Xin Chao from Candice and the Wright Guy!: Update from Paradise...

When we left you last, we were waiting to get to our most desired destination. However the journey there was far less than desirable...

It began with a drunken tuk tuk driver who could barely walk, let alone drive us to the bus station. Luckily it was no more than a kilometer away from our hotel so we made it safely. After thinking the worst of our journey was over, we got our first glimpse of our bus. The old, beaten up and very small bus that stood before us had the most uncomfortable seats you could imagine, especially since we had to sit in them for 4 hours in the middle of the night while we were all rather exhausted. We then had to wait at the Thai border for another 2 hours until it opened and we could be transferred onto another bus.

We found out at the border that we could only stay in Thailand for 15 days (because we had arrived by land and they did not give visas at the border) rather than the 21 days we had originally planned to stay there, and we were not very pleased with the way things were going thus far. Still grumbling, we hopped onto our second bus to get to Bangkok. We thought our first bus was bad… This next bus had the worst driver we have encountered so far. This man thought he was a formula 1 racecar driver. He would pound on the gas and hammer on the brakes whenever he got the chance. Candice even got a bit of air off of her seat at one point, while Andrew was feeling a little car sick. Due to his insane driving, we also had to stop for gas twice along the way, and each time was a half an hour wait.

When we finally arrived in Bangkok we were exhausted, starving and upset about our shortened stay in Thailand. We walked around for a bit before finding a place to eat and stay. We found a wonderful little two-story room that was owned by an older Thai couple and stayed there for one night before hopping on a train to Koh Tao. During our short stay in Bangkok we rested up from the long and tedious ride there, as well as explored some of the local cuisine and tourist attractions. Our hotel was on Rambuttri Street, which is one street over from the infamous backpacker Mecca, Khao San Road. We decided that since we didn’t have very much time in Bangkok we would just hit the two most popular sites, the temple of the emerald Buddha and the grand palace. Conveniently, these two sites happen to be in the same complex. We took a free tour through the complex, and after a few hours of site seeing we picked up some amazing chicken kebabs and headed back to the hotel.

In front of the Royal Palace.

After a short resting period, we were on the road yet again. Luckily this bus ride was much more comfortable. After waiting for the ferry for another 5 hours we were FINALLY on our last leg of the way to Koh Tao. The ferry ride was pleasant and seemed to go bye very quickly after our long wait.

While on the ferry, promoters from various resorts on the island handed out brochures and told us their prices, making choosing a hotel very easy! We settled on Ban’s Diving Resort, which certifies more divers than any other dive company in the world. The room for the three of us, with private bathroom and a fan, costs us about $23 a night. The first two days on Koh Tao were spent relaxing on the beach and wandering around searching out good dive companies and Pad Thai!

Chris on the beach waiting for a meal that never came...

Candice relaxing in the 32 degree water.

On the third day, Andrew did his diving review course in the morning while Chris and Candice did their Discover Scuba Diving courses. In the afternoon, we all went out together and did two dives. We saw many colourful fish, corals and anemones on the dives! The next day we did an all day snorkeling tour around the island, visiting four different snorkeling sites and a picturesque small island off of Koh Tao called Koh Nang-Yuan. We all really enjoyed the snorkeling, especially throwing our watermelon rinds off of the deck and watching as the fish swarmed the rinds! We were fortunate enough to have an excellent guide for the trip, and he showed us all the best spots, as well as how the corals are both being harmed by tourism but growing back at the same time. We saw many of the same animals that we saw on our dives, but we also lucky enough to see a banded sea snake, the most venomous snake in the world!