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May 25, 201711 min read

Koh Tao


A Day in Krabi

In order to make the journey to the Thai island of Koh Tao, Nico and I first needed to meet up with Kristen and Josh and spend a night in Krabi, Thailand. Our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Krabi was quick. The only thing that held us up at the airport was Nico forgetting his arrival form on the plane, so he had to find a new one and fill it out.

From the airport, we took a shuttle to where Kristen and Josh were staying, Krabi Forest Homestay (actually located in the town of Ao Nang).

Krabi Forest Homestay

  • Private rooms

  • Good location

  • Comfortable beds

  • Shitty wifi

  • Two free water bottles per day

After meeting up, we showered and headed into town for dinner and to book a ticket to Koh Tao. We found a place selling tickets for 650 baht ($20 USD) per person including a bus ride and a ferry.

For dinner, we went to an Indian restaurant that Kristen and Josh had been to before (since they had already been in Krabi for a few days). It was pretty good. I got full very quickly.

After dinner, we walked around the shops a little before going back to our rooms. We spent some time researching where to stay on Koh Tao but couldn't make a decision and went to bed before booking anything.

Day One

Got woken up by Kristen banging on our door because we didn't hear Nico's alarm. It was 6am, time to be in the front waiting for our bus. We speed-packed everything and made our way to the front of the hotel/homestay where we waited by the street. As expected in Thailand, the taxi arrived a bit later than we were told. Nico, Kristen, Josh, and I all loaded into the van, which took us to the Krabi bus station, where we loaded onto a double-decker bus. Our bus luck must have changed (see my Vang Vieng blog) because we got seats right in the front.

After a few hours on the bus, we unloaded and boarded a ferry. The boat stopped at a couple of islands before arriving in Koh Tao. It was around 3pm (an hour later than the lady who sold us tickets had told us) when we arrived on the island. As we disembarked the boat, we were immediately bombarded by people asking if we needed a taxi. Having nowhere to stay that night and not wanting to pay for a taxi anyway, we pushed on through the narrow street. As the crowd of ferry passengers and taxi-pushers thinned, we stopped at a random restaurant to get lunch and use the wifi. We looked up places to stay and decided to book a nearby hostel called The Loft, located just up the street.

As soon as we finished eating, we headed to check into the hostel. The staff at the Loft steam-cleaned our bags to protect against bed bugs, which we thought was a nice touch considering our bags had just been piled with everyone else's on the boat.

After we had everything settled, we decided to change into bathing suits and head to the beach. We walked to Sairee Beach and got in the water, which actually felt hotter than the air outside. It was very shallow and as I tried to wade out to deeper waters, I scraped my foot on some coral. The group decided to just sit in the shallow water and hang out before heading back to the hostel to change and go to dinner.

For dinner, we went to the restaurant right across the street from our hostel (I forget the name). The food was quite good. I had pad Thai. Afterwards, we returned to the hostel where I ordered a painkiller (drink). I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty the drinks were at a hostel bar.

Then, as we were getting ready for bed, we found a bed bug on Nico's mattress. We all began to search our beds top to bottom, moving our bags as far away from the bunks as possible. Two more were found on Nico's bed but none more on anybody else's. We talked to the staff who were really kind and helpful about everything. One guy steamed and brought in a new mattress for Nico, letting us know that they'd do a deep clean of the entire room and our bags tomorrow.

Day Two

We awoke in the morning to get ready for our snorkel trip. Nico had crawled into my bed and way laying next to me when he started to notice what he thought were new bug bites on his arm. As we both got up, I noticed a small, red bug crawl away from the exact place our bodies had been. Simultaneously, at that moment, we all decided we could no longer stay at this hostel. Nico went to tell the staff while the rest of us packed up our things. The hostel offered to move us to another room but we insisted that we'd rather stay somewhere else. Our original plan was to check into a nice resort following two nights of hostel living, but now we decided to book another night at the resort and avoid any chance of more contact with bed bugs. The staff at the Loft was very understanding. They said they'd still steam all of our bags and thoroughly clean the room while we were out.

So, we left on our snorkeling trip. The boat taking us was full of other travelers but not to the point of being uncomfortable. Our first stop was Shark Bay, though no sharks were seen. I struggled a lot with my mask, which kept filling up with water and was still somehow too tight on my face. The next stops were Aow Leuk followed by Lang Kai and Mango Bay. Each location had a good variety of fish to swim with.



