Koh Tao, Turtle Island

There are scooters everywhere on this island. Every pathway and every dirt road. I fear for my life while walking around her. Every second some crazy thai or tourist comes zipping by narorwly missing everyone walking. My favourite is when a family of four goes by, two parents and two little babies, and they are squirming about and they're trying ot hold them down and make a phone call at the same time and then also drive. Fabulous. I'm prepared to jump out of hte pathway at any minute.

Koh Tao is great so far. We arrived this morning after one hell of a bus ride, which ended up taking around 10 hours. No sleep, no food, random stops during the night, cramped seats, freezing a/c, it was a blast! We then took a ferry and watched the sun rise over to this island. It's just like a postcard, palm trees, rocks, beaches, fruit stands. It's wonderful. We decided to stay at a place called Big Blue Diving Resorts and get 50% off accomadation when diving. For 9800 baht, I am able to get PADI certified to open dive anywhere in the world! How exciting is that! It comes out to arund $350 or so, which is nothing in comparision to Australia, Vietnam, and most likely Vancouver. We start the course tomorrow and over four days will do an orientation and theory lessons every morning followed by 4 or 5 dives in the afternoons, starting easy and in shallow water to later on going up to 12-18metres. Don't worry, I asked about sharks and they said we will be extemely lucky if we are able to see a Whale Shark or some Reef Sharks, both of which do not eat human. Apparently there is a whale shark in the area right now that is over 7metres long. If i see it I might just pee my pants (or rather, wetsuit). I am really excited to do this! We'll be paying 100 baht a night for our fan room, and for less than $4, I'm wiling to sweat the night out! Google the resort if you want, it's cool.

A little more expensive food wise here, no longer can we get our 55baht dinners, now they're up to 80! Not many photos yet, it is also smoggy here, the one downside. So, this is a picture off the net to give you a taste of what it looks like!