Happy Hannukah!

Happy Hannukah to all those who are celebrating!

After a plane ride to Bangkok and a day spent in Bangkok, I took the night train to Chumpton then a boat to Koh Tao and finally arrived on the beautiful beaches of Koh Tao. It was a long trip, but with the exception of one incident when I was quite young and my parents encouraged me to plummet to my death - I do really enjoy sleeping on the night train. So I would highly recommend it if you are traveling south in Thailand.

Koh Tao is known for it's diving, and after a day of relaxing and recovery, I was ready to hit the water. I had been warned by some that the diving in Koh Tao is not that great, and I'll be honest, they're right. I hear that I'm about 6 weeks too early and that they're still recovering from the monsoon season - so apparently starting in February the diving and visibility is supposed to be much better.

As it was I was talked into getting my Deep Adventure certification, so now I can dive to 30 meters! I did morning dives one day, where we didn't see much. The second day I opted to do an afternoon dive and lucked out. The two other "fun divers" didn't show up - so it was just me and the dive master. I found the afternoon dives much more interesting than the day before's morning dive. I had shrimp crawl on my hand, we saw some Spanish dancers and loads of butterfly and anglefish amongst others. It certainly wasn't the best diving, but at 700 baht a dive it was rather cheap and I did really enjoy just hanging out underwater.

I arrived to Koh Phangan today and, as Doug predicted, became quite smitten with the island. There are fresh fruit stands everywhere and miles of white sandy beaches to walk upon. The downtown is quite with plenty of flip-flop buying options (I broke my Eddie Bower pair on Koh Tao).

If you're looking for me - I'll be laying out on the beach.

Happy Holidays!