Our final stop on the tour was Nang Yuan island. First, we hiked up to the viewpoint to take pictures. It was a very hot hike with a crowd of people at the top, but the view was amazing. After hiking, we went for a swim in the crystal blue water. It felt amazing but I could hardly bare to walk on the sand because bits of dead coral were everywhere.



Nico, Kristen, and Josh chose to snorkel some more while I opted to just float in the waves, my face still throbbing from my too-tight mask. Shortly after the crew had swam out, I noticed fish leaping from the water overhead of the group. I tried to call to everyone to see but nobody heard and suddenly Nico was yelling about a sea turtle! Now, I've swam with sea turtles before, but never have I ever slapped a mask and snorkel on and kicked out to sea so quickly in by life (sea turtles just never get old...(there's a joke there somewhere)). The turtle was just relaxing in the sand when I first swam up, but as soon as everyone got close, it began to swim. We followed it for a little while before letting it float into deeper water on its own.

Sea Turtle Friend

Soon it was time to load back up onto the boat. It dropped us back off at the pier, a short five minute walk from the hostel. When we arrived, we sat at the hostel bar, booking the cheapest rooms at the Aminjirah Resort and trying to arrange a ride to pick us up. We drank a few cocktails as we waited for our shuttle (the bed of a truck) to arrive.

Koh Tao Loft Hostel

  • Bed bugs!

  • Really friendly staff

  • Nice bar

  • Convenient location by pier

  • Stinky bathroom

  • Very small lockers outside rooms

The truck began to drive us up a hill on the Northwest side of the island. By the time we reached the resort, it was already dark.

We checked into our rooms, both upgraded from the "no view" rooms to the ocean view rooms because they were sold out of the former. The upgraded rooms, however, didn't have working AC.

After we had all dropped our things off and showered, we headed to the restaurant on property, the Ocean Lounge Bar & Restaurant. Although a little pricey (for Thailand), the food was delicious. It was dark when we ate but could tell the view would be marvelous during the day.

After dinner, we headed back to the room. It was just out of reach of any working wifi signal.



Day Three

We slept in this morning. I hung in the hammock on our balcony for a little, admiring the view before we headed to the restaurant for our free breakfast. I had French toast with honey and bacon. It was a beautiful place to eat overlooking the ocean.



After breakfast, we packed all of our stuff and brought it down to reception. Our next room wasn't ready yet but it was fine with us because we needed to head into town anyway.

So, we began to walk down the hill. It took 20 minutes and was very hot. We stopped at a pharmacy to get Prednisone for Nico as more bed bug bites were popping up all over his body. Some of the bites were even beginning to blister.

After buying the prednisone, we walked back up the hill to the resort. Our room still wasn't ready so we changed and went to relax by the pool. Feeling pretty burnt on my back from snorkeling yesterday, I started off sitting in the shade. Eventually, I couldn't resist the beautiful infinity pool looking down over the turquoise water, so I jumped in.



After swimming and hanging out for a bit, we headed back into town to get something to eat. Since it was nearing 4pm, I decided to just get a snack at 7-11. The others wanted to eat lunch at an actual restaurant. So, we walked to the beach and sat at Lotus Bar and Restaurant.

Once everyone had had something to eat, we took the shuttle truck back up to the resort. Still, only one room was ready because the guest who had stayed in the other room the night before hadn't returned the key. We decided to head down to the pool to watch the sunset. I flew the drone over the island, capturing its beauty as the sun started to go down.



After the drone flight, I ran to the room to change into my bathing suit and then ran back to jump into the pool as the sky turned different shades of vibrant pink and purple. We spent some time taking pictures and videos and enjoying the beautiful sunset until it was dark.

Then, we changed back into normal clothing and walked down the hill for dinner. We went to a restaurant called The Gallery, recommended by TripAdvisor. The restaurant doubled as a photo gallery that sold artwork created by the restaurant's friendly owner.

The Australian man greeted us at the entrance and guided us to the bar to wait for a table, which was made available quite quickly. We decided to share all of the food this time. We ordered chicken satay as an appetizer, tom kah, cashew chicken, and some kind of crispy pork. The food was all very delicious (although I prefered the street food pork in Kuala Lumpur) and it was an added bonus to have such great service.



After dinner we walked back up the hill (taxis charged 100 baht per person), Kristen and Josh got their room, and Nico and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean before going to bed.

