06.07.09 Shark Search

So it took a while to get there but after a day or two travelling we made it to our island paradise - ok so there were a few others on Koh Tao too but it was to be a fantastic week of resting - well as rested as Charlie and I could manage.

We found ourselves a lovely wooden hut with perfect views over the sea at Sunset Bungalows. The next day we decided to do a snorkelling trip around the island to introduce it to us. When Charlie saw there was the possibility that we might see sharks he couldn't hide his excitement. The coral and brightly coloured fish were amazing - such variety. Unfortunately Charlie and I don't know all their names and so cam't really say what we saw! Yellow ones, ones with pointy noses and others that were multi coloured. First up was shark bay and we scoured the bay to the max - to the point where the rest of the boat as waiting for us to swim back from the other side of the bay - I am not fit! we didn't see any sharks but another woman on the boat did. I could see instantly that we would be here every day until we saw a shark - I wasn't sure whether to be excited or scared!

Wednesday we had a relaxing day as we were worn out from the previous days swimmming and I dont think the sunburn on my back was helping! Besides we needed to plan our approach to shark hunting.

Thursday was shark day. We got up at 6.30, hired a kayak and snorkels and headed for shark bay. After some hunting for the right spot we saw one, and then another and suddenly I felt as if they might be circling us! We snapped with my camera in the waterproof bag but to our dissappointment the above is the best blur of a 'black tipped shark' we managed to capture!

For our final day we decided to check out the rest of the island ... including the magnificant view from the top of two view restaurant (310m high hill) - after trekking up a dirt track that clearly becomes a river in the rain we finally stumbled across a sign to the restaurant (small run down huts with hippy type locals just hanging out) and so we stopped for a cup of tea. Then the rain began!! After the most delicious thai green curry and more hot beverages we decided to give the view from the top of the hill a miss (a friendly german informed us it wasn't worth the effort and it was raining gecko's and monkeys) and trecked home .. down the river!

Time to leave and after many days deliberation we agreed to throw the budget out of the window and booked the slow boat (4 quid) over the night boat (2 quid). After 3hrs of hanging about waiting for our boat we finally worked out it wasn;t running when we stepped onto the fast boat (free upgrade). Although having heard the horror stories from the passengers disembarking and watched the previous captain almost sink the pier ... any hope for a calm crossing didn't really exist. I was pleased to reach the other side without being ill and keeping my flip flops clean.