What Mr & Mrs G Did...: Day 7: Snorkelling in Koh Tao and Koh Nang Yuan

Up at 7:30am for brekkie, which we managed despite neither of us setting our alarms- obviously fully into holiday mood now- and off for a short transfer to the boat launch.

We took an awesome speed boat north east for about 1.5 hours and spent the trip being entirely entertained by a gaggle (is it a gaggle?) of amusing Chinese women. They were about middle aged, but seemed to act like kittens. They'd run about the boat and invariably fall over, giggle, fight with each a bit, then fall asleep... This cycle repeated itself about four times in 90 minutes! Very funny.

We pulled up about 100m off the coast of the southern corner of Koh Tao and were presented with life jackets and chucked in. Now, Dave is very, very (very) scared of sharks... and Koh Tao has a cove called... dun dun dah... Shark Bay.

But, once the brown slick had stopped flowing from Dave's backside, he quickly realised how fun it was and got a bit more adventurous.

We saw lots of coral and loads of black and white striped fish (that I don't know the name of), some weird, long thin spindly fish (that I don't know the name of) and big shoals of small shiny fish (they might actually be called "small shiny fish", like a Ronseal thing?)

After about an hour and feeling at ease, it was time to move on to Koh Nang Yuan at the north of the island and lunch en route.

Lunch was a pretty causal affair which involved some chicken and noodles, a cold drink and sitting on bean bags in the gorgeous sunshine! Perfect.

A short blast round the coast and we were at the pier at Koh Nang Yuan. Now this place is probably exactly what you imagine a tropical island is like... Close your eyes and think about it... You just imagined Koh Nang Yuan.

You could walk in from the beach here and the sea was crystal clear; aquarium style. Unfortunately, a lot of the coral was a bit bleached and tired and whilst there weren't quite so many fish, the variety was amazing.

We found a large of parrot fish (Yup, know that one) chomping away on the coral, lots of tangs (bit like Dory) and even a big trigger fish.

There was a bit group of scuba divers learning to dive, and one of the slippery suckers crept into Dave's peripheral vision instantly reinstating the shark fears and prompting the brown slick to start again in full flow!

An hour and half flew by and it was time to head home and back to an afternoon by the pool (just in case all day face down in the water didn't burn us enough!)