Friday 4th of January - First days in Turtle Island

This is the scene where I am writing right now; beautiful landscape, watermelon shake and a coconut chicken soup. It is my second day now here on the “Turtle Island” as the translated name would go. This is absolutely beautiful place. The island itself is really small; only 1 km wide and 4 km long.

I arrived yesterday after 6 h bus drive and then 2 h catamaran boat ride. This is quite small island 70 km east from the mainland. The closest port is Chumphron (I think it is spelled like that) and that is also the place where the catamarans leave. My boat was here around 3 PM and as you can imagine after 9 hours of travelling in total and no sleep at all previous night I was already super tired. Also the temperature was here higher than in Bangkok and the humidity was also higher.

                                          My first climps of the turtle island

I hadn’t book  a accommodation before coming here since I knew that there would be plenty of options. Well, should have done that. Luckily I went straight to Koh Tao Divers office after my arrival since the whole point of me coming here was to go for the PADI Open Water  Diving course. The friendly (and FINNISH!?!?!) staff helped me to find an accommodation also. And what an accommodation it is. Okay it is a bit pricier than in Bangkok, but I got a whole bungalow on the sea just for myself! The cost is 1000 TBH per day (25€) and they booked it for me only for one day in case I want to find some cheaper place but when I saw the place I decided to stay there my whole week here. It is around 2 m from the sea, okay there are cliffs and the actual beach is in 20 m but who cares ;) The view in the sunset is just phenomenal and for my first night I was just sitting on my terrace watching the sea until 1 AM. 

                                          My place for the next week :)

                                                  And from inside...

                                      And the relaxing view from the porch


On the evening I went to In Touch restaurant and with huge surprise saw that they sell finnish Hartwall Lonkero there(!?!?!??!?!). Didn’t took it though, no need for it yet. But the restaurant is really nice. It is on the beach, they have a great menu for the food also. And during these two days of staying here it has already become my regular place (mostly due to their super-super-awesome shakes which I have now tried coconut, mango, watermelon, pineapple and orange).

                                               Whaattt!?!?!??!?!!?

The second day has been also quite lazy for me so far. Luckily it has been a bit cloudy today so I have spent this day lying on the beach and swimming. It is 4.30 PM right now and my diving course will start at 6 PM today. Already looking for that!

That’s it so far. The next three days will go along with diving and then maybe some snorkeling. Tuesday I will most likely rent a scooter (=100 THB = 2,5 € for a day) and go and see the rest of the island.