The alarm woke me at
just before 4am and I quickly set about packing everything up and
waking the others. I didn't really need to hurry, however, as the
train was running slightly late. We got off at Champhong at about
4.30am, and after I confirmed our ferry tickets to Koh Tao at a
little counter adjacent to the platform we sat down to wait for
whatever happened next. We were eventually summoned and directed to a
double-decker coach, which drove us a short distance to the ferry
terminal, where I reconfirmed our ferry tickets and we settled down
to wait again – this time among a seething horde of young
backpackers.
Not long after, the
horde began to move, funnelling onto the long pier and out to the
ferry, where we handed over our backpacks to join the growing pile on
the deck and then climbed aboard. A screen at the front of the large
cabin was showing funny cat videos as we took our seats, so the girls
were happy. About an hour and half later, we disembarked on Koh Toa,
grabbed our bags and walked down the equally long pier and into the
chaotic scrum of taxi drivers and hostel owners trying desperately to
attract the attention (and baht) of the arriving horde. When we made
it to the other side, Kate and Sarah went to sort out our room at a
scuba shop up the road while Zoe and I watched our stuff. Koh Toa is
a real scuba island, and it hosts numerous dive centres that offer
tuition and accommodation packages (apparently it's one of the best
value places in the world to do your dive course). Our hostel was
connected to one of the dive centres – a place for their students
to stay, but also a place for other backpackers to stay. It proved to
be pretty simple – our two poky rooms had beds, fans, a bathroom
and not much else.
As we hadn't really
eaten breakfast, we were all feeling a mite peckish, so we stopped in
for a surprisingly good (if a tad expensive) pizza at a little place
just down the road and then headed to the beach – a journey of
about 15 minute along an undulating concrete path that took us past
numerous bars and dive centres. When we got there, we stripped off
and strolled in – the water was extremely shallow and we had to
walk for quite a distance to get to the point where we could easily
immerse ourselves. The very calm water was also, consequently, rather
too warm, but it was refreshing enough (although it was overcast, it
was still pretty hot).
When lunchtime rolled around we climbed onto
the deck of one of the restaurants along the beach front and ordered
some food. Afterwards, we went for another swim and then went for a
stroll along the little road that runs parallel to the beach, went
for another swim or two and then climbed back up onto the deck of the
restaurant at which we had eaten lunch. Unfortunately, however, the
red curry we ordered had pineapple in it, which was a deal breaker,
so we won't be eating there again. After dinner we walked back to
town, where we got some ice blocks at the 7-Eleven for dessert.
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