Turtle Island (Koh Tao)

We had to catch the early boat to Koh Tao, but met a very nice French couple onthe shuttle. jack loves to show off his French skills now, but its great we have gotten a lot of good tips on places to stay.

On the ride over we talked with a dive instructor who said that in certain parts you could see the sea floor, 60 feet down! Also that you can have fishermen take you out to all the great spots for 1/3 of the price of the tours.

We got a basic bungalow on "shark bay" right next to these two terrific couples - Gordon & Terry, Richard & Petra.

You have to swim or take a boat to the beach (our bungalow is on the side of the cove) its a good way to keep the riff raff out. We hung out on the beach with Richard & Petra before the 4 of us went to eat at a "makala" dinner - basically and all you can eat grill type place. that was aweomse - its like a thai version of the melting pot.

Jack was able to arrange a "snorkling adventure" with Gordon, Richard, Petra & I. Gordon & Terry have been coming here for years, so we all felt a little better with him guiding us through the shark populated waters.

We can basically just hop into the water straight from our bungalow, just becarefull of the slippy rocks! We saw 100's of fish and at least a dozen black tip sharks, once you see the first one you kind of get over the fear, theyjust cruise along at the bottom and could care less about you. the funny thing is the "Trigger Fish" is more dangerous than the sharks as they are very territorial this time of year. We were even chased by a remora for 15 - 20 minutes, actually pretty comical to watch everyone try and shoo it away.

It seems as if seafood is theonly food i can really stomach (i know, its a tough life) but at leat its just as cheap as chicken and pork.

Tomorrow we head to Nang Yuan - an e\ven more amazing snorkling island north of Koh Tao. that night we all hung out drinking on our balconies just talking about life, the economy even a little personal happiness seminar from Jack.