Our mornings have become very routine - we wake about 8 a.m. And John goes out an opens our windows so we can view our little cove and watch the ebb and flow of the ocean. The dive boats are usually just arriving at the dive spot near our cove. Some of our neighbors have a routine of a morning snorkel and swim, followed by tai chi and sunbathing. Have I mentioned many women go topless here? Just a side note. Anyway, after awhile of just admiring the view John will head up to our little restaurant and order breakfast from our very excitable Thai host - banana pancake and nescafe for John, fruit, yogurt and tea for me. Then as we enjoy breakfast on our little deck with its oceanview we contemplate our day. This envitably results in us hoping on our scooter to explore another beach, after telling our host that we will stay "just one more day". They smile and nod, acknowledging that this is a normal occurrence - the inability to leave the island. We spend our last 2 days on Ko Tao by adding a morning swim and snorkel from our cove over to a neighboring private beach to our normal routine. I don't know if they are feeding the fish there but there are millions of fish right at the shore that just circle you as you enter the water. If you lie there with your mask on they will surround you and swim towards you, mouths open, as if they will go right into your mask, swerving around you at the last minute. I wish I had an underwater camera for that one!
Unfortunately we had a little bit of bad luck in Ko Tao, on our last night we lost a rented snorkel and mask on the rutted bumpy road out to Tanote Bay. And there was already that little incident I had with the motorscooter plus some additional underbelly scratches from the rocky terrain. All in all it was't so bad though. Both places were reasonable (in fact John had to insist on paying the woman we rented the snorkel from more than she asked as he knew what it was worth. She was a sweetheart who helped us with boat tickets and watched our bags the day we left town). We had to just chalk the extra expense up to incidental traveling expenses. We said good bye to our friend Deb and caught the 4 pm boat to Chumphon where we would spend the night before heading to Krabi in the morning. Good bye Jansom Bay Bungalows, good bye Ko Tao.
