Since southern Thailand’s islands are a must-see on any traveler’s list, we decided to go down south in search of some sun, beaches, and SCUBA diving.  After checking out the weather patterns for the time we’d be there (late September), there was pretty much only one place where the weather would be reasonable and the diving good – Koh Tao!

After checking out of our excellent hotel in Bangkok, Penpark Place, we scrambled onto a bus early in the morning.  This bus would end up being several hours and FREEZING COLD!  The people in Southeast Asia seem to like to show off their air conditioners, and turn them on full blast whenever there is one available.  This means that trains and buses in particular are freezing and nobody seems to mind one bit while the silly westerners are shivering and chattering their teeth.  For some reason (unrelated to bus safety records in Thailand) the bus was decorated like the inside of a coffin:

Coffin Bus

It really was an ok ride.  The seats were a little small but they gave us water for the ride and even a little sandwich.  After about 8 hours, we arrived at the eastern coast of the Thai peninsula, at a little town called Chumphon, and were hurried onto a waiting ferry.  This ferry was a high-speed catamaran that would make the sea leg of the journey in only 1.5 hours.  The scenery was beautiful!

Fishing Boat

The (rather rickety) Pier

Koh Tao's Waterfront

Fortunately for us, our scuba company (Scuba Junction) had their driver waiting for us at the pier, so we could ignore the dozens of taxi drivers vying for our business.  We were taken straight away to the shop, where we signed up for our Open Water certification course!  Stay tuned for details!