Swedish in Singapore: Himwong Pinnacle, Twin Rock and Koh Tao

Overall, Koh Samui had a lot of pulse but quite some hassling going on and amongst others you need to bargain for everything. Most people bought copies of Billabong products such as shorts, T-shits and tops, various sarongs, bikinis, diving equipment and gadgets (snorkels, masks, fins, suites, sweaters). However, it turned out that all of the latter were also available on Koh Tao (meaning Turtle Island btw); it is also famous for fantastic diving and snorkeling waters, more of the country-side-charm compared to Koh Samui and to have great and cheap resorts.

Hence we decided to cancel our room at Koh Samui, pack our bags..

..and take a few last head shots leaving

I just had to take a pic of this absolutely fab vehicle; I really want one. Just imagine how practical, picking up guests from the airport and fitting all their luggage in the side carriage, with another two passengers on the small bench and one behind me. Mams: jag skojar!

We had spoken to the Discovery Divers at the Amari Palm Reef Hotel and since we were going out with them on one of the reefs close to Koh Tao, we had asked to be dropped on the main pier (by the large turtle statue) before they went back. Hence all our stuff went with us and walking out to the boat, in the water of course, became a bit interesting. This is again where tall men come in very handy: Jonas just placed our bags on each shoulder and walked. No biggie

As mentioned before, Discovery Divers were quite over priced but everything was very fancy i. e. we basically only had to show up and everything was taken care of. The equipment was good (and they fixed all gear before and after the dives for us), the boat was very bright and shiny and the organization was smooth. On the other hand, for someone like me, who by then had only done 8 dives in total in my entire life (where 6 of them were carried out 4 years ago), it's very useful to sort out the equipment myself. I almost felt a bit irritated that I wasn't allowed to do it on my own and this is not a way of diving which suits us

In addition, it was very far to go from Koh Samui to sites close to Koh Tao, the sea was quite wild (waves of 1-2 meters) and they drove very fast, so a lot of people got quite sea sick. I was fine until a Japanese dude next to me started hurling and then looking at the far and steady horizon did not help much. I took a pill (which almost all instructors have with them and give out for free btw), but was quite worried I'd get drowsy during the dive

Fortunately I didn't, but it took a good 25 minutes before the pill started working and I was really trying not to cascade-vomit all over the equipment they had placed in the middle of the lower deck just in front of us. Can you imagine how popular I would've been..?

When we finally reached our first destination, we started by letting off people doing their open water license at Him Wong Beach..

..and it was the first time I was allowed to go play with the big girls and boys who were advanced; so proud!

And off we went towards the reefs and rocks

Me feeling a bit tired but very happy after going down with a boat line (first time ever!) on both dives at Him Wong Pinnacle and Twin Rock (18-22m, 15m visibility, 28 C = very, very nice). We saw a huge turtle eating sea weed on one of the reefs (my first sighting of one!), a giant blue spotted sting ray and quite a few moray eels. In addition there were two Indian Walkmen (again the first I've seen), looking like grey dragon/scorpion fish, but they actually walk on the bottom, with crab like legs and they were quite big apparently. In addition, our diving instructor picked up a couple of sea urchins, flipped them upside down and fed them to a parrot fish. All of us could hear how the fish simply crushed the urchin spikes and I felt quite glad I didn't have any food for it. I would probably have lost a finger or so ;)

Finally ashore, we realized that if the inclinations down/up many of the roads on Koh Tao were more than 45 degrees, and you really don't want to push your 100-something small city MC up such hills, you need to invest in something with more 'umpf'. It therefore became a 350 cc ATV with 4-wheel drive. It was a huge fitting us both and our luggage, easy to drive and comfortable, which really made a big difference in the quality of our vacation. Taxi is of course cheap compared to Sweden or Japan, but you don't want to be dependent on that for days, especially since most resorts are about 10 minutes away from the central area

We learned exactly how good the choice of renting the ATV was, when we entered the 'road' towards our hotel and the inclination just became worse and worse alongside the traffic. When we in addition met a truck on a 'road' (fit for walking or possibly bicycles), I was really questioning what we had gotten ourselves into, stopped taking pics and started holding on for dear life

Reaching solid ground at Coral View Resort was a true blessing, after lying backwards on the ATV in a downwards hill that forced us both to have to equalize once we got down

The view was however breathtaking, service worse (but if you just told the staff you needed cleaning of the room at least they sorted out toilet paper, soap and clean towels the third time you asked)..

..and getting to the general bathroom at the reception area included climbing two ladders; that's no fun if you have tried not peeing your pants in pure fear going down a roller-coaster-slope for the last 15 minutes

However, the setting with a feeling of sitting in the tree tops having a meal, with a view of the private beach and Shark Island in the background really made it worth it

The very clean bungalows came with full walls everywhere (a true plus actually), a mosquito net over the bed and one sealing fan which turned out to be more than sufficient

We also had a bathroom with built in rocks; it further came with a rather large, grey, hairy pet spider which I discovered quite quickly. I was quite proud over myself though, asking Jonas calmly if there were grey Tarantellas in the world, before making a huge leap into the main room, hiding in the bed behind the mosquito net, at the same time giving confused, one-word composed commandments, basically going: 'you', 'man', 'me', 'woman', 'huge', 'enormous', 'massive', 'spider', 'men', 'responsible', with a lot of gestures. J wasn't too thrilled either to tell you the truth, but managed to wash it down the drain in the end with the shower hose

It was hence crucial to check the rest of the room for additional pets..

..admiring the view from our window..

..until we joined..

..some of our fellow guests down by the beach bar..

..and some squeezed in a nap (it's really astonishing how tired you get after diving)..

..while others were admiring the view. I was seriously thinking about taking a swim towards Shark Island (straight ahead), since I was assured by the staff it would not house any sharks. However, I was still wondering a bit about the name and even though it was probably due to the shark-fin-like shape of the island itself, I decided it might not be the best of ideas, since I had no clue about currents surrounding it. After the last encounter with heavy currents in Malaysia (when we drifted about 100 meters in a few minutes), I wasn't too keen on having a trial and error run ;)

When everyone in our marriage was awake, we did a huge effort to find food. The hamburgers with fruit juice made us promise ourselves to go for local dishes in the future