Diving in to Koh Tao, Thailand

A couple of years back Sean and I found ourselves with some time off from uni, we booked flights to Phuket, Thailand and left 2 weeks later. Needless to say we didn't have a lot of planning time.

The trip we booked was only 10 days long but in this time we planned to visit both Koh Tao and Koh Phi Phi, with a one night "stop over" in both Koh Samui and Phuket.

We flew into Phuket late in the evening and stayed at Naiyang Beach Resort, we didn't get the chance to hang around for long or explore around here as we only stayed here because it was close to the airport and we were flying to Koh Samui early the next morning.

​On the worlds cutest and tiniest plane might I add.  

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​When we arrived at Koh Samui we a shared van to the wharf and bought a ferry ticket to Koh Tao. The ferry was big, open and pretty fast. After leaving Koh Samui it made a stop at Koh Phagnan - (in)famous for its gigantic monthly Full Moon parties, where Sean may or may not have gotten himself in to a spot of trouble a few years earlier... -  and then on to Koh Tao before going on all the way to Bangkok! ​

Koh Tao is a tourist friendly island very popular with backpackers for two things really; diving and drinking.
We'd heard about Koh Tao about 4 weeks previously after a friend (ok, it was Sean's Mum) mentioned she had a great time diving and staying there with a company called "Big Blue." Similar to Utila in Honduras, Koh Tao is filled with competitive dive schools that offer free or discounted accommodation if you dive with them.

We arrived at Koh Tao to face the hordes of locals toting signs advertising their respective dive schools at the tourists getting off the ferry. We had already booked some dives and a small cabana with "Big Blue," and it was relatively easy to find their man at the pier, who drove us and our gear to our room at the dive school.

The cabana was small, with only a double bed, side table and bathroom, but it was all we needed! And it was a stones throw from the waters edge. That afternoon we had a walk around the town and booked in for some driving the next morning.

The next morning we dove at Chumpon Pinacle and Green Rock.  Both of which were amazing! 

Chumpon Pinacle had huge schools of rainbow runners and plenty of pretty soft coral. Apparently they get whale sharks here at some times of the year but we weren't so lucky. At Green Rock we saw plenty of colourful fish including a huge titan triggerfish. I'd have to say, other than the amazing coral and sea life in Thailand, the best part about diving was being able to go down to 30m and still be comfortable in JUST A BIKINI, no wetsuit! It was heaven! The water was around 28 degrees and made diving for long periods of time sustainable... Until our oxygen got low. Sean was seriously sweating at 30m underwater in boardies. 

Unfortunately at the end of the 2nd dive my ear began to feel funny and by that afternoon I had a terrible ear ache (this happens a lot when I dive as I have a narrowed ear canal) and was unable to dive the next day. Whilst I hung out on the beach Sean took on his Deep, Wreck and Nitrox diving courses. As part of the course, Sean got to swim through a sunken ship, and came face to face with a giant friendly grouper in a dark narrow corridor!

One of the days on Koh Tao we did a trek to a beach on the other side of the island and got to do some snorkelling. The walk went via an amazing viewpoint overlooking the entire main beach, and was absolutely stunning!!

Whilst we were here the weather was beautiful the whole time (27+ every day).

Our next stop in Thailand was Koh Phi Phi.