First Week in Thailand

We've been in Thailand a little over a week now and we've finally found a place we really love. We liked our little beach in Phuket (Kata Beach-really phenomenally gorgeous, although lined with European tourists, which was just fine with us) and the little guest house we stayed in. But all in all Phuket is complete madness---Patong is like Spring-Break-Cancun times a million, so we didn't spend any time there and moved along to Koh Phi Phi, which is supposedly like THE place to go in Andaman Thailand. We didn't pre-book a room which was our first mistake and ended up paying twice as much as we wanted because practically everything was full. But we actually didn't like it at all so 2 nights were all we needed. We had really built up Phi Phi in our minds as the quintessentially idyllic beach paradise, and our experience there was the perfect example of how easy it is to imagine a place to be one thing when the reality is something entirely different.  The little island was completely swarmed with tourists and only tourists, and everything catered specifically to them. (ok, like Phuket to the 10th. Absolute madness.) We did get some nice massages there, though!! (1 hour for  US$9! Amazing!) So we left the Andaman Coast to head east to Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand, which is where we are now. It was an interesting journey, including an 8 hour overnight cargo ferry where we were all lined up like sardines on a thin mat on the ground! Would not recommend this, but it was really cheap! We have loved our time in Koh Tao. The people here are so friendly, our little guesthouse (Captain Nemo's) is great and clean, there are tons of great international restaurants, the weather has been perfect, and we are about to finish our Open Water Scuba Diver course tomorrow! We feel really fortunate because we are the only students in our class and our British instructor is fantasic. We completed our first 2 open water dives today, and they were amazing..we really loved seeing all the coral and fish, and experiencing being completely submerged and weightless and able to explore such a unique environment. We feel like we could stay here awhile, but are taking a night train to Bangkok on Saturday and then off to Cambodia....

-Jesikah