We fly from Borneo to Singapore and stay in our first hostel dorm of the trip so far. We have managed to avoid them so far as Dan doesn’t like them, so picking a 28 room dorm in Singapore where you have to brush your teeth in the toilets shared with the customers in the pub does not go down well! However, it’s a popular bar and we meet some friendly people straight away, one of whom is an expat and takes us out for an Indian meal – lucky us!

We move hostels to get a private room and find a good place to stay for a few days. We are happy until someone steals my Diesel watch from the shower room. The last time I saw it I remembered thinking “I must not forget to take that with me” but alas I did…and someone else took it. I even put a poster up appealing for its safe return but to no avail. Ah well, I buy a red $3 replacement with a hippo on to keep me going and hope that I will learn from my mistake.

Singapore is a lot more expensive than the rest of Asia,  so we have to try to see stuff without spending much money. This involves a lot of wandering around in the sweltering heat. The City is clean and has some interesting buildings, one of which is shaped like a Durian (a very smelly fruit if you are not familiar with one. Usually banned from hostels due to the stench!).

We meet up with another friend I have not seen for 10 years since I lived in Hong Kong together – Mercedes. It is really good to see her again and I enjoy catching up over the last decade, and reminiscing on our teaching days. Merv is heavily pregnant – which I don’t envy in this heat…but she looks great. She takes us out to the seaside and treats us to some great Malaysian food…satay and laksa – mmmm.

After lunch Dan and I head to Tiger Balm Gardens (Haw Par Villa) , which Merv had recommended. She had said it was a bit odd and my-oh-my it delivered on that. Built in the 1930′s the park has over 1000 colourful and strange statues. With the strangest part being the ‘Ten Courts of Hell’ depicting hell in Chinese Mythology. This has models of tongue ripping, eye gouging, heart digging, the lot…punishment for a number of sins from being a lady of the night, to being rude to your parents. A warning to all

Other place we go to include  Raffles, a beautiful building and home to the Singapore Sling  (unfortunately our budget doesn’t stretch to have one…shame). We see some modern art and enjoy walking along the river. And one evening we go to a place which isn’t a pub where you sit and play board games?! My friend Clare describes Singapore as Sim City and she has a point. Although we enjoy ourselves it does lack something that HK has and I can’t quite put my finger on it. I expect though, that if we had a few more dollars, we may not feel the same!

 

We fly from Hong Kong to KL and spend a couple of days recuperating from the hectic pace of HK before we fly on to Borneo for our jungle adventure.

We fly to Kota Kinabalu and struggle to get a bus from the airport as there are no timetables, but we eventually make it into town with only a couple of squables…its very hot and we are very weary. We end up picking a hostel on the way to the one we had picked due to getting lost and a bit angry. But the hostel turns out to be great – so that’s good.

There is a festival in the streets outside in the evening celebrating a local tribe. There are speeches, beauty contests and music…while we wander around the street markets. Then there are fireworks to top it all off.

In the day we venture out to one of the islands off the coast. Dan gets annoyed that they charge us an extra fee to get on the island once we have paid for the trip across already, and I promptly fall over and cut my leg…so its not looking good. It then starts raining…and the day pretty much follows suit, but hey, whose complaining when we are still on holiday. It’s still a good day – it’s just we have been rather spoilt.

Our next stop after KK is to Sukau. Land of the monkeys. It takes 3 buses and again there are no timetables, but after 10 hours we make it to a cross roads near our chosen B&B. We are surrounded by palm plantations, and join forces with a Belgian couple to haggle for the taxi from the crossroads to the B&B. We think they are ripping us off and eventually find a guy to take us on the cheap. 45 minutes later we realised we probably haggled a bit too hard! We had thought it would be a 10 minute trip.

Arriving at the B&B we are pleasantly surprised! What we thought may be a bit basic is actually not, unlike the horror stories we have heard a la Uncle Tans (think rats, no windows and shared room sleeping on the floor) we have our own room and nice showers. Plus the Belgian couple are the only other guests.

The food is included as you are in the jungle so there is nowhere to pop for a meal. We eat some scrumptious home-made food and chat away. Dan and I then venture into the jungle next to the lodge and nervously look for monkeys hoping we don’t see the ones that we have been warned are dangerous. We hear lots of rustles and see things running off too quickly to get a proper glimpse of, before striking gold and finding some rather large pig tail macaques. Which yes are the more scary ones. We stare in awe as one walks along a branch in front of us.

