...means 'turtle island', but there aren't any turtles here any more, since they've moved laying sites, or been eaten, or...?
It's beautiful here, been developed rapidly to accomodate firstly divers, and now tourists of all persuasions and budgets. After an all night bus trip from Bangkok, all we wanted to do was find a hotel room and sleep, and when we stepped off the transfer boat onto the island, we had many offers. So we avoided them all right then and found some brekky in the nearest cafe, where we were approached a couple of times for accom/dive trips etc, and one sounded perfect for us, the other side of the island, 10 mins by 'taxi' (dual cab ute - sitting the the back) about $8AUD per night for a little bungalow on the beach.
We've been here 4 nights and will probably stay longer! Raining today, so we've postponed the snorkel trip around the island, but tomorrow we'll do it!
We walked across the island yesterday, quite an effort in this heat, and were nearly attacked by two dogs, but weren't, as they stopped within a metre and started wagging instead of barking and growling.
And we saw two coconut sqirrels! Didn't know they existed! yep, little critters jumping around in the coco palm branches. And we have a friendly gecko, about a foot long, climbing around our bungalow walls... But all good - The snorking is fun in our bay, but the trip around the island will take us to even better sites, we hope.
