Nah nah...nah nah...(Jaws theme song)

February 9, 2011
We made it safe and sound to the island of Koh Tao. We caught the 7 am boat from Chumpon and arrived three hours later on this stunning island. I would tell you all more about the ferry but being as we have survived a few South Pacific ferries this one was a walk in the park. The ferry ride did produce one first for me though. As Rye and i were standing along the side of the boat a Thai guy came up and started talking to us. As most conversations go the topic of nationality comes up only this time it went a little differently. For the first time in my life I was mistaken for a Japanese man. Thai guy - " so you are Japanese?", 6'3" caucasian Quentin - " are you serious, get out of here?!", Thai guy- " I'm sorry I thought you were from japan"...and forever will be the day I was mistaken for an asian man. After he left it took Riley and I a good 5 mins to stop laughing.

Koh Tao is known world wide for it's great diving and snorkeling which for the most part is located relatively close to the island on the off-shore reefs. 

We hadn't reserved a place to stay so we caught a ride over to Chalok Bay which is  on the south part of the island. After checking out a few of the places we settled on a place nestled up on a hill with a gorgeous view out over the bay.....the only drawback was being as it was on a hill there were 89 (not so standard sized) steps that had to be climbed. We decided that it might actually be a good thing since neither of us has gotten much exercise in over 2 months.

Our time on Koh Tao resembled that of our time on Ton Sai in the way our days were structured. We would wake up head down to our favorite restaurant for a breakfast of banana shakes, muesli, fruit and yoghurt gather our stuff and hit the beach to work on our tan and frisbee skills. There were also enough people on the beach to keep us entertained...one of the days we were playing frisbee when out from the water comes this topless woman with massive fake breasts. She grabs her camera and starts taking self photos of herself rolling in the surf. If that wasn't inappropriate enough (Riley's words not mine) her boyfriend grabs hold of the camera and started taking photos of her jumping up and down in the water....all amongst a couple of families with kids building sandcastles...too funny. 

On our third day we decided to rent a scooter to tour the island. We toured the island as best as we could as there were times that the trail (not a lot of pavement) would be impassable without a four wheel drive. There were a few times that poor Riley had to hop off and walk while I gunned it to make it up the steep hills.  The funniest thing about renting the scooter came when it was time to fuel it up. We pulled up to this rack of old 1 litre glass soda bottles that had been filled with gas....just grab a bottle or two and you're on your way.
 
As I said earlier Koh Tao is world renowned for it's diving. We had asked a diver to recommend a couple of spots for us and among his list was an area called Shark Bay where you can swim with sharks... I says "pardon?!" he replies "they are the kind that don't bite humans". I didn't know there was such a thing. He also mentioned that 4 pm is feeding hour errrr is when the sharks come into the bay. For those of you who don't know Riley well she has a little bit of a fear (is terrified) of sharks and open water (thank-you Jaws) ....so the next day we grabbed our snorkeling gear, jumped on the scooter and headed for Shark Bay. It had started to rain on the way over so it had made the water quite cloudy, which rye informed me that you aren't suppose to swim because sharks may mistake your juicy leg for a floundering fish. There were a few other people in the water so we decided to go for it. The bay itself is quite large (1 km across) and for the most part was around 2 m deep. We swim around for about an hour straining to make out any large shapes that might resemble a shark but had no luck.... your mind plays the same tricks on you when you are outside at night and you think you see something. We both decided that we would return to shore and maybe let the cloudy water settle a bit. After chilling on a rock for about a half an hour another couple had come out of the water and said they had seen two sharks out in the deeper water.....so out to the deeper water we went. The water was still cloudy but not as bad in the deeper water. Riley and I were swimming along when out of the corner of my eye I caught something grey. I motioned to rye and just then we both got a good look at the side of a 2m black-tip reef shark. It was just casually cruising by so we swam in the direction that it was going and got another few looks at it. Being as it was the first shark either of us has seen in real life I must say that your first thought is....."holy shit there's a shark in the water.... so am I!". But honestly as fast as that comes in to your mind it is soon replaced with how amazing a creature it is and what an amazing experience to share together. On our way back to the shore we think we may have seen a couple of other sharks but with the poor visibility we couldn't be certain.
Once we got out of the water I think we both realized that had just happened and not only was rye in open water but open water with sharks!!!! Check and check! She was calm and collected and never showed any signs of fear let alone nervousness...so proud!

The next day we said our goodbyes to the staff at our favorite restaurant and doped ourselves up with gravol for the 2 hr ferry ride back to the main land and the 8 hr bus ride to Bangkok...ladies and gentleman fasten your seatbelts, welcome to chaos!