Ko Samui
From Krabi on the west coast I caught the bus across to Surat Thani on the east coast, and then crossed by boat onto Ko Samui - which is one of a group of three islands which are popular with backpackers - Ko Samui for drinking, Ko Phan Ngang for dancing, and Ko Tao for diving. Once again I was scrambling for accommodation late at night, so I hadn't really learnt my lesson from Krabi, but I only had myself to blame this time which made it easier to cope with. As it was, the chalet 20m walk from the beach was pretty good. Ko Samui, more so than Krabi, is filled with drunken Europeans, but for whatever reason this didn't bother me, and I had a pretty good time meeting up with random people, playing pool and visiting a few of the nightclubs. One disturbing thing is the number of bizarre animals (monkeys, squirrels, crocodiles!) that are chained up and trawled around all the pubs and clubs for tourists to take photos with – enough “enlightened” Europeans are stupid enough to support this animal trade by paying for photos.

Somehow, I managed to stay on the island for 3 days without taking a single photo. Although, to be fair, Ko Samui isn't really photogenic compared to Ko Lipe, and Ko Tao to follow...

Ko Tao
A few days of boozing on Ko Samui was enough, and the next stop was Ko Tao (bypassing the party island of Ko Phan Ngang). I spend the first night in the quiet south of the island in a Burmese-run resort on a hill with stunning sunset views – although this meant the rooms were boiling all night, so I head for the main strip on the west coast where I'd read good reviews for a few of the diving schools. I decided to do my open water course with http://www.phoenix-divers.com/" rel="nofollow">Phoenix/AC Resort, which I can recommend. I was lucky with my timing (which I think was during one of the Full Moon Parties on Ko Phan Ngang), which meant that myself and one other Swedish guy (Jacob) were the only students with one dive master and one trainee dive master – essentially one-on-one supervision. I'd chickened out of getting my scuba licence while I was an undergrad, so I'm glad I've finally done it – and it was so much easier than I thought it would be. We did a few recreational dives after our course, in search of sharks, but we lucked out both times...

Ko Tao is a fantastic place for relaxing – even without the diving. It has these great shaded, wooden-floored restaurants that overhang the beach, with views of still blue water and not much noise about, which are fantastic if you just want to read a book or chat. There are nightclubs open late, from what I could hear, but I didn't visit any so can't really comment on the nightlife – the daylife was good enough for me.