8th September, to Ko Tao

From Hat Ton Sai on the west-coast, I decided to make the overnight trip to Ko Tao which is a small east-coast island. This meant parting ways with Jonus who couldn't make it that far before flying back home.

The trip consisted of a few hours in the bus and 11 hours by boat. I was thinking that an overnight passenger boat's got to be pretty flash... nice beds, bar, food. Turns out that it was more or less a freight-boat (complete with squealing pigs in tiny cages). The upper level housed mattresses sprawled down each side for the sleeping human cargo.

I had a 2 hour wait in the town of Surat Thani before boarding. Bought some ice-cream from a Swensens (reminding me of the Swensens that used to be in Newmarket) then wandered through the stalls. One of the vendors was selling crickets, silk-worms and ants by the gram - piping hot, ready to eat. I was annoyed that I'd wasted my appetite on the ice-cream.

Before boarding I met a crew from Melbourne who were also on their way to Ko Tao, enter: Chris, Steph, Monique and Sybelle who, as it turned out, I'd be spending a bit of time with in the days to come. I thought they were Kiwi's originally as Chris was wearing a huffer tee with the NZ map on the front.

The trip was fine, woke up semi-refreshed at the port the next morning.