I tried to tell myself that it didn't matter where I went as long as there was a beach. That might have been true had it not been for koh lipe. Koh lipe mad me realise just how good a beach can be and it took me a long time before I found a beach that was even close to koh lipe's.
People kept telling me that if I liked koh lipe then I would live koh Tao. Everyone seemed to think koh Tao was the place to go for me and I really wanted to go there. The only problem was that it was so far from koh lipe. I thought it would be better to just go to an island closer and easier to get to. I finally decided on koh mook because it was supposedly even more beautiful than koh lipe just a bit less touristy. Sounded good to me, so I bought the (really expensive) ticket and left the next day.
I hated koh mook from the first time I saw it. How can you hate an island? Maybe it was because the beaches were not white enough, maybe because I walked with my heavy backpack across the island for 30minutes in extreme heat or maybe it was just because I compared it to koh lipe. Finally, I found a place to stay the night without it being too expensive. U went down to the beach and hung out there for most of the day. Met som Swedish women who told me there would be yoga at the beach later if I wanted to join them. I haven't done much yoga before but yoga on the beach in sunset was amazing and somehow it reminded me of Nepal. After yoga I had dinner with some nice older people from Slovenia. After that I took a walk on the beach and met some of my yoga friends. Turned out they were teaching English in trang, a city on the main land close to koh mook. They invited me to go with them to trang and see their schools, I would have lived to an thought hard about going. I finally decided not to go, mostly because it feels like I'm running out of time and I still have places I want to see. Anyways, it turned out to be an ok day after all.
The next day I went to emerald cave which is a cave you can only reach by swimming. I went together with a french couple and we arrived there earlier than anyone else and got the cave all to our selves. It was one of the most fantastic places I've ever been to! You swam through a pitch black cave 80 meters and then you could see the light with white sand and green water. It felt as if I was in pirates of the Caribbean and that johnny depp would come swimming into the cave any minute to hide his stolen treasures. He didn't show up... Later we heard that if you come later in the day there are hundreds of people there so I guess we were really lucky.
After lunch I decided that I'd had enough of koh mook and decided to go to koh lanta with the French couple. We thought it would take us about two hours to get there but it ended up taking us 5. We had to go on a snorkel boat which stopped on islands and along cliffs for snorkelling. We saw some nice beaches and I saw a small shark! He was just swimming under me when I was snorkelling. I couldn't believe that it actually was a shark until I came up to the surface and people around me asked me if I'd seen the shark. He was just half a meter or so but still, it was a shark! When we finally reached koh lanta I was in a bad mood and could not appreciate the hotel, the long beach or the swimming pool and decided to move on the next day. I'm sure koh lanta is a nice island but it was something about it hat just didn't appeal to me. I think it was too big and anonymous. I like the smaller islands with nice people and nice cafes. Saw a sign for going to koh Tao. The trip would take 18hours and included the night ferry but I jut couldn't resist it and booked my ticket for the next day.
Turned out two of my friends from previous islands were going to koh tao as well so now I'm on one of the best islands together with friends, suddenly I'm not as homesick anymore.
