Island Hopping in the Gulf of Thailand

After our time in the lush hills of the North, we were really excited about the prospect of lazing on beaches whilst also hiding in the shade from the intense rays of the sun. The islands in the Gulf of Thailand are breath-taking and well known on the backpacker trail, our first stop was the turtle island otherwise known as Koh Tao.

Koh Tao is famous for it's laid back attitude and being one of the cheapest places in the world to gain your open water scuba diving qualification. That's exactly what we were here for as Josh has been looking forward to getting his license to dive for some time now, but there are over 70 dive shops on this little island so we had a big decision to make. We chose Scuba Shack because they're a five star PADI rated shop, with safety conscious and knowledgeable staff, as well as a cute elderly dog who loved a cuddle.

We were staying in a bungalow next door to the scuba school so whilst Josh was learning all the important safety information, I was playing with our beach dogs in the sea. Diving with Josh's lovely group was sensational; as we submerged into the clear water, surrounded by coral teeming with aquatic life, it was reminiscent of a movie. We were lucky enough to see an array of tropical fish with the highlights being a stingray, pufferfish, trigger fish and a highly venomous sea snake which we understandably, left to do its own thing. During the day it feels like there's no one else in Koh Tao, the streets are empty and the beaches are quiet, but it comes alive at night when everyone is back off the boat from a day of diving. We saw an insane fire show whilst dolled up in UV paint (mostly all over Josh) with our lovely Chilean friends. They shared our love of the beyond delicious cinnamon roll, which features in the video, from best cafe on the island Zest.

Our next destination was to the island of Koh Phangan which is around an hour away from Koh Tao via a less than luxurious ferry. This party island took us by surprise as it was more a place to get a good nights rest than rave until the early hours. Haad Rin was a ghost town at the time we visited as we'd just missed the full moon, but we actually ended up adoring this sleepy island. We had the pristine beaches with crystal clear waters mostly to ourselves; some of our favourite beaches were Haad Yao, Chaloklam and Haad Thong Nai Pan Noi/Yao which were tucked away in the north. 

We couldn't miss out on one of the best diving spots in Asia, so we headed over to Sail Rock which has regular sightings of Whale Sharks. They unfortunately didn't want to see us and stayed clear of the dive site that day, but we did get to swim through huge shoals of barracuda and see some giant groupers which was fantastic. No description can do this experience justice so we have some footage of our dives in the video below if you want to take a peek into the deep. The sea was very choppy and I got horrendously seasick after our first dive as well as a few other people. We formed a sea sick gang at the back of the boat, one of us would throw up and as if in support, we'd all be off. We spent the remainder of the journey lying at the back with towels over our heads trying to remember what being on stable land felt like.

One morning we decided to go to a National Park to hike around the jungle and see the most impressive waterfall on the island. It's rainy season so it's bound to be a glorious sight, right? Well the Phaeng NO waterfall really lived up to its name as there was not a drop of water to be found. It was a great place to walk around however as we found ourselves surrounded by monkeys, ancient trees and insects - so many insects. 

Being on these islands in low season and avoiding the crowds has been an interesting experience, one that we've both loved. Now to see some more beautiful beaches and head across to an island in the Andaman Sea with a stop over at Koh Samui.