Koh Tao and Koh Pha-ngan

From Chumporn to Koh Tao

First of all, CHUMPORN. Makes me giggle too, but we have to get over this!!! 

Thailand is FULL of PORN. Apparently, it's a popular girl's name. There was Tanyaporn Guest House, Pornpiss, Pornthip, and when you seek relief from seeing all that porn, you can get something at the:

But going back to us, and our suffering in the hands of the Thai transport system:

Turtle Island

We arrived in Koh Tao yesterday afternoon after a long, frustrating and exhausting day just trying to figure out how to get here from Prachuapkhirikan. Thais who don't speak English ignored or fanned us away as usual, the few who did gave us useless information. Yeah, I'm talking about you, Tourist Information Agency  lady. You made us wake up at 5am for nothing, and if we took the train we might have ended up stranded in Chumporn (hihihi) until midnight. And you, Tourist Authority of Thailand, you may have been helpful and took pictures of Henri like a celebrity (whyyy???) but you gave us the wrong info about the boats and ended up having to pay waaaaay more than you made us believe. END OF RANT.

Well, we made it anyway, and we had a nice swim yesterday at Sairee, not to mention a great pizza (go to Safari, you won't be sorry)! And we were bowled over by the curvy beaches of Koh Tao's southern tip, and the peaceful hidden coves we found after trekking this morning. In the afternoon, I spread out my towel on a rock inhabited by green crabs and tried to finish my H.P. Lovecraft book, and I let Henri loose in the water with a snorkel. These are just some of the videos he came back with. In the first one, he came close to an elusive blacktip reef shark! Special thanks to Stephanie and Ludo for the sports camera, it's an awesome gift!

We just got back from a big shindig tonight. In fact, we could still hear the band playing right now, at 3am! An english guy there said we came at the perfect time because "Koh Tao Fest" only happens once yearly. But I think the people here would create any excuse to get a party going. When we drove around after, the streets were quiet; just one bar was open and there was a Thai guy rubbing the boob of a willing blonde on a scooter - I'm glad I didn't see it because Henri wanted to vomit.

BUT

We'll show you more of our adventures in Thailand as soon as we finish blogging about the remaining stories from Nepal :)