Síle & Bruce’s Travel Blog

So it’s been ages since we’ve last written so I’ll try to get you upto date!

We left Hanoi (the city where dreams are destroyed!) and flew to Bankgok. Once we got to the airport we realised that it was the start of the Water Festival, this meant a giant water fight all around Thailand for the next 4 days, it’s for their New Year. Our plan was to get a taxi to the train station then hop on a train to bring us down to the sun soaked islands. Once we got out of the airport we were told that this was near impossible (due to the water fest!) as all the trains were fully booked and it was unlikely that we’d get a room for a reasonable price in Bangkok! Oh dear, slight error in planning on our part, but we decided to get the taxi to the train station anyway, just for the craic!

Well we got to the train staion at about noon time and there were only a few places left on the train for 19:30. No worries, at least we got a ride! As we had our big bags with us (and because we were likely to get soaked if we went anywhere else) we hung around at the station for 7hrs - our second home!

The train journey was uneventful, apart from water being thrown through the windows at us and we arrive at Champon (or Chumporn as we saw a few times) at around 3 in the morning, then it was a tuk tuk to the pier and then boat to Koh Tao. It has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. We stepped onto the pier, look down into the water and could see to the bottom of the sea with only the fish in the way!

We were expecting the accomodation prices to be sky high but we managed to find a little bungalow with a bathroom inside spitting distance from the sea for 450 Baht (7.50) a night - bargain! Our plan was to stay there for 7 days then head over to some of the other island for a week. However, we found it to be so laidback and easy going that we just spent another week on the island.

It’s a funny little place, the main “road” that everyone uses is infact a walkway that runs almost the whole lenght of the island with motorbikes and cars speeding down it. One day we hired out a motorbike and, with the couple in the bungalow next to ours, headed to Shark Bay! Aparently there you can get a glimps of a shark if you’re very lucky. Bruce and Freddie spend hours snorkelling while Mel and I chatted away on the beach under the coconut trees - bliss! Aparently the fish that Bruce saw were amazing, he even claims to have seen a little shark swimming away from him - “It was THAT big!!”, hmmm fishermans tale anyone?!

We waited a while to get a good sunset, but when it happened it was stunning, Bruce got a really good pic of it (at the top of the blog). The sand was pure white and the sea completely clear. To be honest, we were too busy chilling out to do a lot more, I would go back to Koh Tao in an instant!

I also managed to get hooked up with Skype and with the aid of a webcam got to see some family, it was really nice; not that I was forgetting what people looked like but it just nice to know that everyone is still there!

Well I’ll let Bruce fill you in on our next set of adventures…!

love at all back home, we miss and love you all! Keep in touch!
Sile

xxxx