Re-Union days with Amanda and Bailey!

Re-union days:

So over the next 3 days me, Bailey and Amanda just hung out and chilled. The first day me and Amanda went up to the mountain-view infinity pool, which is stunning, where we chilled, lie and fried, gossiped and admired the amazing views, whilst Bailey went on a kayaking trip on his own (he loves kayaking!) He then met us at the pool later that afternoon and we all chilled together before heading back to the room for showers. That evening we headed back to Sairee beach for the Queen’s Cabaret (LadyBoy show). We had food at Fizz Lounge on the beach, which was so good, and then went for beers at Simple Life before the cabaret. Bailey chugged down 3 Sangsom and Cokes so he was quite drunk! The cabaret was awesome as usual, Beyonce and Rihanna look-alikes stole the show! We then got pictures with a couple of the ladyboys and then headed back to our resort.

The next day we decided to do something with our time, so we ate lunch at the resort, then headed to Sairee Beach to get a boat taxi over to NangYuan Island (two tiny stunning islands joined together by a beautiful sandbar and amazing coral). The dock was exceptionally busy so we had to clamber over 6 longtail boats to get to it. It was way way way too hot to do the viewpoint, so instead we chilled on the beach for 2 hours. But because the water was so far out and too warm in the shallow, we decided to make our way over to the deeper water – error! This involved swimming through low water over lots of coral, then trekking over tons of sharp coral on the beach at the side, climbing over baking hot and slippery black rocks, then trekking some more coral, and sliding down some rocks to get to waist deep cool water – where there was still tons of coral so you didn’t want to put your feet down for fear of cutting them! Bailey had found a pole, which he insisted helped with the effort over, but it really didn’t, still, he kept hold of that pole! We are idiots! Lol We then heard some people snorkelling had seen reef sharks (which are harmless) but this still freaked Amanda out so we made our way back after about 10mins – over yet more coral, slippery hot rocks and sand. But eventually we made it! We then had drinks and before we knew it, it was time to leave. So we headed down to the dock, where a million other tourists waited for their taxi boats too (the final boats left at 5pm, it was 4.45pm so everyone was leaving). We thought we’d have to clamber over a load more longtail boats but our guy wasn’t there yet, so quite a few left so that eventually we only had to clamber over one boat to get to ours. Meanwhile though dark clouds had come in and it started to drizzle, but it did create a BEAUTIFUL rainbow over the water and Koh Tao, right in front of us (where’s that pot of gold?!). We then headed back to Sairee Beach where I spotted Becca so we chatted about how her first day on her Open Water went and then we grabbed a taxi back to our resort. We decided to eat in our village that night so we went for a quick evening dip in the pool and then showered before venturing down the road to the village. We found a super cute little Thai restaurant – Ying Yang restaurant – where we had some amazing food! They were super busy and forgot our drinks and kept apologising, but we really didn’t mind! They also had a few power shortages, just adds to the authenticity! Me and Amanda then went for some lovely Thai oil massages and we hit the sack around 11pm.

Our last full day together was literally spent around the pool, Bailey went Kayaking again, me and Amanda just sunbathed, chilled by the beachside infinity pool and did a quick shopping run in the village where we met the CUTEST little puppy! In the evening I got a few cool sunset pix and we headed to Sairee Beach for a meal at Windy Beach Resort, watched the awesome fireshow and then did a little shopping before heading back and aiming to pack, but decided to leave it til the morning!

Amanda and Bailey were leaving for Bangkok today, so we packed in the morning, checked out and then we had two hours to kill til our free pickup to the port, so we just took our time over lunch. Once at the port I said my goodbyes to them – I’d be seeing them again in Bangkok before we all flew out, so it was goodbye til then – then I got a taxi over to Big Blue and checked in there. Unfortunately even though I’d asked for a bed in 105 with Becca (and there was space) I got put in room 101. I then waited for Becca to come back after her final 2 Open Water dives and me, her and Conan just chilled on the beach til the evening. Becca and I then had showers and re-met at the restaurant for food and a couple of drinks as it was her video screening, met her team and instructor, Ernesto, then chatted to John and his first open water group of 6 and we watched their video screening, as Ernesto and John’s groups were filmed together. John, as well as a diving instructor, surfer, ex-olympic tryout swimmer, is also a DJ! So he was doing a set tonight at the Big Blue Bar, so we stayed for that which was pretty awesome – he’s definitely a man of multi-talents!! Conan and Mitch his friend met us, I got to know Becca’s team a little more and also John’s team, who we’d be doing the advanced course with tomorrow (only 3 of them, Saraah, who I found out was on my flight from Singapore to Melbourne on the 31st July – how weird?! Tasha and Ben). Before long (around midnight) John was eyeballing me and Becca telling/signing for us to go home and sleep! So we did as we were told and went to bed, so we’d (kinda) be fresh for our 10am start – didn’t help we’d had a little to drink, oops!