Koh Tao

I arrived on Koh Tao and immediately liked the vibe. It somehow felt like home. It’s hard to put my finger on why - usually touristy places aren’t my thing - but somehow this island felt different. Nanna (from previous islands) had told me I hadn’t booked long enough here, and I immediately understood what she had meant. I sat on the beach and watched sunset, and went for a night time walk down the island’s main strip of sand, Sairee beach. With the sand under my feet and the waves washing over them, I walked in the dark past quiet spots and pumping beach bars. It felt good.

I met up with a group created on the Hostelworld app to walk up to a viewpoint over the island and a nearby secluded beach. The hike was surprisingly short, maybe only 10 minutes, but the view was great and the beach was quiet and pretty. The company was also good, and among others I got chatting to Nicole. 

Koh Tao, aside from being a dive crazy island, is also famous for its parties, and I’d purposefully booked my stay here to coincide with the monthly jungle party I’d heard good things about. Nicole and I organised to go for dinner together beforehand, and after some delicious roast duck from a place people rave about, we headed for pre-drinks. After playing table football against a couple of locals, I went to re-find Nicole, who had herself found some others and after trying to work out where to get the shuttle taxi, we headed to the party. Our group got on well and everyone had a good vibe, but Nicole and my party energies matched really well. We danced and chatted until the music stopped at almost 5am. On the long from the taxi stop back to my hostel I ended up chatting to someone else on their way back, just like at music festivals. 

I wasn’t planning on getting much done the day after such a late night, and after not much sleep, and with a tropical downpour outside, I didn’t. I did make it out for lunch though, and despite my original plans to take a break from diving while here, I also booked a dive for the day after, before my boat off the island. In a short break in the rain I made it to the beach for sunset, and for dinner met some friends I’d met in my previous hostel on Koh Samui. While we were eating, the rain started hammering down again, and we decided to get a beer and sit it out in the restaurant. Close to two hours later, the rain subsided, and I walked (/waded) back across the island to bed.

A 6am wake up for diving made it two nights of poor sleep running, and I felt tired, but good to be back under the water. The dive sites on Koh Tao were, for me, less beautiful and less varied than other’s I’d been to recently, but I did get to see some new creatures. In particular I enjoyed seeing bluespotted ribbon rays. We also saw yellow margin triggerfish, titan triggerfish and a strapweed file fish juvenile. As a bonus, Dan, the manager at the diving school and a fish ID specialist, managed to correctly identify a fish I’d previously seen that no-one else could name.

There are so many reasons to not like Koh Tao, but somehow it has immediately charmed me. I would be very happy to return one day.