The evening is spent eating and chatting and getting an early night listening to the sounds of the jungle before rising at 6am for the morning boat trip.

Our host Jody takes us out on the Kinabatangan river to spot white lipped monkeys, proboscis monkeys, monitor lizards, kingfishers, long tail macaques, different kinds of horn bills, pygmy squirrels, and a crocodile too. It is the most amazing trip.

We do a trip in the afternoon too after spending the day relaxing. We see more monkeys and birds…and enjoy cruising along the river all looking into the jungle to see what we can spot.

There is so much wildlife in Sukau, which is great to see, but also a sad occurence when the reason behind it is that so much of the jungle has been sold off for palm plantations, all the wildlife is being slowly forced to live in just a few kilometres.

We venture to the Gormantang caves to see where they harvest birds nest soup to sell for lots of money, the place stinks! The wholeplace is inches thick in bird poo and cockroaches as we try to slip and slide our way around the dark cave. Nice. Thanks to more rain we are unable to see the most interesting bits and end up sheltering under someones home for a bit.

The only down point about being in an isolated jungle is that Pompey are in the FA Cup final and I am desperate to see them beat Chelsea (always the optimist). I think this is probably a no go, but Jody arranges for us and the Belgian couple to go to his friends, dead Uncles, house in a nearby village to watch it. And we have a great night watching it with the very hospitable locals – even if Pompey don’t win.

After spending a few days in Sukau we move on to Sepilok to see the Orangutans. We manage to see about 5 at the afternoon feeding and luckily don’t have the crowds due to the rain – which is a mixed blessing as we stand there in our plastic ponchos. They are very funny animals too watch and we get a bit trigger happy (with our camera!).

We do a night trek at the rainforest discovery centre and spot flying squirrels and look for Lorris and other nocturnal beasts. We spend a couple of hours hiking in the dark and get a few leeches on us that we have to quickly pull off before they get their teeth in [later at the B&B Dan finds one actually got into his pants].

Next stop is Sandakan, another City, where we spend a relaxing afternoon at an English tea house overlooking Sandakan from its croquet lawn at the top – idyllic!

On our trip back to KK we spend a night at Mount Kinabalu, but just explore the foothills and don’t venture up the mountain. In fact we don’t even see the top as it is covered in cloud the whole time. We hear what may have been a rat in our room and don’t sleep that well. But in the day we enjoy the hikes, before catching a free lift with a weary German who had just attempted the mountain, all the way back to KK.

Our Borneo adventure almost over…but with lots of monkey memories!

Ah Hong Kong…the first place I lived away from home at the age of 18…where I met some of my best friends and had some of the best times. It’s incredibly exciting to come back after 10 years away, and show Dan around the amazing city. We are staying in Causeway Bay, a stones throw from my old flat. Back in the day we lived just around the corner from Times square, a bit like living just around the corner from Piccadilly Circus.

As we come out of the train station the lights from all the shops make it look like daylight when in fact its 8pm and dark. Hundreds of people mill around us and I am struck with a combination of nostalgia, excitement and an overall strange feeling. I have never felt quite like this before, but then again I have never returned to a place after so long which means so much to me. I recognise the same streets and begin getting to grips with remembering where everything is or was. I hope that Dan doesn’t get fed up with my trip down memory lane!

We check into our hostel which we later find out is an illegal hostel. Basically the hostel bought a couple of floors and runs the business against the buildings consent. We don’t mind though as our room is nice and a mere 25 quid a night…which for HK is pretty reasonable I’d say

Wandering around my old stomping ground we go for dinner at a local restaurant in the street I used to live in, time seems to have stood still and everything looks the same. We wander past my old flat and I am amazed to see that it is just how we left it. No one has lived there in the last ten years and its looking a bit decrepit, especially as there is now a sparkly new 5 star hotel built next door to it!

After a scoot around Times Square we make our way to Lang Kwai Fong, home to the expat socialite. Beer still costs an arm and a leg here so instead of getting a bank loan we opt for bar 7/11…basically buying a beer at the 7/11 and standing on the street along with everyone who has bought there 8 quid beer, a nifty trick!

We spend a total of 6 days in Hong Kong altogether and cram loads in:

We get the new cable car from HK to Lantau island to see the Big Buddah…Dan is scared stiff due to his fear of heights and I don’t like telling him its going to be another 30 mins until we get to the island. He is actually relieved to be in the clouds so he can’t see the drop down as the wind whistles through…

We eat street food which is delicious, wander round the markets and just enjoy walking the vibrant streets and seeing the throngs of people.

