Koh Tao and diving with my camera!

Note to self. Always spellcheck my blog posts!

We're here in Koh Tao! What a long journey it was to get here. The coach we rode on from downtown Bangkok was comfortable enough, with air-con and reclining seats and funny floral 70's decor but it had no reading lights and they stuck on THE MOST TERRIBLE films imaginable and for several hours. It was painful. So I closed my eyes and drowned them out with lots of Bob Dylan, Guillemots, Creedance Clearwater and other indie favourites. The melodies, riffs and lyrics of the music I love so much all seem so much more vital and moving when I haven't heard them for a while.

Didn't get much sleep. At 2am the bus stopped for a tea/stretch your legs break at a crusty service station where a few of us stumbled off for a pee, a smoke and/or a wander. I didn't enjoy being hassled by eager, super-caffeinated station staff to buy sour pickled plums, prawn biscuits and other disgusting junk food at that time of night. What a job hey? I did get some chocolate of course.

Then at 5am we arrived at the port where we waited to board the 7am boat to the island. Blurry eyed, we watched the most wonderful sunrise (see the pics!) and were entertained/irritated by some scrawny, lively and very noisy cockerels (see the other pics!).

With sleepy heads we sailed for two hours over to Koh Tao. Even on the boat someone tried to sell us ice-cream! The island is certainly tropical but really just for the tourists. We've seen a lot of young traveller types with motorcycle or quad bike injuries hobbling around!The Planet Scuba room we're staying in is pretty basic, well shitty. The fan is slow and the light is fitted right next is thus creating a strobe effect. The shower/loo room only has a partial ceiling too so the bedroom can smell quite fruity after one of us (not usually me by the way) has been in there and dropped a stinker! We're also next to a building site; another hotel no doubt. Ah well, it's cheap, pretty and our lodge is centrally located. We hardly spend much time in our room anyway.

After a brief snooze we headed out to a waiting boat and enjoyed two dives in 'Mango Bay' where I tried my camera casing for the first time. It was a bit scary plunging in with my relatively new camera, a gift from my mummy, but it works a treat (though we're not very good yet!) and what a hoot!

So now we can record what we see and show everyone what we're doing underwater too. It's harder than the professionals make it look to take decent pictures though. We really need a red filter and maybe a white one but Photoshop will solve that if necessary. Could become a bit of a diving bore if I'm not careful plus it's an expensive hobby in some places!

It's my mummy's birthday today and I wish she was here. I do miss her so much and other people back home. Not London though.

We went for two great boat dives this morning, me in just a bikini. We saw a great range of fish including lots of Nemos, Stingray, nudibranches, eels and huge Triggerfish (aggressive bastards!). Ric was munched by little cleaning fish. There's a lot of dive traffic down there and I don't mean the sea-life. This place really is a tourist trap! Still a lot of fun.

Some of the girls on the boat were comparing tattoos. I seem to be the only one on the island without one, or twenty. I could get one done here as there are lots of shops even on this small island but I'm still not tempted, partly because I'd never be able to decide on a design.

The menus in Asian restaurants are so funny with their misspellings. Vegetable-no-name and Justmine Tea are two of my favourites and Noddles are on offer everywhere! I shouldn't laugh. They try so hard to please us Westerners!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY! XXX