iain goes bananas

what shall i say about koh tao. smashing little island, completely dominated by the diving community. you are not for scuba? you are not up to much then.

in the two days that i was there, the weather pretty much looked like this:

and when i say rain, i mean rain

the sultry, musty smell of tropical rain mixes nicely with the atmosphere actually. it's all about the water. the beach is gorgeous, and must be amazing when the sun's out.

sai ri beach

did two dives on the first day, with ban divers, one of the worlds largest scuba operations. the massive dive boat took us to chumphon first, a deep reef that is the scene of most whaleshark sightings. saw lots of sharks, but unfortunately the whaleshark remains a particularly elusive character.

black tip reef shark (at 30m depth); silver batfish

and as usual the damn paparazzi showed up...

no pictures please; nathalie in a private zen moment

on the second day, the diving was slightly more eccentric. our guide was of the braindead variety, and failed to find the reef! we spent 15 minutes swimming at 15m depth, in the deep blue sea, and never saw a thing. in the end, we decided to surface. miles from the boat, and going the wrong way altogether. i suppose that's what they call an open water safari...

in the meantime, the full moon party was raging on koh phagnan. didn't go to the party, but got to see the full moon!

<<wolves howl, an owl hoots in the distance>>

today, after a close encounter with some parrots, i said goodbye to nathalie and donned my travelling boots and struck out for koh phangan.

yes, those are my feet, and yes, those are teva's i'm wearing. sue me.

i've just arrived at hat rin beach. party location extraordinaire. of course this is the quiet week after the full moon party, so the atmosphere is nice and chilled.

checked into a fan bungalow slash milldewed, mosquito infested prison cell. very cheap, of course. might have to find something slightly more comfortable tomorrow. don't want to take the traveller thing too far, of course.

looking forward to finishing reading my book and trekking up to the waterfalls inland. oh, okay, twist my arm, and maybe a few singha beers to wash it all down with ;-)

thanks for tuning in again! remember to check out my photo gallery for more pics (just click on the 'author' button. i think that should work)

cheers,
i