Today was our first day not with each other in a month because Eitan did a 2 day Advanced Diving course here, so Sarah got to explore Koh Tao on her own. This is Sarah’s 2 day on her own:

I shopped and bought some more hippy pants and a head band.  You can’t seem to negotiate prices as much as in Indonesia but I am learning from Eitan’s Mexican ways  and was able to get the prices of what I bought a bit cheaper.  I then walked to the beach and bought a Chang (Thai beer) and watched the beautiful ocean and  sipped the refreshing beer.

Then I got a Thai massage #1 and it was AMAZING!!!!

Feeling relaxed I went for lunch at a restaurant with an ocean view.  It was weird being by myself but fun to listen to other people’s conversations and people watch!  Then I decided to try and walk to where the ferry dropped us off.  Walking there it became a bit less touristy but there was this Korean guy who also was trying to navigate his way so I asked if he was trying to get to the ferry and we walked there together.  He was so nice and excited to hear that we had been in Korea.  He also couldn’t believe that I went to a University of California, he had tried to come to one to study but didn’t get in.  Now I have a second friend from Korea on facebook! The area near the ferry wasn’t quite as nice but still neat to walk around.

Feeling tired after having walked a lot today decided to go relax in the room for a bit.  Eitan returned briefly but then left again for his  scary night dive so I decided to watch the sunset.  It wasn’t as amazing as the night before.  Eitan returned alive and complete from his night dive and we had dinner at yet another romantic ocean view restaurant where we sat on bean bags on the floor and had our first thai curry of the trip.  We are realizing that suddenly I have more of a spicy food tolerance than Eitan, so who is the Mexican now? Eitan was deliriously tired from all his diving so to bed we went.

The next day I had similarly relaxing day and I am becoming a Koh Tao expert.  I got another massage, this one with an ocean view and I could hear the waves crashing, pretty great. I did some more shopping and ate lunch at another wonderful ocean view restaurant.

I then waited at the hotel bar for Eitan to return as an advanced certified diver! We stored our bags in the room of Eitan’s friend from diving since we were checking out today from the Bans resort due to them doubling the rate of our room.  We took a super over priced taxi with a rude driver back to where the ferry is to our new better priced hostel. We realized that the area close to the ferry is MUCH less nice than where we had been staying so glad we were just in this area for one night.  We got dinner at a very well-reviewed restaurant and we are so confused as to why, as it was our worst thai food yet.  We even convinced someone not to eat there as they arrived since it truly was not good.  We went to our hotel bar for a beer and live music which was pretty decent but when we returned to our room we realized there was no need to go to the bar to hear the music as we could hear the entire show from our room. And in the morning we had a concert full of ferry horns, new hotels constructions and every single possible annoying noise available in the audible spectrum.  It was certainly an ear plugs night!

The next morning we walked back to the better part of Ko Tao and had breakfast at the Ban’s restaurant.  We like to the people that don’t just eat at the hotel restaurant but it was also packed so we felt we should try it and there was a reason it was always crowded, it was quite good.  We then relaxed at the beach a bit before our ferry to Ko Phangan.

Waiting for the ferry was fantastic people watching and this ferry was had a/c so was much more pleasant.  This guy from Texas sat next to Sarah, super nice guy and they chatted the entire ride as Eitan”napped”/ listened to chatty Sarah and her chatty new friend.  Next stop, Koh  Phangan and the full moon party!