Under the Sea - Koh Tao, Thailand

May 16, 2017

Under the Sea - Koh Tao, Thailand

The pure amerald sea is right in front of you and beautiful sun is upon your body. The summer is right ahead of us, and the skin is still damaged by winter sun, which was complete dull. Thailand is the ideal country to absorb and enjoy sun and the beautiful sea. Above all the seas and islands, I would like to introduce Koh Tao out of three islands, located right next to each other: Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao.

Koh Tao is a small island of approximately 21 km² and receives over a 100,000 visitors per year. It is famous for pristine white sand and glittering blue seas. Under the water? It is even better. Scuba diving is recognized as some of the best dive training facilities in the world. If you do not like the intense diving, snorkeling is a good option. You can walk or kayak your own to snorkel Koh Tao. It is already enough to see the beauty of sea around the island. Before you plan to do scuba diving or snorkeling, renting a motorcycle or scooter near your hotel should be completed. Asking the accommodation to drop you off at such a place is way more pricier than renting a motorcycle. And it is quite fun to drive around your own.

Take a bike around the island. Shark Bay is a good place to go snorkeling. Sounds scary because of the word shark? Do not worry about it. They are only small black-tip reef sharks. These sharks are more cautious when encountering divers and can usually be driven off. Moreover, I, personally, recommend you to bring a safety vest because the wave was quite strong.

Other various dive locations around Koh Tao are:
   Chumphon Pinnacles
   Southwest Pinnacles
   Green Rock
   White Rock
   Red Rock
   Japanese Gardens
   Twin Pinnacles
   HTMS Sattakut
   Hin Pee Wee
   Mango Bay
   Ao Leuk
   Shark Island
   Hin Wong
   Lighthouse Bay
   Laem Thein
   Ocean Utopia

The pictures above include: Southwest Pinnacles, White Rock, and Japanese Garden.

After the activities, the hunger can be filled with foods. There are a lot of visitors, and for that reason, italian, french, etc. restaurants can be found everywhere. However, if you are interested in regional food, please order pad ped satoh sai gung or gaeng tai pla. Southern Thai food is generally spicy and colorful: It was influenced by Malay peninsula and the local Islamic community. Food in the south has an emphasis on seafood and vegetables. Pad ped satoh sai gung is a dish of shrimps with the use of the seasonal satoh bean. Gaeng tai pla is, on the other hand, pickled fish intestine soup. All the regional foods are obvious catch for the visitors, containing strong flavours but all are delicious, hot, sweet and sour, shooting your tougue.