Me and Is on Koh Tao

Back at the computer, which means I must have nothing better to do. Isabel's back in the UK again... :-( Just had the best two weeks holiday with Is in Bangkok and on Koh Tao, one of the islands off south-eastern Thailand! (bloody airport musak is teasing me, "you've lost that loving feeling..." grrr!)

Spent a few days in Bangkok giving Is the tour of the city, skipped the ping-pong this time, though did go down to Patpong for a bit of sight-seeing... And then it was on to Koh Tao (Wow!). Koh Tao is one of the smaller islands above Pangan and Samui. Looked like the better option and we weren't wrong! Decided to skip the craziness of the Full Moon party, and from what Derek described I've pretty much done it already anyway in Ibiza. So me and Is found a perfect isolated paradise beach resort where we were practically the only people there. (Now the musak is playing "only you", oh come on!!!!) It's one of those places you can only really get to by taxi boat and was really beautiful. Private sandy beach, palm trees, anchored bamboo rafts in our little cove, wooden huts, our one overlooked the sea and a small beach, a nice view from our hammock :-) Was a pretty swish affair and was just what we needed. On a separate note we broke the bed, and I only mention it because it took 6 guys and a woman and her baby an hour to fix it. I have no idea how the bed broke?

Unfortunately Thai corruption interrupted our stay midway through. Lots of Burmese workers staff the island resorts as Thais just don't want to work on the islands, and many aren't given work permits because a lot don't even have passports, which are expensive. So every so often the police sweep the island collecting bribes to look the other way, which is seen as normal practice. But this time they wanted a pretty steep bribe ($500, "normally" about $50) and the owner decided to close the resort rather than pay so we had to move out. It all worked out fine though because we found another lovely resort on the other side of the island near Shark Island, Oooo!!!! :-)

We hired snorkeling gear for the week and had brilliant fun! Saw octupus and squid, had a closer than comfort encounter with a small Blacktip Reef Shark which we presumably must have pissed off.... He tried to kill me, by swimming within inches of my flippers!!! V scary! Saw Parrot fish, Giant Clams, bright yellow Butterfly Fish, grumpy black spotty Hexagon Grouper which were bullying the octopus! and a group of 10-15 teeny tiny black and white striped fish befriended us for a half an hour, following us and even letting us pick them up! Swam within a few feet of a Trigger Fish which we were told later though generally not aggressive (they're the size of a microwave oven!) lately they had been taking bites out of divers flippers and even the divers themselves!!! The best of all though was when I went out by myself in our little bay a few days ago and saw three small blacktips and two 5 footer blacktip sharks!!!! They're almost as big a me!!! And they were only 20 feet away!!! They are the ultimate of underwater cool, I saw them and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest, they saw me and didn't even register me as a threat!!! COOL!!!! I have a photo of the small one which I'll post as soon as Is emails it to me.

By the way Is turned 30 while we were on the island, so she's now officially old. Which means I'll be on the lookout for a younger model so if anyone knows of someone... ;-) Cake was had and there was much lazing about. All in all a very good holiday. And as with all good things there is an end... Or at least a short break! Feeling pretty lonely and listening to the Greatest Love Album in the World Ever! is not helping so I'll finish up now. Looking foorwarrd to the next installment when I'll see Is again in August, and for 4 months next time, yea!!! :-) Anyway, hope everyone's well. Keeping on top of emailing is a job in itself and seeing as I'm off work... Ciao for now.