Soo we finally made it to the islands.. Weve been here for 5 days now and its been a pretty crazy time really... Weve hired a few motor bikes and seen most of the island.. We bought some snorkelling gear and went snorkelling yesterday - it was sems first time and after a bit of initiation she actually went quite deep considering the gear we bought was kinda crap.. We saw some really cool fish..very pretty and colourful..and one even bit dale.. We were a bit scared about the coral but it was all fine..the water was amazing..crystal clear and very warm.. We went to Shark Bay first and that was really nice..the water was picture perfect.. The roads to these beaches however are ridiculous..they are the bumpiest dirt roads ever.. Dont know how the hell Dale managed to keep us both on the motorbikes..they are just soo hilly but totally worth it once you get to the otherside.. Guess his 'weekly' sunday mountain bike rides finally paid off ;) The initial scooter that we hired took a beating so we hired a proper dirt bike the second time which made it easier - no accidents yet thank god although there were a few close calls! Weve stayed in 4 different places now.. The first was ok but quite stuffy..There was a crazy storm at night so we just stood on the balcony getting soaked..was quite fun.. The second was a bungalow right on the water but also near a road/path so at night all the drunk farang would come passed making alot of noise.. One idiot even came onto our bunalow trying to steal the drinks we left out on the balcony but dale got up and banged on the window so hard they shat their pants and bolted!!haha you guys had to be there..We spent the day on the beach just chilling and met the cutest little thai girl.. Her name was mai and she became very fond of dale & i.. The third night started off ok and then it just got as bad as it possibly could.. We again just spent the day chilling and scootering around and eating at different places.. Yes that is what pretty much makes up our days.. We also found very cheap accommodation for 250 baht ($10AUD) for a bungalow pretty much on the beach.. We admit it was quite shabby but it had everything we needed - a bed & a hammock! We went to the restraunt of the guesthouse and watched X Men 3 with some other backpackers..We carried on having a few drinks then decided to crash.. However this is where the nightmare begins.. I went to use the bathroom at about midnight - i pulled up the toilet seat to find 2 MASSIVE cockroaches crawling on the toilet seat.. I screamed so loud that Dale almost had a heart attack.. DAle came to the rescue and washed out the whole toilet while i sat on the bed with a mosquite net around me only to look up to the roof to find massive lizards.. Dale came out promising me he had killed all the cockroaches in the bathroom.. I got up again only to find a cockroach in our toiletries bag.. I needed to use the bathroom very badly that night but was waaay to scared even to move in that room let alone get up.. Needless to say we both got no sleep that night because every noise scared the crap out of sem... We went to get up in the morning and the first thing we see is a lizard about 20cm in length crawling on the wall into the bathroom.. not a good start for sem. I chased it out and check the bathroom again but sem was not keen so we packed up and left without a shower or anything.. in hindsight quite funny. We found a better place called Bow Thong at the other end of the Sairee beach.. well it seemed good until we managed to loose some flippers we hired from there.. they fell off the motor bike and we couldnt find them.. We went to tell the lady manager but she was on the phone so spoke to another guy.. he said not to bother her when she was drinking..not a good start! She came to our bungalow early this morning demanding the flippers.. when we told her what happened she accused us of stealing them and wanted 1500bht or a passport.. we were still half asleep so stupidly we gave her our passport as we thought we could get some 2nd hand ones for cheaper.. after spending most of today trying to find some it seems 1500 is actually ok. She is a nasty piece of work so thinking we will complain to her boss.. not our style but she is a phsyco. The retreat we are staying at is amazing but we would not recommend it to anyone cause of her attitude.. While driving up and down the roads looking for our flippers we stopped off at a little bar where they had a monkey.. It was soo cute and we got to feed it.. His name was Peter and he jumped on Dales head and tried to grab his sunnies.. When Dale grabbed them back the little shit bit him.. Haha so it has been a very crazy time at Ko Tao.. The street shops are really cool.. We had the best nutella pancakes ever and the people here are really nice (except our crazy bungalow person).. All in all though Ko Tao is simply beautiful - alot of westerners but hay so are we!! We are leaving here tomorrow morning and heading to Ko Samui which should also be amazing.. We will be staying with dales mums friends for the first ccouple of days which should be cool.. Weve seen some pretty cool stuff on this island but look forward to some other crazy things to see.. Will write again from Ko Samui!!!
Miss and love you all loads
Dale & Samina x
