Where are Alan and Karla?

Wow, Ko Tao is amazing. It is a cute little island about 21 sq km. We definitely had an adventure getting over to the island with the big waves and the rocking boat. Alan is writing about it in his post, but all I can say every time I start thinking about the boat ride I start laughing at Alan. I have never seen or heard soooo many people puking…

Boat Ride to Ko Tao

We got to Ko Tao around 3pm and took a break at a local coffee shop for Alan to get his bearings, then we rented a scooter and headed for the other side (more quiet) of the island. I was truly impressed with us riding the scooter with my big bag as a backpack, Alan’s suitcase between his knees and his backpack around his chest. We were getting a lot of stares and a few whistles too. Here is a picture of Alan taking our luggage to our second hotel.

We found this amazing bungalow off this quiet bay. We went for a evening swim after we had a dinner and yummy ginger tea. The next morning we woke up to the sunrise, we got up and took some pics, and then almost slept past our check-out time. We were happy to finally be adjusting to the new time zone. After getting a full night of sleep, massage by the beach and finally pooping – I am definitely a much happier girl.

Also in Ko Toa, I experience my first interaction with wildlife. We took the scooter to the other side of the island and checked out a few other resorts, there was this one resort that was newly built and was breath-taking. Everything was built off of the rocks and it was only 4,000 Baht a night…just a little out of our budget. But I strongly considered making it our night of splurging!

We then went hiking, trying to get to the highest point on the island 177m. We didn’t get up to the top but has some great views of the island. The trail only went up to about 150m. I had my first encounter of wildlife. I saw this area on top of a big rock where you could look out and see the entire west side of the island. It had a little old ladder that someone had built, so I began to climb to the ladder and was ready to put my hand on the rock – then I looked up and saw this snake right where I was going to put my hand. I let out the crazy sound something like “Ewwwkouwwweee”. Alan was laughing so hard. We were both surprised by my shriek, I have never heard myself yell like that…it was also Alan’s first picture of wildlife. The snake was huge!!

Tomorrow we are planning to go Ko Phangan, an island just south of Ko Tao. We did go to the clinic and pick up some anti-nausea pills for Alan…we will keep you posted on how he does on the next boat ride.