Day Four

While everyone else woke up for an early breakfast, I slept in a bit before heading up to eat crepes with sticky rice and sweetened condensed milk. The plan was to rent motorbikes and drive to the different snorkel points around the island but as Nico told me he read the roads were bad, I began to imagine my sunburnt butt bouncing up and down on the seat and decided I didn't really want to participate. I told Nico I didn't mind if he went motorbiking and that I'd be fine hanging out by the pool, but he decided to stay as well.

So, we decided to go paddle boarding instead. After Kristen and Josh left on their motorbikes, Nico and I walked down to Sairee beach. We found a place that rented SUPs and we took them out for an hour. Nico fell twice :)

Afterwards, we walked through town to get some lunch. We found a cute little place on the beach called Cafe Culture. I ordered a snickers milkshake and a mozzarella basil sandwich (sub bacon for tomato). Nico had a fried chicken sandwich. The food was so tasty (though the milkshake wasn't creamy enough) and it was nice to have a little break from Thai food.



After lunch, Nico and I walked back up to the resort to change into bathing suits and go to the pool. As soon as we were finished changing, however, Kristen and Josh just got back and began to tell us about their crazy day:

Apparently, the dirt roads are too messed up to be able to drive down to Mango Bay, so Kristen and Josh decided to come back to the resort and snorkel near the dock at the bottom of the hill. As they snorkeled along the coast, they thought it would be a good idea to swim out to Nang Yuan Island (which took about 30 minutes instead of their expected 10). When they arrived at the island, they got in trouble for having fins (which aren't allowed because of the coral damage) and for not paying the fee (since it's a private island). They were told to swim back to Koh Tao immediately. But, still being exhausted from the swim out to the island, Kristen and Josh tried to work out a deal with the water taxi drivers to take them back instead (this was difficult since they had no money with them).

Long story long, they made it back to the dock where the money was. Josh had to swim out to grab the money while Kristen waited on the boat (to ensure the driver's payment). They got back to the room just a few minutes after we had.

After hearing their story, we all went down to relax by the pool. It was a lot cloudier this evening so the sunset wasn't nearly as impressive as it had been the previous night.

Once the sun had set, we showered and then motorbiked to town to get dinner. We ate at 996 Duck, another TripAdvisor pick. Everyone else ordered duck soup, which they enjoyed while I got pad thai (I don't eat duck). It was good, not the best pad thai I'd ever had but it was definitely more flavorful than it looked.



After dinner, we walked to the Lotus Bar to have a few drinks and watch the fire show. Kristen and I were actually brought into the show where we had fire spun around us and got the chance to spin it ourselves.



After the show, we got roti and then road back up to the resort.



Day Five

For breakfast, I had waffles with honey. After everyone ate, we got ready and went into town. We walked to the beach to see how much it would cost to take a taxi to Nang Yuan island.

We decided to grab lunch at Cafe Culture before boating to the island where lunch would, with no doubt, be more expensive. I had another mozzarella basil panini (no bacon this time), Nico had a teriyaki chicken sandwich, and Kristen and Josh each had a fried chicken sandwich.

We eventually rented snorkel gear and a water taxi from Lotus Bar to the island. We snorkeled in the same area where we had seen the sea turtle the other day. There were lots of fish, but no turtles or reef sharks. My snorkel kept letting water in, making it difficult to breathe, so I went back to shore. The others followed but decided to snorkel on the other side of the beach where we hadn't been before. I decided to lay out on a rock.

Eventually, we all decided to go back to Koh Tao. But as we approached the taxi drivers, we were told our ticket was only good at 5 pm (almost an hour away). Luckily, the driver said he could take us at 4:30 instead.

When we got back to the resort, we showered and went down to the pool for sunset. It was pretty cloudy again so there wasn't much of a sunset to watch. We walked into town again to get dinner. This time we went to Su Chili. Kristen, Josh, and I shared cashew chicken, red curry, and pad thai. Nico just had his own order of cashew chicken.



After dinner, we walked around looking for mango sticky rice, but after not being able to locate any, we got roti instead.

Back at the resort, we began to pack up our things for our early departure the next day.

The Aminjirah Resort

  • Fast wifi (when in range)

  • Beautiful views

  • Free breakfast buffet

  • Expensive (for Thailand) drinks

  • Infinity pool

  • Far from town

  • Friendly staff


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