At 8pm there is a light and music extravaganza which happens every night, where all the buildings light up in multicolours as music plays out across the water. Some nights its narrated in Cantonese and other nights English. We watch this once looking from Kowloon to Hong kong island and swap sides the following night

On a night out in Lang kwai fong we meet someone at bar 7/11 who recognises us for being the only white people in Causeway bay earlier that morning. I then discover he works for Experian (where I was working before I left) and he invites us out with his work people a couple of days later. It’s a surprise to see a few familiar faces from the London office! The barmaid in the pub also turns out to be a long-lost friend from my old days in Hong Kong – so it is a night full of surprises!!

We meet up with my old student Andrew, who is visiting from Bangkok. And an ELTA pal from my year out, Sarah – who treats us to a meal at my favourite restaurant – Fat Angelo’s. Yum

The Felix bar at the top of the Peninsula gives us the most amazing views as we sip our expensive beer. We enjoy going to HK park, the aviary, the peak, Stanley Bay, and lots more….one night I even go to ladies night at Carnegies reliving my youth, I have heaps of fun drinking free champagne all night while Dan isn’t so impressed only being able to afford two Foster lights….I should probably wrap this up as I could probably write a whole book about the place, but basically we both love it and it is the best City we have visited on our trip.

Suffice to say I am sad to leave…Hong Kong, I won’t leave it so long next time – I promise.

After a 5 hour bus journey we arrive in Kuala Lumpu at “The Original Backpackers Inn”, it’s very very hot…a lot different to the cool hills of the Cameron Highlands. The guesthouse is one of the worst we have stayed in; no aircon, holes in sheets, a broken DVD player in the common area and no windows. However it is cheap (for KL not the rest of Asia) so we decide to stay for 1 night at least.

We are smack bang in the middle of China town, so we wander around the markets to get our bearings and find some food. Several people try to get us to buy DVDs to which we reply “We have no DVD player!” I guess in this day and age they expect most people to.

We have a few days in KL before our flight to Hong Kong so we set about taking as much in as possible. The City is cosmopolitan and the people friendly and polite. We find it strange being back in a city again…and having everything so close to hand.

We venture into the middle of the City in the evening where the streets are lined with huge palm trees and huge shopping centres dominate. We walk through a dodgier area to get there and narrowly miss some madman dropping his kecks (although I wouldn’t have noticed if Dan hadn’t pointed it out and ushered me along).

We stumble across an Adidas street party and see a couple of acts, models and Darth Vader strutting around. Ze! A Malaysian electro-pop princess is the pick of the crop.  We then catch the train back home, which is cheap and relatively easy to use.

The following day we get picked up by Pal, the friend we made in the Cameron Highlands. He takes us to lunch at Davis’ Corner in Bangsar where we have the best banana leaf curry yet! We attempt to eat with our fingers but fail miserably and have to use a knife and fork.

After lunch Pal drives us to the  Batu caves where we march up hundreds of steps (272 to be precise) to enter this ancient Majestic limestone formation. There’s 3 big caves including the main cave which is home to Hindu temple. Inside cheeky monkeys try to grab the odd can of drink or scowl from the steps.

We then return to KL and go to Times square shopping centre which has a roller coaster inside, yes inside! We don’t go on it as its so expensive but it looks awesome. We then go to see the amazing and iconic Petronas towers. When these huge buildings are lit up at night they look fantastic.

The next day we change hostels and move down the road a bit to a plush but only slightly more expensive hotel, Etika. Air conditioning and satellite TV are hugely welcome in this sweltering city. Apparently although KL is hot all year, they are having a bit of a heat wave too…phew!

We venture up the KL tower to see out over the City, and wander around the top with headphones on listening to the guide. Our tickets include a visit to a cultural village and rainforest walk which are both at the base of the tower. We also take in the Bird Park. It’s a bit pricey to get in (again non-malaysians have to pay ten fold) but its worth it. The birds are in a large free flight aviary which we explore and see lots of colourful and strange birds. I get to feed a load of parrots that flock onto me, and leave scratches from their claws on me Dan’s favourite is the bird show; a parrot on a bike being his favourite act.

Pal picks us up in the evening and takes us out for dinner. His friends join us and we spend a really lovely evening chatting, eating and drinking tiger beer. The menu at the restaurant is the hugest I have ever seen, but I opt for another amazing curry and an interesting drink called Cendol, which tastes of brown sugar, milk and beans.

