The start of our Thai Islands: Ko Tao

While we loved the big city life of Bangkok, which felt so normal to us NYC kids, I was SO excited to head to the islands. Our first destination was to the small island of Ko Tao or Turtle Island. Named not only for it’s shape, and bright green spotted waters that make it look like the back of a turtle shell but also for the many bright sea turtles that reside close to the shore of the island. Because of these bright, clear waters and amazing sea life, Ko Tao is also best known as THE island to scuba, which became obvious once we arrived.

Getting there was not as smooth as we had hoped. We had rushed by tuk tuk to the train station, but we arrived about 5 mins late. This was our first train in Thailand and we didn’t know how timely they were and believed we had missed it. As we rushed through the station there was much confusion. The board stated a different track from where the conductors were directing us to. We took their word for it as the train on the listed track left and did our best to find and settle in our seats. Once sat, Aaron realized he no longer had our good camera. I feeling of terror ran through us. Did we leave it in the tuk tuk? At a store we were at during the day? At our hostel? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh… Next we thought, do we get off the train and try and find it or should we press on?
Luckily, I had grabbed a business card from our hostel that had its phone number on it. So next, I went around our train car, looking like the frazzled mess that I was and begged our fellow passengers if I could borrow their phone. A nice expat handed me his phone after putting in the number and we were relieved to hear that our old hostel had it! Phew! (long sigh of relief, now remembering to breath) They promised to keep it safe in their storage until we came back in a week or so. Dramatic situation avoided, now time to enjoy the ride. And yes vendor over there selling beer, I’ll take two.

Holy Sh#% Aaron! Right after we located our camera.

So, we made it on the train, found seats, (though not our own) and we have located and secured our camera. We’re off. Not really. The train was seriously delayed. And we found that to be the case with every train we took in Thailand. Trains would leave at least an hour or so after they were supposed to and there tended to be many delays along the way. What was crazy was there was no communication about the delays and no other passengers seemed to be worried about it. It was Thai Time.

My sleeper bunk

A couple hours later, we finally took off in our overnight sleeper train where we would spend the next 10 hours. It was fairly comfy with fresh sheets and fans. It was also pretty cheap, the ride was around $16. When we arrived in the early morning we then had to take a bus to a ferry to get to the island, so another 3-4 hours.

We had booked our hotel for Ko Tao online back in Myanmar when we had started our planning for Thailand. I had wanted our time in Ko Tao to be relaxing, with some peace and quiet (and romance) before heading to our Party Islands and shared 14 bed dorm rooms with crazy drunken twenty year-olds. I had found a hotel that was away from the backpacker area of Saree Beach, on the south side of the island on the top of the island that would look out to the ocean. We had decided to splurge and pay $40 a night for a ocean view. As our tuk tuk took us up and up and up the island’s hill top we arrived at the beautiful hotel. I was so happy and so ready to chill and fall asleep. But it got so much better from there. Our concierge smiled as we were handed some cold, sweet, nectar juice and some fruit, accompanied with some refrigerated towels for our face and hands. It felt so fancy for us backpackers. She then said the greatest words ever to be spoken after a 15 hour travel adventure that included much delays and little sleep, “You’ve been upgraded.”

We were not just upgraded but placed in a totally league. We were upgraded to a pool villa, normally priced at $365 per night! It was a gorgeous, luxurious, scenic villa that came with a bedroom, a detached living room with a huge couch and fancy devices, an outdoor bathroom with outdoor an shower, a deck and of course, our very own pool.

It was heaven and it was all ours. Private, secluded and incredibly scenic. Yes, we had arrived in the Thai islands and it was paradise. See more on our villa here: http://www.kohtaoviewpoint.com/villa-5.html

Bedroom

Detached living room

Entertainment center and bar

Our deck

Our deck with amazing views!

AND our very own private pool

Taking it all in

I loved our time here and by here I do mean the villa, it was a bit hard for us to leave. But we made ourselves walk the bay, get a bite and drink some beers on the local beach, Chalock Baan Kao. It was awesome. Just a bunch of locals, mostly ex-pats and diver junkies just swinging on hammocks and hanging out at the bamboo bars. By night we could watch a fire dancer.

Heading down to the beach

Checking out the neighborhood

Hammocks to optimize chilling

Bars and restaurants line the bay

Sunset

Watching a fire dancer while hanging at a bar

With being so far removed, the best way to get around the island was by boat taxi, which we were keen on. We decided to head to Saree beach, the backpacker/party area of the island to be part of more action.

Our boat taxi

Cruisin

Going pretty fast

Chang drinkin

Passing our hotel from below

The view from the boat, Saree Beach ahead

We made it a few hours before sunset and had some late lunch. Then we brought our Thai beers (Chang) into the clear water. There we met Americans Kevin, soon Kayla and Daniel, who we would befriend and hang with for our remaining time in Ko Tao and then our next island for the full moon party. We had a blast drinking in the water, watching the sunset and doing some beach partying. I kept thinking, whoa, this is my life right now. Pretty spectacular.

We swam in this

Then watched the sunset: here’s Aaron and Kevin

Celebration broke out once the sun set

The partying continued

The following day our group headed to the famous, Nangyuan island for the view that is on most travel books and post cards depicting Thai Beaches. Koh Nangyuan is pretty unique. It’s actually three small islands connected with sandy beaches and a couple bamboo roped bridges. Once there it did not disappoint, in fact it was better than the post cards. The beaches were bright white, the color of waters were a blend of a neon green to a bright turquoise to a deep blue.

Going back out by boat taxi

Heading out

The ocean was so clear

Walking around Nangyuan: no cars, no bikes, just beach

At the top, where you can see the three connected beaches

The boardwalk back

After we got back to the turtle island it was time to pack and leave for Ko Phangan. Our ferry was packed with kids heading to the island for the infamous full moon party that would occur in three days. Bring it!

BYE, onto island #2!