny food stall which soon sold out. Fortunately after a few hours the rain got much lighter and we were able to enjoy sunrise over the first thai beach we'd seen. Finally we were bundled onto another bus and were able to catch a boat which was very rocky the sea was uncharacteristicly rough and the port we were meant to go to was closed. Once again we were dumped - this time on the worng island. Ko pang nang is famed for the full moon party which we had planned to go to but gets booked up weeks in advance. We were stuck on an island with no accommodation and were told our best bet was to find a nice spot on the beach. Fortunately we found an alternative ferry to the right island - the only boat that would attempt the journey. We were feeling pretty apprehensive as we'd heard a passenger boat in Vietnam has sunk recently killing a few brits. The boat journey was havoc. Fully grown tatooed muscular men were reduced to tears as our tiny boat was flung over the waves. We were the lucky few not to be sick.
Some germans that we'd met on the bus told us about a cheap diving course they found so we followed them to Phoenix diving school where we enrolled on a four day course. It was so worth doing and we're now fully qualified so we'll definatly dive in Cambodia and Vietnam. We've had an amazing time but its time to go - theres only so much idylic thai island we can take!!
Sending my love to all my family
