Ko Tao

So we got the bus from Bangkok to Chumpon and stayed there overnight in a completely overpriced room.
We got a share jeep the next morning to the port. It was the earliest we had been up in Thailand and so we actually got to see the monks receiving alms.
We arrived in Ko Tao at about 10 and we hopped in a share jeep to Sairee town to Sairee beach huts.
Myself and Siobhan Harrison (that’s the 2nd Siobhan we’ve met), who we met on the ferry, walked the beach to price different accommodation options and we ended up staying where we had landed.
When I got back there terry was talking to Scuba instructor Anthony and asking about dives.
We went for a wander about the town and then went to a bar called Choppers for happy hour and food. I was a wee bit hung over the next day.
Much of our time on Ko Tao was spent chilling, wandering about, playing pool and diving.
Terry went on 6 dives and I went on two. Our dive master was Dan. He was very chilled and helped me out after with a lift to the police station.
















On one of terry’s dives they even saw a 2 meter reef shark. Dan was very impressed with himself for seeing the reef shark but also because his high pressure hose broke during the dive and he still had more air than Terry left in his tank!
I was very impressed with myself for actually diving again but also because it involved stepping off the boat, which I had never done before. It took me about ten minutes to step off the first time. Also there were two lads doing their 3rd open water dive at the same time and I was way better at taking my time and not panicking when I equalized.
We decided to rent a scrambler for Ter and a quad for me. We tried to take a trip about the island but ters bike kept cutting out. Eventually he could not start it at all. Eventually a small boy showed up, walked the bike to a workshop and repaired it in about 10 minutes. Ter and I had sent the day arguing as I kept spinning off and so after it was all sorted we went to happy hour in Choppers and met the lovely Inbar and Stas who had just gotten engaged.

We also went to a lady-boy show which was fairly good and I took way too many photos.
The next day Terry was going to the post office for me as I was sick from booze again. He took the quad but was back in 20 minutes telling me he had nearly died, that the wheel had come off the Quad. He went back to the shop to watch the guy take the bike out of the ditch. He arranged to meet the owner at 4pm.
We went back at four and the owner tried to charge us about 800 euros for damage which we had not been at fault for. I saw red and started crying saying terry could have been seriously injured and there was no way I was paying any money. This was a problem as he had my passport!
Dan happened to be passing by and he took me to the police station.
The police man was not too helpful. He told me the shop, Sairee Star Travel was known for this but that he could not help in a civil case.
I went back and said this to terry who was keeping an eye on the quad. I told the shop owner that he could keep the passport, that I would get a new one. Then I went to call the high consul.
Between the jigs and the reels the high consul in Phuket was fantastic but the best she could do was get the man down to 10,000 baht, (about 200 euro).it made us sick to pay it and we had lost two days to sleepless nights and waiting for calls. The next day we left for Bangkok with the plan of spending the night, picking up book about India and going to the airport the next day and hope we can get a flight. Which we did…