I had the opportunity to visit 2 of the islands of Thailand…. As well experience the typhoon of a century! I’m alive and well, and thankful the typhoon changed track AWAY from our island. I was on Koh Tao when we got the warnings.

Koh Tao is basically a divers and pub crawlers dream place. This island had everything, minus the Toasties (how Kiwis call grilled cheese) when the typhoon hit which was a problem when you needed a late night snack after the bar or a hangover pick me up in the morning… The island has many hidden treasures and I felt very safe on it after hearing that some people had issues with safety previously on it. I got to visit almost every pub and night club on our side of the island as well as experience the biggest pub crawl in SE Asia.

There a lot more stories I can tell about this pub crawl, but you’ll just have to buy me a beer when I get back home haha.

Near Koh Tao is also a small batch of islands that are attached by a couple sandbars, it was gorgeous and had the amazing turquoise water you see in movies.

The other island we were on was Koh Pha-ngan. This island is where I experienced my first full moon party and it was on New Years Eve. It is everything people say and more. The flaming jump ropes, fireworks, ALL THE BUCKETS, and night clubs on the beach. As a tour, it was our goal to make it to sunrise for a photo… let me tell you, it was a struggle that last hour before sunrise. To be completely honest with you, this was a big party after repeated days and nights of heavy drinking. My liver will need a vacation from these islands. This island was neat because it had awesome shops to wander through as well as provided many somewhat memorable nights for myself (sorry mom for all the drunk FaceTimes). We got to stay in these awesome little bungalows too which were right on the beach. This is also where I tried Papaya salad for the first time… heads up, it’s crazy spicy, like nothing I had ever experience. I had the flaming shits for a day and a half.

The only thing I would change is to avoid is taking the ferry a day before a severe typhoon warning… Other than that, I had a pretty awesome time on these islands and even crossed a couple things off my bucket list; Skinny dipping (again, sorry mom) and snorkelling!