We enjoy KL despite the heat, and its nice to have a local to show us the sights…now Hong Kong awaits!

It was a bit strange going from a tropical island to somewhere a lot cooler (20c), but our trip there was easy and we had a whole mini bus to ourselves for the first time. The Cameron Highlands is a hill station famed for its tea growing plantations and lush scenery.

We decided to stay at ‘Daniel’s lodge’ because it had such a great name and it turned out to be a great place.

Our first day was spent on a trip going to see the Rafflesia flower (which is actually a large fungus that looks like a massive flower…fact fans) and trekked through the jungle with our tour to find it. We then stopped off at a waterfall, went to an ethnic village (where we got to blow blow pipes like the blow hunters), the Boh tea plantation and a butterfly farm. It was a great day and we got to see a lot of what the area had to offer. The butterfly farm should really be called an insect farm as we saw some of the most amazing insects whilst there, and they let us hold lots of scary looking bugs.

On our second night there we bumped into a Romanian guy called Claudiu, that we had met a while back in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. The meeting was a strange coincidence and we enjoyed spending the evening with him. ‘Daniel’s Lodge’ had the only real bar in the town with a big campfire at the back that everyone could sit round.

The following day we agreed to do a trek with Claudiu through the jungle which was fun. It wasn’t too difficult to begin with, but by the end the path was very narrow and there was a sheer drop. We also were stopped in our tracks for about 20 mins trying to get a snake to move out of our way. When we finally emerged from the jungle we realised we had to walk 11 kilometres uphill to get back…but we did it! We also met another trekker on the way up who had done the same route, Pal was on a break from Kuala Lumpur and we all marched up the hill back to the town.

We all went out for dinner that evening and had banana leaf curries, where they heap lots of food onto a banana leaf…very filling! We also bought a large bottle of rum to share back at the lodge.

The following day was raining so we had a lazy day at the lodge and ended up meeting lots of other people staying there. We all sat around chatting and went out for dinner together. For the rest of our stay we would go for dinner each evening and then return to the campfire. It was a lot of fun and made us stay more days than we had originally intended!

We trekked to the top of Gunung Brinchang one day which was difficult and involved a lot of climbing over things, lots of mud, and when you thought you were almost at the top you would suddenly see another peak. It took us about 3 hours to clamber up but the views from the top were awesome. Once again, we had to try to get back to the town which involved walking another 10 kilometres down the hill. We hadn’t cottoned on to the fact that it was acceptable to hitch hike back at this stage!

As we had worn ourselves out getting to the top of the mountain we hadn’t gone into the Mossy forest near the peak, which everyone told us was a big mistake. So the next day we decided to get a taxi to the top (apparently its the tallest mountain in Malaysia that has a road) so we could spend more time in the forest. We eventually managed to convince a taxi to take us up in his 1965 mercedes…fortunately it made it up unscathed.

The mossy forest was a lot more climbing up and over tree trunks and scrambling around in mud. As you are up in the clouds it has a magical feel to it, and we were enjoying it a lot until we heard the thunder in the distance. We decided to head out and made it out just in time to miss the rain (somehow it took us 1 hour to get into the forest and 20 mins to get out) but we then had the problem that we were at the top of a mountain in a storm.

The rain started pelting down and the thunder and lightning was crashing all around us. I was petrified and we had no choice but to start walking down. We spent over an hour in the rain and when the storm finally passed I was so happy that we had not been struck by lightning! This time we hitched half the way back on the back of a pick up truck and an empty tourist bus; drenched from head to toe.

Our last evening was spent in the usual way round the fire with friends and drinking our ‘Tiger liquor’…we aren’t actually sure what it is as it’s all in Chinese but it has a tiger on the front and is the cheapest alcohol we found (being a muslim country it’s usually expensive) and it tastes good:)

Next stop Kuala Lumpur…

We changed some money at the border and got a cab to the coast to get a boat out to the Perhentian Islands. We opted for Coral Bay on the smaller island of the two, and arrive at an idyllic beach with nothing but turquoise crystal sea, white sand and green jungle.

A very laid back place with a few bungalow operators and restaurants and little else. We stayed in the first set of bungalows which only had electricity from 7pm-7am….so we woke up hot and sweaty. And also covered in bed bug bites – yuk! After realising this we moved to Senja, a much nicer place with 24 hour electricity that looked out over the vast blue sea.

Being such a small island there were no roads or cars. To get to the other beach we had to walk through the jungle for 10 minutes; easy in the day…but a bit more scary at night if we wanted to venture across.  We also spent a day trekking to the Fishing Village and stopping off at smaller beaches on the way.

