It's completely given over to tourism, but has a mellow, laidback feel. There's a small road, basically a glorified sidewalk, that runs between the main road and the beach. Most of the dive shops and guest houses can be found along the 'yellow brick road'.
Motorbikes and motorized carts use it, which is a nuisance, but otherwise it makes for a pleasant stroll when you're trying to choose a dive shop or looking for a place to eat.
Koh Tao is also one of the premier diving destinations in Southeast Asia. When I was here last year it was raining and the visibility was poor, but I was looking forward to diving so I went anyway. I aggravated my old back injuries and had to spend a week recuperating in Bangkok.
No such problems, this time around. The weather was hot and sunny. The diving was great. The beaches on all these islands are surprisingly narrow, though. This is the main beach, Hat Sairee, at low tide.
That hump in the distance is Koh Nang Yuan. It's the most gorgeous beach I've ever seen, so it deserves its own post.
Here is the "longtail" boat with our gear which ferried us to the dive boat, in the distance on the left. Even at high tide the water is so shallow you can walk nearly all the way to the boat.
The dive sites were great, but horribly overcrowded at times.
When I dove here last year I went with Ban's Diving Resort, which I didn't care for at all. This time I went with a smaller outfit called Scuba Junction, which I liked a lot. Our divemaster was a local girl named Kay. If you dive on Koh Tao I would recommend you dive with her.
I'm a bit biased because she saved my life. Well, maybe not my life, but she did save me from a berserk titan triggerfish. These fish are territorial, and mean. This one was close to three feet long and seriously pissed off.
What you need to know about triggerfish is how they feed. They bite off chunks of coral, sort out the chewy parts, and then spit out the rest. You do not want to get bitten by a fish that eats rock.
He came after Kay and I. As divemaster its her responsibility to make sure that I make it back to the surface with all of my flesh intact. He came at us several times. We fended him off with our fins. She gestured for me to get behind her. I set chivalry aside for a few moments and obeyed.
He went away. We swam off.
He came back. It took several minutes to finally get him to go away. Topside we talked about the encounter. She said she's been diving in those waters all her life and never seen a triggerfish that aggressive. Normally they just want to scare you off their territory.
On a less stressful note, as required by blogger bylaws, here is the obligatory sunset shot.
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