Another island hopping ferry ride from Koh Pha-ngan to Koh Tao. A family we had met had taken this voyage the day prior and messaged back of the rough seas due to a past storm in the area. I decided to give the girls a sea sickness pill along with myself. The pills I bought while in Australia had been conveniently left in our other stored bag back in Bangkok. A lot of good they were doing there. I did still have a few heavily expired pills with me from 2019 when we were in Egypt however. I’m sure you can already see where this is going. The seasickness pills for the girls we not expired, just to clarify.

We had a normal start to our morning, I got up at sunrise and went for my jog followed by a good hearty breakfast. With our bags packed the four of us piled into a shuttle bus and were taken to the pier filled with a lot of disorganization and rushing to not miss the boat. Of course we thought we had time and weren’t prepared with snacks or any food for the ride that we were told was 1.5 hrs, but you can never really trust that. We grabbed a bag of chips, watermelon and mango fruit cups as well as two bags of peanuts and boarded the ferry. The partially full boat allowed for us to occupy an entire row so we made ourselves comfortable. The sea was quite rough and within 10 minutes people were rushing to the stack of plastic bags they had on the counter. There was a lot of movement and action to watch. I believe it is honest to say that we have never seen so many people sick all at the same time. Husbands were taking care of wives, girlfriends taking care of boyfriends and solos fending for themself. I would estimate that the elevated swells had claimed 60%-70% of the boat passengers. The boat staff was passing out plastic bags like Halloween candy. Our girls looked out the window and relaxed, passing the time quietly singing and chatting. Lidija eventually fell asleep on me. The ferry did have A/C but where I was sitting it wasn’t cooling me to a comfortable level. I started getting hot, really hot and was having a tough time seeing out the window. With only 30 minutes remaining I was forced to emergency pass Lidija off to Tyson as I was going to be sick. Tyson was so good, running to get more bags and helping others along the way as well. I thought I could make it but the rough seas got me too.

We arrived at the tiny island of Koh Tao and a shuttle was already waiting for us; one the Sairee Hut Resort provided. We all piled into the back of the pickup truck and arrived at our new place for the next four days.

Tyson and I both wanted to go SCUBA diving so that was the priority to get lined up before anything else. Once settled into our room we hit the streets to explore the area to find a dive shop. A short walk down the beach and we stopped in at SCUBA Shack. After a handful of questions I was booked in for the following morning with a 6:20 am start. Tyson would stay back on dry land with the girls then the proceeding day we would switch roles for his pair of dives. Here two dives cost 2000 Bhat with everything included, which we felt was very reasonable.

My dive day started with a 10 minute truck ride to the pier followed by a quick 20 minute boat ride to our first dive of Twins. The water was still a bit wavy which always makes for more challenging dives as the swells push and pull you in various directions. The water had descent visibility with plenty of fish although not all that colourful. This being one of Koh Tao’s more common dive locations, the coral was still in descent condition with the locals taking pride in their reefs. Second dive was White Rock where there were seemingness endless fish of all kinds to see along with a small swim through. The school of black, white and yellow banner fish dominated the water with multiple smaller guys lurking about. It seemed like the little guys would peak their heads out just enough to get a view of me before tucking themselves back away in the safety of the coral. The bonus of starting very early is that I was back at the hotel just before 11 am so it was like I didn’t even miss anything. Tyson and the girls were just getting to the pool as I got back, so I joined them after sneaking in for a quick breakfast at our hotel.

After some pool time we wondered the street stalls and venders before sitting down for a delicious lunch and shade from the mid day heat. Early afternoon we wandered the street shops back to the beach south of the hotel and drifted north along the shore until we arrived back at our temporary home. Here we found a spot in the sand to relax while the girls build sand castles, chased fish and enjoyed the sun set.

The following morning Tyson was out the door for 5:10 am and headed to the same pier and onto the dive boat. After a 45 minute boat ride he was at his first dive site, the Chumphon Pinnacle. This reef is located about an hour from Koh Tao and then breath taking sunrise over the Gulf of Thailand was worth the trip in itself. Tyson was not actually all that impressed with the dive location but there was a couple swim throughs and a descent amount of fish and coral not to mention more anemones than you could imagine. He always enjoys his time beneath the waves but this was also cut short due to other members of the group drawing through their air faster than desired. Chumphon is mostly famous for is unpredictable sightings of whalesharks. These 8-14 metre mammoths peacefully glide their way through tropical waters and are no real threat to humans. Unfortunately, however, Tyson got skunked again in his mission to find the elusive giant.

The second dive site was Green Rock located just off the coast of Koh Tao and next to Shannon’s dives from yesterday. This location consisted of multiple swim throughs, some highly aggressive triggerfish and uncountable amounts of angel, banner and butterfly fish. After switching to a different group of divers mid dive he did managed to get nearly 45 minutes in before they too were reaching their air supply limits and forced to surface. After returning back to dry land he too was able to sneak in for breakfast back at the hotel just before 11am cut off and then join us at the room. We then proceeded out to the pool and relaxed. Back to the streets we ventured out in the evening for a bite to eat at what was now becoming our favourite place “The Brothers”. All of their food was fantastic and very budget friendly. When the restaurant staff saw us coming they even switched the TV to marine life for the girls to watch.

Our hotel was in an amazing location, right on the beach with two pools, one very deep small pool and another more kid friendly. There were a few lounge chairs around, but these seemed to always be reserved with towels and owners seemed to be frustratingly elsewhere (like most resorts). On our final day we did manage to snag two chairs perfectly located under an amazing tree which gave us good shade throughout the day.

The following morning it was time to leave. We had a big travel day ahead returning us back to Bangkok completing our time in Thailand. We would board the fast catamaran to Chumphon and from there take the VIP bus to Bangkok. This ticket cost 1550 Bhat per adult, and the girls were half price. This ended up being a two and half hour catamaran ride with a wait of one hour in Chumphon followed by a seven hour bus ride dropping us perfectly close to Khaosan Road. From her we could casually walk to our hotel reservation before making our way to our favourite street vendors for some of Thailand’s traditional meals.

Enjoy some of where we just came from, KOH PHA NGAN