We did another snorkelling trip where we saw the best coral yet! The water was transparent for metres and we saw lots of tropical fish, sharks and massive turtles. The turtle were my favourite! The boat driver would find the turtles and we had to jump in and swim after them

The wildlife here was great too. We spotted a lot of monitor lizards ambling around, they were up over a metre big in some cases – almost like crocodiles!!

There isn’t much else to say…we just snorkelled, swam and relaxed really. Although it was like a mini paradise.

Being a muslim place drink was uber expensive too, so we didn’t drink too much.  Although the local ‘Monkey juice’ was a rather tasty rum.

We left this morning and we are now waiting for a bus to the Cameron highlands. Apparently it is a lot cooler, so after not wearing sleeves since the UK we may have to don an extra layer or too. I am apprehensive of this; but Dan is looking forward to cooler climes

We travel down to Sunging Kolok, the border Thai town to Eastern Malaysia. It takes about 12 hours altogether after leaving Phi Phi. We arrive at 8pm and find a scruffy hostel in a shabby little town. We don’t feel entirely safe but we are happy its just over night and we will be crossing the border first thing. We sit and watch news coverage of Bangkok and see a lot of violence. We are glad that we will not be going to Bangkok after things have seemed to have escalated with the protestors.

Dan is looking for our passports to take out to dinner with us (so we don’t leave them in the room) but can only seem to find his? Surely not? Nope, its true…mine has GONE! We had got them out to show at one of the many checkpoints whilst travelling through the turbulent South of Thailand. Somehow it must have fallen out our bag or not been put back in properly!? I am a bit stunned at the prospect and we go back to the place we were dropped in a vague hope that it may be lying in the street. It isn’t, and we are told by some locals to come back in the morning as it is unsafe to b hanging around.

I decide to find the police station which luckily is on the same street as our hotel. They are still open and I explain my predicament to the Thai police officer who speaks only a little English before starting to (embarrassingly) cry in front of him. He calls the tourist police and an interpreter and suddenly there are 7 people standing around trying to work out what to do. They tell us that we will need to spend a whole day travelling back up to Bangkok to get a new passport in the morning, which makes me blub more. But resigned to our fate we fill out the details, I print off a copy of my passport and we return to our hotel, skipping dinner.

Our only hope is that the tourist police are going to pick us up first thing and take us to the bus company to see if they have it. We don’t hold out much hope and sit and wait politely in the morning once they have tracked down the right place (we had no idea what bus company it was). And then…very luckily…we are told they have found it, and that the driver is on his way back…WHAT A RELIEF! Half an hour later I am reunited with my passport and we are taken to the border.

The tourist police are fantastic, and they even take a photo of us and the passport and pose with us. Before we know it we are over the border in Malaysia. No need to return to Bangkok. No need to waste days travelling North and then South – PHEW!

I spent Christmas day here in 1999 with Alison and Liz and am excited to return, if a little apprehensive. I visited before the Tsunami and ‘that film’ (The Beach) so after being partly demolished and becoming world-famous I thought it may have changed.

I didn’t really recognise it as the same place at all. But undeterred we went about finding some place to stay in this now over priced place. Despite the changes and obvious scars the place has pretty much bounced back, albeit a lot more commercial.

By day, the place is pretty and reasonably quiet. We found some nice spots on the beach and even found some small isolated beaches which were gorgeous.

By night the place becomes rammed with lots of drunken twits…all getting their free buckets on the beach bars. We had some good times though,and didn’t find it too difficult to avoid these types. We fortunately also bump into Steph and Daryl from Koh Tao, and spend a great evening with them! And yes, we too try to get our free buckets with all the twits…but we are on a budget!

The Thai New Year occurs while we are here, and this means there is a MASSIVE water fight. Everyone gets involved and the day is spent with water pistols running around getting soaked. Buckets of water are thrown over our heads and flour is wiped on our soggy faces. Probably not a pretty sight but a lot of fun.

We spend another day on a snorkelling trip visiting Maya Beach (The Beach) and lots of pretty places on Phi Phi Ley which is another national park. More tropical fish, white sands and amazing scenery. We won’t bore you.

