Wrestling Moray Eels and Swimmer's Ear

Well we've arrived in the southern islands of Thailand after a very scary bus ride to Chumpon from Bangkok.
There we were sound asleep when a loud bang and a trailing hiss woke the bus around 2 am (night bus). Soon after a pit stop at a bathroom everyone was huddled around a massive shredded bus tire, but since the driver wasn't too worried neither were we.

It was an early morning ferry to get to Kho Tao and the sunrise was gorgeous.
On Kho Tao we were swarmed by people trying to get us to get to their resorts and such, but with our stomachs empty we bussled through and got some banana pancakes and went room hunting.
We found Scuba Shack and made arrangements to do an 'Open Water' scuba package that had us sold (with 4 ocean dives), and a PADI certification.

The first few days were basics and reading and intro diving (basic drills and such), but the last two we squeezed in 3 dives and saw a whole bunch of cool fish, coral and jellyfish - even the occasional moray eel.
It was great fun and well worth the trip here, alas we both have swimmers ear. It kinda hurts and it feels like you're on a swaying ship from time to time but we're alright.

We just spent an extra day on the island to soak up some sun and to see the 'Underwater Festival', a yearly fundraiser/party/awareness event for the reefs and just an overall piss up. We missed some of it - study, study!
As for the beach its beautiful, white sands and blue waters. We knew we were going to hit this place last because if we came here first we probably wouldn't leave!

We met some cool people and had our own 'guard puppies' on the beach. Seemed that every time we'd sit down to enjoy some rays, two puppies would come running to our section of the beach and play fight on our things.

But as for adventure, we're off to the island of Kho Pagnyang to see what's going on over there (and more sun).

Our trip is coming to a close but a new one awaits in Australia, stay tuned and we'll update soon with some pictures and video.

Safe travels,
Adrian & Dayle "?"