Koh Tao and off to Bangkok!

It hasn't been too long before my last post, but I have some time to kill so might as well catch up.

After my time on the second island of the chain, I headed to the last one, Koh Tao, which is the smallest of all of the East Coast islands on the Thailand Peninsula. There are numerous dive resorts and shops on the island as it is known for its beautiful corals and wide array of fish species. When I got there, as always, I decided to stay at a hostel dorm to meet some people, and it's the cheapest option. There was a nice pool nearby (after all this time on these islands, I preferred the pool) with a bar attached to it. Just as a representative of the places that I've been staying, here's a picture of my room. This one, I considered to be a luxury because of the A/C.



So on my second night on Koh Samui five days ago, I met a group of package travelers at a club, but except for the casual "where are you from"s, we didn't really talk, we were just dancing. The next night on the island, I met them at the same place, but the same story, we didn't talk much, although I was able to get some of their names while they knew me as "Chicago." On Koh Pha Ngan, we ran into each other again, and this time, we all actually had a conversation (probably because the night was early). And we said goodbye at the end of the night, probably because we weren't going to see each other again. But as luck would have it, when I was eating with some people that I've met on Koh Tao, they all walked in at the same restaurant! We all went out together, and I managed to friend one of them on Facebook so I got to friend the rest of them.



The next day, I went on 2 dives, one at White Rock, the other at Twins, which were supposed to be two of the world's best dive sites. Unfortunately, because the islands didn't get the winter monsoon last year, the ocean didn't get enough fresh water, which subsequently heated up the ocean. So algae was abundant, and the corals were bleached. Needless to say, I was disappointed with the visibility although the marine life was incredible and the coral reefs were absolutely stunning.

The next day, I left for Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, with the tour group as they had the same destination, and it's more fun to travel in a group. Scary story (amusing now): As we were waiting for the boat, with 20 minutes left until departure, I'm not sure how but I realized that I forgot my waist wallet with my passport and debit card! Without thinking twice, I went over to the hoard of taxi drivers waiting for foreigners (like predators), said "here's money, now step on it!" I don't really want to relive that experience, so let's just say that I got my belongings in less than 10 minutes, and I almost died like 4 times.

- Ryoji