An Escape to Ko Tao Island – Thailand

When we arrived by boat from Ko Phangan to Ko Tao Island, we hadn’t booked a place in advance. All I knew was that we were all in agreement that we wanted to stay somewhere a little less crazy than the south of Ko Phangan. After talking with a couple locals I’d met on Ko Tao island, they told us of a place on the opposite side of the island that seemed almost too good to be true. It was a resort complete with a restaurant and bar, an infinity pool and some of the nicest bungalows for the money I’d come across since I’d been traveling. And it was one of only five places that sat in this small bay which had large rocks scattered amongst blue waters and excellent snorkeling and diving opportunities right off the beach.

If I told you what we paid for this place on Ko Tao island, you probably would be so upset with me that you might stop reading my blog! In short, this place was awesome. So what was the catch? Why so cheap? Well, the food and drinks at this resort were about twice as  much as you’d pay elsewhere but luckily the neighboring spots were easier on the prices.

We ended up just spending two days there, relaxing and snorkeling in the bay. The fish were amazing and there were even some corals in some of the deeper waters but you couldn’t go out too far, especially along the rocks at the outer edges of the bay as the waves were increasingly rough in those areas. I had gotten slammed into the rocks twice while out there and it took about six days before I was healed up. Not fun!

We have a jumper!

Sunset in Tanote Bay on Ko Tao island

But after a couple days in Tanote Bay where we were staying, I was ready to get back into civilization. The main problem with being this far from things is that you have no access to any stores, any ATM’s or anything else unless you can find it on a menu in a restaurant. And since the roads were so bad, unless you had a four wheel drive, you’d have to walk which would have been probably an hour before reaching any kind of store. On our third day there, we hopped in the bed of a 4WD truck piled with 10 others and made our way up the hills and through the jungle back to the other side of Ko Tao island.

The only road back to the other side of the island. If it rained, forget about leaving that day. Some sections of the dirt road were steeped at nearly a forty degree angle.

Unfortunately it was time for my friend Dylan to make his way to Singapore but my other friend and I had decided to stay a couple more days on the other side of Ko Tao island  at a beach called Sai Ree.

Umm, OK. I’m guessing they don’t have anyone worthwhile doing the marketing for this resort…

There was definitely a lot more to do on this side of the island and we chose to snorkel and kayak on one day and during the next, we took off into a jungle habitat to hike to one of Ko Tao Island’s highest peaks named ‘Two View’. It sits in the middle of the island and with an elevation of around 315 meters, you can understand why they call it Two View. And the views were spectacular.

Looking down at the Sai Ree Beach side of Ko Tao island.

And looking out over the other side of Ko Tao island

When we returned back to the beach, we had only about two hours before our night boat was boarding. We were leaving for Krabi and the most efficient way to get off Ko Tao island and then cross mainland Thailand was to take an eight hour night boat, then switch to a bus for another two hours to make it over to the Indian Ocean side.

Kayaking Sai Ree bay right at sunset

When we rocked up to the boat at around 8pm at night, the scene before us looked grim. Picture about 150+ people toting all their luggage and getting ready to get packed in onto an extremely small two story boat that looked almost like a slave ship from the 1700’s. We were supposed to have ‘beds’ but really, once inside, we realized that each floor really only had two really really long mattresses lined up against the wall, forming what looked like just one super long mattress. The only divisions you could perceive were the small pillows that sat next to one another. And seeing them touch end to end, I realized we’d really only have space to lie flat on our backs as the pillows were barely wide enough to be shoulder width. This scene in front of me took me right back to my sleeper bus experience I’d had from Goa to Mumbai in India just a month earlier. Nothing like sharing a room with eighty people for a restful night’s sleep!

Slave boat conditions!

I was jolted awake around 3:30AM, about an hour before the boat made it to the mainland shore. It was hot inside the boat when we had left Ko Tao island around 9PM but now, at this time of the morning, out in the middle of the sea with all the windows open, it was freezing. I’d given my sleeper bag liner to my friend (my only form of sleeping bag that is small enough to fit in a jeans pocket) but now, I had nothing to use myself. And the person behind me wasn’t helping my sleeping situation either. She must of been having a bad dream because she kept jolting me with her arm at random times and was hitting me on my left leg as well as my butt. Definitely not ideal sleeping conditions! We pulled into port about 4:30AM and after standing in a pitch black parking lot for over an hour, we finally boarded the bus headed to Krabi…