The north of Thailand was lovely, I love being in the mountains. But I was also craving some beaches at this point. So it was time to go the south, I had heard some great things about Koh Tao so that was my next destination. I was quite far away from that part of Thailand though, so I decided to fly from Chiang Mai to Surat Thani. But before doing that I decided to treat myself to a couple of nights in an actual hotel after weeks of “shared spaces”. I found a deal on booking.com and the experience definitely didn’t disappoint. 20 quid a night definitely goes a lot further here than it does in Europe. The matras was so incredibly comfy, I think I might have had the best sleep I ever had in that bed. It was great to have a feeling of being a real little independent grown up lady with her own hard-earned money treating herself to some luxury. 

Oh and one novelty worth mentioning is that my charger broke on the morning of my leave. I was really far away from any shops so would have to take a taxi. But when I opened the Grab app to see how long it would take me to get there I realised that I could also just order a charger, like you could order food. This worked, within 20 minutes I had a new charging cable delivered to my hotel room… The future is now and it’s so convenient!

When it was time to leave I felt it a shame but I was also excited for the white beaches foreseen in the near-future. But first I had to come across a hurdle called Surat Thani. It wasn’t possible to fly down there and then get the boat to Koh Tao in one day so I booked a stay in a hotel close to the airport. It was dead cheap but looked pretty fancy, calling itself a “boutique hotel resort”. What a mouthful of what turned out to be rubbish. It turned out I’d made a mistake and booked the wrong night (two days later) somehow. Because I thought the place looked like great value I decided I didn’t want to waste money and so booked two extra nights before to bridge my time between Surat Thani and Koh Tao. But it turned out to be exactly what you were paying for and it also rained the whole time- so I was quite miserable to say the least. 

The highlight of my time there was another mistake involving getting dropped off at a gas station restaurant after mistaking it for an actual high-rated restaurant. Then getting stranded there because I was so far in the middle of nowhere that nobody would come to pick me up. Eventually having to beg the restaurant owner to help me while trying not to cry in frustration and self-pity- getting a ride but not having any change so giving her a ridiculous tip for her kind gesture all to return to my dreary little room that I was sharing with a little lizard that would scare the bejesus out of me every now and then when scuttling over the ceiling or falling out of the curtains when I closed them. Woohoo! But things can’t be perfect and at least I was truly recharged and ready for action in Koh Tao…