Koh Tao & Hua Hin

After having spent five days on island "Koh Samui", me mostly in bed with high fever and bronkitis and Tina on the beach and in the massage chair (not at all jellous ... ;-), we continued to another island - Koh Tao.

Koh Tao is famous for it's great diving spot, with clear water, live corals and plenty of fishes. Since neither of us have a dive cert, we book a day-long snorkelling trip. When leaving the harbour in the morning, the (english) guide said that the sea would probably be a little rough on the way to the first spot, but that it probably would be a problem. It got to be a little bit more than rough, with huge waves hitting the side of the rather small fishing boat with full power. Tina got sea sick and afraid, and didn't felt well at all. I tried to ensure her that the boat would not turn over, and that everything would soon be all right ... After a good half an hour, we finally entered some quite waters and arrived at the first snorkelling spot, all in one piece! As soon as we jumped into the warm and clear water, we forgot all about the wild boat ride ... The corals were so colorful and the fishes were all over us. It was indeed true what the guide has told us - if you stay still in the water, the fishes will come right up to you to check the "new guy" out! ;-) We visited another four snorkelling spot around the island during the day, all equally great but yet unique in their own ways! Hard to compare with the Great Barrier Reef but it comes very close in term of over-all experience. Probably the best snorkelling spot in all of Thailand, I would guess ... On the evening, we hanged out in an Italian-Thai restaurant, watching some of the action from Roland Garros (French Open in Tennis). Not too bad ...

The next day, we continued our trip north in Thailand (by a combined ferry-bus ticket) to the coastal town of Hua Hin (3 hours south of Bangkok). Our hope was to finally spend some time in a "normal" city; doing some shopping, perhaps playing some golf, hang at a cafe and just do normal "city" stuff ... Our hopes has at least partly come true!

Hua Hin only have 50000 inhabitants and the center feels pretty small. Tina has done a lot of shopping around for 100% Thai silk, which is quite cheap here (15 Euro per meter). We also did the town's only shopping mall ... The prices are higher than you expect and the range was not great either. Nonetheless Tina bought a clock, some long longed ear plugs and a cool and crasy dress. Yesterday, we went down to the beach, which wasn't great. But we are then comparing it to the Lamai beach at Koh Samui and Long Beach at the Perhentian Islands so the competition is super hard! The water was sooooo warm but not that clear. And we couldn't lie on the beach for more than 15 minutes because of the annoying and very persistent sand flies. If it isn't the sand flies, it is the mosquitos that are making our lives a little bit harder. We have bites everywhere! We can't wait to get home to cold Sweden with only a few mosquitos, where you don't have to put a special cream on before you go out to keep (some of) the mosquitos away ...

Today we got to play a round at the Royal Hua Hin Golf Course. If you teed off after 3 pm, you got a 25 Euro discount, an offer we had to use (it got expensive anyway, around 55 Euro a head incl club rental). We arrived at 2.30 and after quite a lot of confusion at the reception, we met up with our caddies (compulsory, at least for non-locals/tourists) and head off to the driving range to warm up the muscles a bit ... After all, last time we held a golf club was in September. And it didn't start well; Tina barely hits the ball and on my third shot, the club slipped out of my grip and flew a good 50-60 meters! To the spectators joy, of course! No introduction needed! ;-) After my small mishap, I stopped at the shop for a towel and a glove, needed on a warm and humid day as this! We teed off at 3 pm and after a couple of holes we both started playing really great, and we really had a great day at the course! First time playing with a caddie, and we probably would have been better off without them ... It was first at hole 12 that we realized that the lengths they told us were in yards and not in meters! That's why I kept hitting pass the green! And after the round, the security guard firmly told us that we were expected to tip the caddies each 12 Euros! I tried to tell him that I wasn't pleased with my caddie, but he would not hear on the ear so we had to cough'em up ... ;-) And of course, the golf course is no sancuary for mosquitos, plenty of sand flies there (very odd since there was barely no sand in the bunkers ;-) But a couple of more bites makes no difference to us anymore ... All this aside, we really enjoyed it!!!

Tomorrow we're catching a bus up to Bangkok, where Tina has reserved a room at a really nice hotel with swimming pool, gym and breakfast buffe! It's the last two nights "on the road" - we got to make the most of it! And enjoy it!

As we have said before, the Thai heat and the mosquitos are really beginning to wear us down, and we can't wait to board the plane on Thursday night!!! Even though our trip couldn't have been any better, it will still be very nice to come home again!

See you all soon! TC!