We flew into Bangkok ready for anything and immediately found ourselves indulged. After checking in to the Koh San, the major backpacker zone, we cheked out the bars and shops before deciding the Islands were where we wanted to be.
An exhausting 17hour "express" trip to Koh Tao was worth it because we setlled into a great little hut on a tiny beach renowned for it's snorkelling. Our little hut was nestled in the trees overlooking the beautiful reef and clear blue waters. Rosh even caught our dinner off the reef.
We spent the next 9 days lazing about, snorkelling, eating, playing with the local puppy and swingin in our hammocks. It was on Koh Toa that we had a real highlight of the whole trip when we trecked around the island for 45minutes to reach aptly named shark bay. We paddled out with our snorkelling gear on and spent the next hour snorklelling with black tip reef sharks! These aren't little guys, some were bigger than Lorren! At times we found oursleves surrounded by more than 10! This is something we'll never forget.
With a vague idea that life could match, or even get better than this, we headed off to Koh Phangan. renowned as a party island, we headed north to find some chilled waters, i know, sounds crazy... So we found ourselves just what we were looking for and settled in for another week of hammocks, and floating in bath temperature water as the sun set over us. We also kayaked, and took a scooter out for a day.
On the islands, we were able to see all kinds of marine life, beautiful corals, millions of fish, sharks, and even a couple of beautiful blue-spotted stingrays showed up. It was with real apprecitation that we left this island life and headed back to the big smoke.
We spent our last days in Bangkok checking out the Palace and main temples. A trip to Bangkok is seriously helped by a trip down the river to get another perspective. We also managed to hunt down some serious bargains and found something other than worn fisherman's pants to wear.
It was from Bangkok that we jetted off to meet Lorren's parents in Vietnam. Check out our photos, and the Nam page!