Scooting around Ko Tao

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  Ko Tao, Thailand
Monday, February 28, 2011

Our journey from Ko Samui to Ko Tao was much easier than the one from the mainland to the islands! We set off from our bungalow and caught a high speed catamaran via Ko Pha Ngan to Ko Tao which is about 45km North of our start point in the Gulf of Thailand. To be honest we weren't too upset to be leaving!


As ever when we arrived at the port there were all manner of hawkers trying to sell accommodation, transport and tours. We had an idea of the beach that we wanted to stay on and the name of a resort so we found a guy to take us there. Our transport was the back flat bed of a pickup truck! It was quite funny trying to hold on to our bags and the side of the truck as the guy motored towards Hat Sai Ree Beach! When we arrived at the resort we decided to take the room having had a look around.


Once we'd settled in we took a look around. Ko Tao is much less developed than Ko Samui and a lot smaller too, only about 10km long. There is only one road which runs the length of the island so it is much less busy too. Our bungalow was about half way between the beach and town so it was an easy 2 or 3 minute walk to both. It was quite nice to be in a town for a couple of days as we were able to mix up eating at the resort and in town. That evening we had dinner in our resort which was on the beach overlooking the sea. Only a few of the tables had chairs, the rest were at shin height and you laid on cushions. I thought this was a bit weird!


Next morning we hauled ourselves up really late. We were planning to explore the island so hired a moped from reception for the grand sum of £4 for 24 hours! We'd been planning to hire a bike for a while but thought the other islands roads looked too crazy. This place was much more laid back! Claire used to be a daredevil moped rider in her teens but this was to be my first experience. There are bikes everywhere here, we've seen 5 people on one moped, a guy carrying a 6ft mirror and all sorts of things in between so this should be easy!


We both had a practice up and down the road whilst the other watched and then decided that I'd be driver and Claire ride pillion. We pulled off and wobbled our way up the road slowly with cars and other bikes rushing past us, kids, grannies, couples. All without helmets on, compared to us, rigid as cardboard wearing our safety gear. It all went smoothly actually and apart from a couple of steep hills and sleeping policemen our journey was easy. We reached the north end of the island and spent some time looking around a view point.


We then headed to the southern end of the island through the main town, by this point we'd got the hang of it but were still a far way from looking cool! We found it funny to find loads of people selling petrol in 1ltr whiskey bottles on the side of the road. By the time we took ours back 20 hours early the petrol gauge hadn't moved! I think we'll probably stick to public transport from here on.


We spent a total of four nights on Ko Tao, it was really quite a nice place to chill out, Claire got food poisoning though from a dodgy breakfast and I was suffering from a mild dose of man flu so we upgraded our room to include air conditioning and a television and sat it out for a few days. We still managed to spend some time in the town and on the beach but our time as beach bums has now come to an end. We are heading up towards the Northern end of the mainland for a bit of culture and history after all this bumming around in boardshorts!

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Claire on the way into town

Big boulder at view point

View from our pickup taxi

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