The only draw back to the whole place is how hot it is. The sun is unrelenting and there is little breeze…but we can’t complain really. It’s just that putting on sun tan lotion just to sweat it off 5 minutes later can get a little annoying

We get a night boat from Koh Tao, where 60 of us are squeezed shoulder to shoulder on mattresses. An interesting experience… We then have ‘Our worst journey so far’. After waiting around and passed between tour companies we get put on a bus which stops constantly and goes the long way across Thailand to Phuket. Our journey takes 20 hours all together and we arrive at 4pm (it should have been before noon).  My trainers also go missing on the trip and after leaving Koh Tao the place seems like a hell hole.

I start crying realising that we made a mistake coming here. We are tired and fed up.  But we pull ourselves together and find the cheapest place possible in an expensive (yet grotty) town.  Karon beach is on the west coast of Phuket and full of chavy families and old men with much younger Thai women. The Thai people are the friendliest we have met though, and we stay above a bar owned by a group of friendly Thai women. I don’t realise that all the pictures on the wall are of naked women at the time, and it takes a while for the penny to drop that this could well be a brothel come hostel…but it has aircon and free tea and coffee and its clean so we are grateful for that!

Our first day here is spent on a day trip to James bond Island in the National marine park. This is famous foremost for being the picture on our blog behind the title! It also features in the ‘Man with the golden gun’ and is a stunning location. We opt for the speed boat tour which includes visiting a large cave, and canoeing. The Canoeing is great as we sit back as a man ferries us around the limestone crags. We see crawling fish, mangroves and find it very relaxing.

The whole day is great – one of the best so far!  We have lunch on a floating muslim village and share the boat with some nice people. It makes the mistake of going to Phuket worth it for this day alone!

The final stop is a secluded beach and we swim in the blue sea before heading back.

The following day we make our escape and head off to the Phi Phi islands…

A new island to explore! We arrive as everyone is leaving to hit the Full Moon party on Koh Phangan. After searching around a bit we find Leissa’s recommendation of Sairee Cottages on Sairee beach. The cheapest we have found and the best bungalow we have stayed in a few metres from the beach.

We LOVE Koh Tao and end up spending 8 days there. The first night we have kebab skewers on the beach and see some live music (rock music for once!) and go to ‘The Office’…a shack on the street which at night plays the best tunes proclaiming “F*ck the full moon” and “Save Koh tao from bad music”.

We meet new friends, Steph and Daryl, and spend an evening getting a bit too merry…so the following day is a right off It’s those damn buckets again! We never learn…

Each evening follows a similar pilgrimage between dinner on the beach, the Fish Bowl for live music, and the Office. Our days are spent snorkelling, or scootering around.  We also find a bar highly recommended called Babaloo, and spend a great evening here. We have to cross an iffy bridge with no rails to get there and don’t dare drink too much incase we fall off crossing back! We make it over though and pay too much money to go to a party in a place called the ‘Castle’. It’s too much money because as soon as we get there Dan twists his ankle on the stairs, followed by a power cut for 15 minutes…when the lights return Dan tells me he needs to go home 100 baht for 30 minutes – great.

On one particular day we hire scooters to try to find some sharks off one of the coasts. We make our way down the rocky coast and spend an hour or so to no avail and head off slightly disappointed. Our next port of call is a beach with the steepest road down. We abandon our scooters and head down on foot, trying not to think about the trek back! We manage it though, and are relieved to get back again in one piece.

One of my favourite pastimes is on the island – MINI GOLF! We enjoy spending an hour or so on the 18 hole course. But unfortunately for me Dan beats me by a couple of points. Although since his ball kept coming off the course if we had played by the book he would have lost a long time ago.

One day we do a snorkelling trip round the island and see lots of amazing coral and fish. Which prepares us for Scuba diving! We opt to do a one day taster and we are both a little nervous. In fact Dan isn’t happy about doing it at all and at one point I think he may pull out. I convince him to do it though and as predicted he loves it and is a lot better than me! We only go 6 metres under but breathing under water is the best. We thoroughly enjoy ourselves and swear to try it again one day. Most people on the island are doing their PADI’s and this is THE place to do it as it is so ‘cheap’ and the water is crystal clear…but being on a budget and short of time we decide not to.

On our last day I decide to hire a scooter on my own for a few hours and go back looking for sharks. It’s a bit wierd being on my own on a scooter without Dan in my mirror behind me but I set off, hoping I don’t fall off in some remote place and miss our boat. This time I clamber down the rocks and before long see a shark gliding through the water – amazing. I swim around a bit more and see another. I am not surrounded by them but am happy to have at least spent a few moments in the presence of this graceful animals.

We reluctantly leave Koh Tao to head to the Andaman coast…but after enjoying it so much we will no doubt return… one day.