After a great Christmas spent on Koh Samui, I headed to the neighboring island of Koh Tao to celebrate the New Year. I absolutely fell in love with Koh Tao. I loved it so much that I ended up staying twice as long as I had originally planned to stay on the island. Even after doubling my time there, I could still have stayed longer.
Getting to Koh Tao from Koh Samui was an easy and uneventful ferry ride. Once on Koh Tao I made my way out of the ferry pier. The pier was super busy and on the path I took out I did not see many tuk tuk trucks. I saw only one sign for taxis and it showed a cost more than I wanted to spend, so I decided to walk to my hostel. According to Google Maps, it was only a 2.8 kilometer (1.74 mile) “mostly flat” walk to my hostel. When I reached a super steep hill I quickly learned that Google Maps lied to me. Thankfully the hill wasn’t too long, but it was still steep enough that the map not giving any incline information felt like a lie. After getting past a few different hills, my main challenge was the blaring hot sun. While carrying all of my belongings and walking in the sun, I quickly started to regret my decision to walk and to not spend the money for a tuk tuk truck but nonetheless, I continued forward. By the time I was in the final kilometer to my hostel I ended up on some random road winding through the jungle. It seemed a weird path to be directed to take, but it was beautiful and peaceful. When I finally made it to my hostel I was hot, sweaty, and so glad to be there.
Once I was checked into my hostel and had a little time to rest, I headed out again to meet up with Sophia, Sabrina, Marta, Ainhoa, and Olive, whom I had spent Christmas with, to watch the sunset on the beach and then go out for dinner. The sunset was beautiful and even though it had been less than two days since I’d seen them, it was a lot of fun seeing all of them again. After a great evening spent with friends, we made plans for the next day and then parted ways for the night. The next day, my first full day on Koh Tao, Sophia, Sabrina, Olive, three other people they had met, and I met at a restaurant near the pier for brunch. After brunch, we walked down towards the pier to get a tuk tuk truck to go to Freedom Beach. At Freedom Beach, we were all quick to go in the water and snorkel. The water was crystal clear and the snorkeling was great! I was able to see a bunch of different reefs and fish. My favorite fish to see were rainbow colored fish; it was so cool to see how colorful they were. After swimming for a long time we all headed back to the beach and hung out there again before going back into the water to snorkel some more. On our second time out in the water there was a snorkeling tour out and we were able to hear the guide talk about a sea turtle so we joined their group and saw a young sea turtle. It was so cool. I was able to swim with the sea turtle for a while before swimming away and snorkeling more in other areas. Sophia, Olive, and I were the last of our group in the water and when swimming back to shore we spotted the sea turtle again. This time it was just the three of us which made it even better. It was amazing being able to be one of the only people swimming with a sea turtle and at one point Sophia and Olive had started back to shore and so for a few short moments I was able to swim alone with the sea turtle. It was a memorable experience.
Snorkeling with a sea turtle was a great way to end my time at Freedom Beach. Once we left the beach the three of us got a tuk tuk truck back to our hostels. At my hostel I was able to shower and rest for a little while before meeting three people from my group earlier in the day for dinner at a nearby restaurant. After dinner, the four of us walked to the beach and spent the rest of the night walking down the beach and chilling in beach chairs. It was a lowkey, relaxed evening and it was nice having a quiet stretch of beach mostly to ourselves.
My second day on Koh Tao was completely opposite to my first. I ended up spending most of my day hanging out in the common area of my hostel. I loved the hostel I stayed at on Koh Tao. As far as rooms went, it wasn’t anything special, but the people made it one of my favorite hostels. Everyone was so friendly and it had a great common area where people were always hanging out. So, while I didn’t end up going out to explore the island more that day, I ended up spending my day meeting and hanging out with a bunch of great people. That evening the group of people at the hostel got even bigger and a lot of us spent the evening hanging out and playing different games. It was nice having a relaxed day since the next day was New Years Eve.
While swimming at Freedom Beach, not long after leaving the water, I noticed that I had gotten some red rash type marks on my skin. I assumed I was getting some sort of mild allergic reaction to something in the water. Luckily that evening and the next day it wasn’t too bad, however, when I woke up on New Years Eve I noticed that it had gotten much worse and had become a full body rash from face to legs. The first thing I did that morning was find a pharmacy and get an antihistamine medicine. I had originally planned on spending the day at the beach again, but decided that it would be best to stay out of the water to give my skin a break. Since I didn’t go to the beach, I spent the day once again hanging out with people at my hostel and at some points having some admin work time. That afternoon a large group of us from the hostel headed to the beach for sunset. Hanging out at the beach and watching the sunset was a lot of fun, however, that took a quick turn and for a short time became scary. While sitting in the sand watching the sunset, two young locals set up a firework near the water's edge and near our group. Since we had been sitting there for a while we watched them set it up and all of us assumed it wouldn’t be any big firework since there were a lot of people nearby. We were very wrong. After lighting the firework the two locals ran away from it and fast. It should have been our first sign to move. The first explosion was small and anticlimactic and we thought that was all there was but still thought that it was fun to see. That fun lasted for a brief moment because then the main explosion went off and it was a huge ground level firework. The firework was massive and one other girl and I who were the closest to it, probably within fifteen feet, were terrified. It felt like a bomb went off. We were showered in fire sparks. Thankfully we got away with no serious injuries, however I fully felt the flames hit my face, arms, and legs since I was turned sideways to the firework and was only wearing a t-shirt and shorts. It was terrifying, but after it was done the group I was with and I were laughing about the shock of the whole event and luckily I got a great video of it going off.
