Back to Ko Tao

Victoria and I left Ko Tao mid afternoon on Monday to make our way back to Ko Phangan. Tuesday we went and checked out a different yoga studio on the island called Pyramid yoga. High up on a hill with a nice walk through the woods to get to, I had heard that the yoga studio was in the shape of a pyramid and quite interesting looking. However, they must have several studios on their property as the studio we had class in was not quite the shape of a pyramid. It was still a very nice studio and it was amusing listening to a bunch of rustling in the roof, constructed of leaves and other natural components from the environment. A moment later a medium sized rat came bursting through onto one of the beams up high, making its way across the room and disappearing back into the roof. Also sitting up high in the beams were a couple of large sized geckos relaxing and perhaps waiting for a meal to come their way.



On Wed, after having packed up my two bags, I was on the road again and back up to Ko Tao. I really enjoyed my time there, and wanted to experience the island a little more and perhaps do the scuba certification. My first day there I returned to Shark Bay to snorkle but didn't have any luck in seeing a black tipped shark. The next day, Thursday, Victoria rejoined me on the island. I was unable to talk her into doing the scuba certification with me, but we still had a great time together for the next 4-5 days. I decided to postpone doing my own scuba cert. as I preferred to spend my time with her while holding off on the cert. The next day we went snorkling on Shark bay together. The coral reefs weren't as stunning on the bay as I had seen in other locations, but it was nice being in a new spot and antipicating what may come up next. We had swam out a distance when Victoria decided she wanted to head back to the beach. I swam out a little further then decided to make my own way back to the beach. Upon arriving back I found Victoria in a shocked state as she had the luck to have one of the black tipped reef sharks swim by her on her swim back. Still a bit shaken and trembling, she commented how it happened so quick as the shark cruised right by her, paying no attention to her whatsever.



While I went back to Shark Bay several times in the next times to press my luck in seeing a shark, I had no such luck as the weather was on and off rainy and windy during the next several days. The visibility was terrible and only in certain spots could one see much of anything. One other beach we visited that was quite nice was Tanote Beach on the eastern coast of the island. While not possessing a huge beach, the snorkeling was supposed to be great with more chances of seeing non-dangerous sharks. However, like Shark Bay, the visibility was not very great due to the weather of the past few days. I would love to go back to the beach on a day of clear visibility as areas of visilibility I did observe were quite nice.



Our last day together was on Monday as Victoria was leaving that afternoon. Waking up that morning I spotted one of the large thai centipedes crawling along the baseboards of the room. About 3 or 4 inches long with sizable legs, they are supposed to pack a nasty bite and be a bit venomous. Thanks goodness it hadn't made its way onto the bed. I snapped a few pics of it and swept it out the door and off the porch, safe distance from the door. We were praying for good weather and lots of sun as the previous days weather had been so erratic. We were blessed with a beautiful day and headed back to our favorite beach, Shark Bay. It appeared as nearly everyone else on the island had the same idea from having been couped up from the foul beach weather in recent days. We arrived at the beach around 10 am and it was still relatively free from people. However, by noon prime beach space became scarce due to the influx of beach goers. I felt like I was on the French Riviera or Miami Beach observing on the beautiful European women sunbathing and swimming topless. I felt very lucky myself to be sitting alongside Victoria, very beautiful herself but a bit modest to be walking around and swimming topless.



Later in the day I had to drive Victoria to the pier to drop her off on her way back to Ko Phangan. She only had about 3 days left in her trip before she had to head back to Munich. I felt very blessed to have met her and have been able to spend about 3 wks with her. I will always remember the times I had with her on Ko Tao and Ko Phangan. She totally made my stay more memorable and worthwhile and I was quite sad to be seeing her leave. We will keep in touch through email and perhaps I will get a chance in the future to visit her in Munich if I get a chance to make it too Germany.