More island hopping in Koh Tao

We loved Koh Samui! It's the biggest island in the area, which means you can see and do a little of everything. We were way too lazy to do anything but lay on the beach, but at least we had options. Samui was just a nice place to chill out and enjoy the beach.

And coconut shakes

 I'm letting you all know, when you are ready to take your next beach vacation, just fly to Koh Samui. We will definitely be back in the future, so we'll come with you.
Come on! All the Russians are doing it.


Samui seems to be the general hangout and family place to go. Then the next island over is Koh Phangan, which is where they have the infamous Full Moon Parties. A monthly hippie backpacker rave that carries over to the rest of the month. So it's where all the 20-something Brits & Aussies go to party hard 24/7. Surely you're not surprised to hear that we skipped it. We moved on to the next island of Koh Tao, which is the best island for scuba diving.

The pier for the boat leaving Koh Samui

Koh Tao is much smaller, but very mountainous and beautiful.

We've seen some great sunsets at night, and the beach is really shallow so when the tide goes out you can wade out pretty far into the water

Brannan has taken advantage of the great diving here and gone on 6 different dives. I decided to forgo the stress (we're on a tropical island, man!) and skipped the diving. But he had a fantastic time and got to see a lot of great coral, and no sharks.

We booked an around-the-island snorkeling tour and had a blast! It took all day and stopped at 5 different spots to snorkel. Each stop got better and better. We saw some really beautiful coral reefs and fish. Here are some pictures as we cruised around the island.

Another snorkeling tour boat.  Their slogan across the tops of the posters said
"More than... convenience, safety, and funny"
What??

Bungalows along the water

Hi Brannan! Heading in from snorkeling

Our last stop was a small island off of Koh Tao that is 3 small islands connected by a sand bar. Beeeeeautiful! We got to stop there for 2 hours and snorkel or lie on the beach. The snorkeling area there is called the Japanese Gardens because the coral looks like huge flowers. It was the coolest place ever! We were sad we didn't have an underwater camera. We snorkeled for a good hour or more and got a little toasted on our backs, ha!

Arriving at the island, with the sandbar behind me

It was an awesome place. There were hundreds of people there diving and snorkeling.

The boat ride back to Koh Tao

The next day was overcast so we got haircuts! We were both pretty shaggy and Brannan had braved up his courage since Istanbul, so we decided it was time.

Looking fluffy, but not nearly as wooly as last time

The hair salon we found was being run by a Thai lady-boy. If you don't know what a lady-boy is, don't google it!... it's a man who looks like a woman, and we'll leave it at that. They are everywhere in Thailand, and it turns out they can cut hair pretty well. At one point during Brannan's haircut, she/he said "sorry, one minute" and ran out...

...hope she comes back! Bangs are so last season...

We assumed she needed sharper scissors to tackle those luscious locks. But she did come back after about 5 minutes and finished the job. While she was gone, Brannan inspected her cart to make sure there was no face floss, wax, or fiery qtips in there. None to be seen, whew!

Looking like a gentleman once again! And he wore his Istanbul shirt in honor

We'll be here enjoying Koh Tao for about another week or so, then it's off again to Bangkok, predictably.