Travellen Chronicles: Koh Tao and Phagnan

After Hua Hin we went took a overnight cargo boat from Chumphon to Koh Tao. It was only my brother and I with a bunch of cargo workers. Despite it all, I slept like a brick and in six hours we landed in the beautiful Koh Tao at 6am.

Chumphon 

Cargo Ship

Hello Koh Tao

This island is super touristy as it is a resort town but it has its charm and is easy to get lost in. Every night on the beach there are fire dancers and performers as well as on the beach bungalows to relax in. Right when we got to our hostel, we booked a snorkeling tour for the same day, had breakfast, changed, and got picked up to go snorkeling.

The first stop I literally almost died. A couple of factors:

1) Crazy waves and wind
2) No life jacket
3) I can't swim too well

So after having my life flash before my eyes and every breath I take being a mouth full of sea water as well as being slapped in the face by waves, one of the tour guides came to my rescue and I was back on board. My brother puked because of motion sickness, and the other four girls didn't go snorkeling after that first stop. BUT after seeing how the waters were so much calmer in the 2nd stop I jumped on in...with a life jacket of course and it was crazy amazing. The last stop of our tour was Koh NangYuan. There is a 100 bht entry fee and you are not allowed to bring any plastic onto the island. Seems very effective since the whole place was free of trash but filled with tourists. We climbed up to the viewpoint and got a sweet view, I am definitely coming back here to get PADI certified in June. We got back to our hostel at around mid afternoon so I took a nap and then went to a Hatha Yoga class across the street. It was whatever, nothing challenging, the flow was choppy and the instructor kind of sucked. Oh well,

Touristy stuff in Koh Tao

The next day we took a four hour ferry ride to Koh Phangnan and met up with our friend, Harry, at Baan Tai Backpackers Hostel. Very cool hostel with a nice vibe, right across the street from the beach. That night a bunch of us went to The Black Moon Festival which we were wary about at first since it costed about 600 bht for a ticket but I had a lot of fun, mainly because of the company of a certain German boy. The party used to be on the beach but this time it moved to a new location, up in the mountains. There was one dance floor with only Psy Trance playing all night as well as small vendors fire shows, and an area of fire pits overlooking the island. Met a lot of fellow travelers and had great conversations all night down at the pits. It was a cycle of talking, getting a drink, and going pee. We left around 4am, negotiated a 100 bht/person motorbike taxi back to our hostel and walked across the street to watch the sunrise on the beach :) Then I passed out at 6am and checked out at noon to make our way back north where my brother leaves for India and me to Chiang Mai.

Tourists on the ferry