Koh Tao

Koh Samui and Koh Tao are located in the souther
region of Thailand, in the Gulf of Thailand

While my sister and her friends were visiting we set aside a week to relax on some of the islands in the south of Thailand. We started off on the larger island of Koh Samui and after relaxing there for a few days we decided to mix it up a little and head north to the smaller island of Koh Tao.
Because Koh Tao is so much smaller we felt it was easier to see and do all of the popular things. There's one main footpath that stretches along the west coast of the island, making the whole area easily accessible. On this route we were able to find a new restaurant for every meal, plenty of coffee shops, good bars, souvenir shops and taxi boats to smaller islands and beaches nearby.
As always, our plans for our islands adventures were very minimal: get massages, eat good food, get some sun. All of those were easy to accomplish during our time in Koh Tao.
Although we basically had the same goals on Koh Samui I enjoyed our time on Koh Tao much better. It's a smaller island with many more backpackers, as opposed to the families that Koh Samui attracts.

On a longtail boat with my sister and her friends, and some
fellow English teachers

During our first full day on Koh Tao we hired a longtail boat to Sai Nuan beach, which is still on the island of Koh Tao but is kind of difficult to get to by land. We had a full boat headed to the beach and we each paid around $6 for roundtrip transportation. We chose to go to this beach because we figured it would be more secluded and quieter than going to the main strip of beach, and we were right! It was just our group and about ten other people who had the whole bay to ourselves. There was a resort located relatively close to where we camped out, so we were able to rent snorkels from them for around $3.

Relaxing on Sai Nuan beach

View from the overlook on Koh Nang Yuan 

The next day was our big expedition of the trip, we hired a longtail boat to take us to the small neighboring island of Koh Nang Yuan. It's technically three small islands joined together by a sandbar and it's most known for it's awesome overlook, which is exactly why we came. As soon as we set foot onto the island we figured out which way the overlook was and began the strenuous climb to the top. In decent weather and hangover-free it would be an average uphill climb, however, it was pushing 100 degrees and a bar crawl the evening before left us feeling far from athletic, so it was definitely a struggle for us to reach the top. The view from the top was worth it, but I don't think it's anything I'd be jumping to do again soon. Koh Nang Yuan is a small island with limited beach space, so we went in for a dip to cool off after our hike, but then took our boat back to Koh Tao to enjoy shade,

air conditioning and more spacious beaches. 

Thais excel at drag shows

The rest of our time on Koh Tao was uneventful but as blissful as an island vacation can be. We drank out of coconuts, indulged in endless cups of coffee, ate Thai food, snorkeled and participated in the previously mentioned bar crawl. We mainly wanted to do the bar crawl for the free tank top but ended up having a lot of fun while participating. The highlight of the evening was our stop at a ladyboy bar where we enjoyed one of Thailand's infamous drag shows.

Koh Tao pub crawl with Lexi and Sam, two fellow
English teachers, and Sam's friend, Lauren, visiting
from the States 

Getting fish pedicures! These little guys eat off all of
the dead skin on your feet (if you can sit still long enough!) 

Overall I would say that the Thai islands live up to their hype, and we didn't even visit some of the most popular ones! On my next trip to Thailand I would love to explore some of the islands on the west coast of Thailand. After our week of ocean and sun we flew back north to Bangkok for a few days of city life before my sister and her friends flew back to wintery Ohio.

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Logistical Info

- Koh Nang Yuan is privately owned and therefore has a few more rules than a typical island. We paid 200 baht each for our longtail boat ($6) and then had to pay a 100 baht ($3) entry fee onto the island. All plastic water bottles are confiscated upon arrival, so if you don't want to overpay for water at the restaurant then you should bring a reusable water, which they'll let you enter the island with.
The island and beaches are slowly eroding away and because of that they're very protective of the sand there. As a result, you're not allowed to lay on the beach with your towel, because towels collect the sand and too many people end up taking sand away with them. Your options are to rent a chair for the day (but they fill up fast) or lay on the sand bare. Because of the limited laying options and limited shade we didn't stay on the island for too long, we mainly just did the hike, had some snacks and then went back to Koh Tao.
- We stayed at AC 2 Resort which was around $45/night. It was nice to get out of the hostels for a couple of nights but I wasn't blown away by the quality of our stay. I think there are cheaper or better options when it comes to bungalows or resorts on the island.
- To get to Koh Tao from Samui we booked a taxi and ferry through our hostel on Samui. It was 750 baht ($22) and we still had to pay for a taxi once we got to Koh Tao to get to our hotel, which was another $4.
- From Koh Tao we took a ferry to the mainland to Chumphom, and flew from there to Bangkok. That ferry was 600 baht ($17). That included our ferry and bus to the airport.- There are numerous overnight buses and even ferries that go from Bangkok to the islands. These are much cheaper than flying.