After the scary firework experience, the large group of people from my hostel and I all went to dinner at a nearby restaurant and then after we went back to the hostel. Once back at the hostel, I rested for a little while before joining the group again in the common area. Everyone was hanging out, talking, and playing games as we waited until later in the evening to leave for the New Year’s Eve celebration. For New Year’s Eve there was a jungle party on the island that all but a small few were going to. So, until the party started we all hung out and had fun. Then, at 10:30 pm, the hostel arranged for a few tuk tuk trucks to come and pick all of us up to take us to the jungle party. It was a really fun evening spent at the jungle party with people from my hostel and a great way to ring in the New Year.
On New Year’s Day morning, I woke up nice and early as I had a snorkeling day tour booked. The day before everyone thought I was crazy for having booked a day trip with a 9:15 am pick up on New Year's Day and I even thought so as well. However, my thought of everything being less crowded was right and I was so glad I woke up and went on the tour. The first stop of the tour was to Koh Nang Yuan island, a small neighboring group of two islands that are connected by a white sand beach. When we got there we were the only tour boat there and the island was almost completely empty. On the top of Koh Nang Yuan there is a viewpoint where you can see the other island and the connecting beach. The view is stunning and I was so glad I did the tour on New Year’s Day because the line for the viewpoint was less than five minutes long. Normally the line is crazy long and people doing snorkeling day tours don’t have enough time to wait in line for the viewpoint. After a hot and sweaty climb to the viewpoint to start the day, I then went into the water to snorkel. While snorkeling I was able to see multiple reef sharks. It was so cool to be able to swim with the sharks and see all of the other colorful fish and reefs. After the first stop, we weren’t able to go to most of the other normal stops due to rough water, so instead we went to other areas to snorkel. At the second stop the water was a lot deeper but crystal clear and again there were a bunch of colorful fish and different types of reefs. It was great being able to swim down deep and see new kinds of reefs.
The third stop of the day was to Shark Bay. While there I was able to see a massive sea turtle. This time seeing a sea turtle was completely different to the sea turtle I saw a few days prior. This time the waters were rougher, there was a larger group surrounding it, and you had to fight for space, but I was still able to swim down next to it and it was incredible seeing how big it was and all the details and colorings. After using all my remaining energy fighting the waves and strong current at Shark Bay, we headed to our fourth and final stop which was Freedom Beach. Since my allergic reaction was still going strong from the plankton when I was at Freedom Beach the first time, I had planned to stay out of the water. However, since we were in deep enough water they turned on the water for the water slides off the boat and we were able to jump off the platform that was at least 20 feet up from the water. I decided to jump once and go down the slide one time. I was hoping that being in the water for such short periods of time would be fine for my skin because I really wanted to go off both. I loved jumping off the platform, but the slide was the best because the safety of it was questionable and it shot you off so fast and far. It was a really great ending to the snorkeling day trip. After the tour I went back to my hostel to rest and I spent the rest of the evening hanging with people in the common area.
On the second of January, I met Sophia, Sabrina, Ainhoa, and Marta for lunch and then after, Ainhoa, Marta, and I went with Sabrina to a tattoo shop since she was going to get a bamboo tattoo. As she was getting her tattoo I decided to get a bamboo tattoo right after her because why not? It’s a great Thailand souvenir. After both Sabrina and I got tattoos, the four of us walked to a restaurant viewpoint and got smoothies and hung out there for a while and watched the sunset. We then met up with Sophia again as well as Olive and a few others they had met for dinner at a local Thai restaurant. I then headed back to my hostel and realized I still had to book a hostel for the next night. If I could have extended more nights at my current hostel I would have in a heartbeat, however, the island got crazy full with everyone from Koh Phangan coming for a few days before going back for the full moon party. Normally when I book hostels last minute it is fine; this time it backfired big time. When I looked at HostelWorld there were literally no hostels available and Agoda only had really expensive resorts available. I then walked around to other places nearby and was told they were fully booked. As I was walking back to my hostel figuring I’d have to book a ferry off the island or find a friend to crash with, I passed a guesthouse that was down the road from my hostel. I originally thought “What’s the point? They're booked like everywhere else.” Good thing I stopped because they had one remaining bed because they had shut off their online reservations. I have never been so relieved. After securing a bed for the next night I went back to my hostel and spent the rest of the night with everyone there. It was a fun end to a very stressful situation.
My final three days on Koh Tao were pretty uneventful. I spent most of my time planning where I was going next, resting after having had a really busy two weeks, and hanging out with people at my first hostel on the island. I also was using the time to help let my rash finish healing. While uneventful, it was an enjoyable three days. On my final night on Koh Tao I went to the beach to watch the sunset and it was the best ending to my eight days on the island. The sunset started as a pretty typical sunset but as the sun went past the horizon the sky lit up with the most breathtaking colors. It was by far the most amazing sunset I have ever seen. There aren’t enough words to describe how wonderful it was. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to my time on Koh Tao, an island that I fell in love with and would go back to in a heartbeat.
When planning my time on Koh Tao, I originally only planned to stay on the island for four days; I ended up staying eight days. There was something about Koh Tao that kept me there. If I had enough time I would have kept extending my time there. While there I stayed at one of my favorite hostels I have ever been to and met so many awesome people. It really showed how solo travel truly isn’t lonely.
“You can always make more money, but you only have so many days to make more memories.”
- Unknown
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