Koh Tao: Diving, Hitmen, and Choppers

We left Koh Phagnan behind and moved the party to Koh Tao, a smaller island about 3 hours north of Koh Phagnan. All of the travelers we had been talking to were saying that Koh tao was the "real"Thailand. Its much smaller than Koh Samui, which tends to be more upmarket, and Koh Phagnan, which tends to be more party, and is supposed to have a much more chilled out vibe than either. It is known for its diving, so the crowd generally flocks here for the cheap certification courses.

The boat ride there was crazy packed and we ended up sitting on top of the bags outside, which ended up being the best seat since we escaped the puking downstairs and the spray along the side of the boat from the waves.

On the boat we made friends with a big group of kids who were teachers in Korea and are taking vacation since their contract expired, and a few travelers who worked in Tahoe... altogether I think it was the most Americans I have hung out with while traveling / even seen while out here.

Got to Koh Tao, which was very chilled out compared to Koh Phagnan, less party and more happy pizzas if you know what I mean. My main complaint was that although the island was very small it was exceedingly difficult to get around because the roads were all washed out - something im sure they fix in Dec when all of the tourists show up. As a result we spent most of our time in the main town area, which although fun, got very boring after 5 days.

The main beach - I can't remember the name, but its where most people, including us, stay.

Awesome sign that is in most restaurants in Thailand

Cool clouds from the beach.. the weather wasn't that perfect

Full Moon: insanely cute puppy that hung out around the ganja shack that was across from our bungalow

We did rent ATVs one day and go for an adventure, which turned out to be much more of an adventure than we were expecting to have because of the deplorable road conditions. I luckily picked the one guy who rides motorcycles so I was relatively safe compared to the others. Verber almost killed himself by going over a cliff and his ATV had to be retrieved from the bushes several times by Owen, our resident ATV expert / farm boy hick who is 28 and does not have email. All of this was worth it because we got to go to two awesome beaches on the island: X and Freedom Beach. Freedom Beach was my favorite and if I ever came back to Koh Tao I would do it right and stay there for two or three nights instead of spending all of my time in the main town.
Cool salt water "pool"we found when we hiked across the island a few days before

ATV crew. From Left: me, Emely (Swedish), Melody (Korea teachers, brit), Tristan (Korea techers, Canuck, Sarah (brit), Tinkerbell (Tahoe), Owen (Tahoe), can't remember name, Verber (US), Sanna (sweden).
Rescuing Verber's ATV from over the cliff. Without Owen, dude in red hat, we would have been screwed, he fixed the chains when they popped, McGyvered ATVs out of ditches, and rode them up the really rough bits when no one else could get them up.
ATV-ing. We swam out to the island in the background and the crazies did some cliff jumping

Freedom beach...mm.. sublime beauty

More freedom beach

Hitmen!

We also unfortunately had a lot of not so fun drama on Koh Tao involving a hitman from bangkok who was on the run from the police.

Apparently the guys were all at choppers (our usual spot) and saw a Thai guy dragging a western girl out by her hair. They went to go stop him as I would hope any decent guy would do, which caused lots of yelling but no punched were thrown. They ended up chasing the guy down the street to the end where he grabbed a butcher knife from a food stand and threatened them with it then ran off - We all assumed it was over after this.

The next day Verber was checking his email by himself in a cafe and the guy stormed in and punched him in the nose then ran away. There was blood everywhere and Verber was in a state of complete shock and shit ton of pain. I ended up taking him to the hospital (which reads: Dengue checkup, malaria checkup, Pregnancy check, HIV check, over the door - gotta love Thailand) at midnight while both of us were drunk so that he could try and get painkillers, although im dubious of whether he needed them since he was so drunk already.
After a lot of questioning, we discovered that everyone knew him but no one would turn him in and everyone said the police were worthless. T he owner of choppers told us that he was a hitman that was wanted by the police in Bangkok, that was why he was in Koh Tao and not to mess with him. Overall it was a really scary / messed up couple of days, especially since the boys hadn't done anything but try and help the girl. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief when we got on the boat back to BKK.

On a lighter note we had a really fun last night and hung out at a little beach hut / bar were a group of Argentine guys were playing. We all danced and sang until the wee hours of the morning and I got to practice my abysmal Spanish a bit, which after all the Spanish guys figured out I could at least understand them I became their pet and they made me take copious jager bombs with them.

Next post: one night in Bangkok and the worlds your oyster, the bars are temples but the pearls aren't free