Hello there, Koh Tao

Sometimes I think I could have stayed there forever, although it would have killed me. Koh Tao was super nice and our first taste of island life. Oh lazy days and amazing nights. Learning to dive and meeting new people. This was about a week before the full moon party on Haad Rin Beach on the island of Koh Phangan, September 2000 I think. I absolutely love a sunset (these photos do not do it justice) and settling down with a beer on the beach and watching this every evening was heavenly. A little slice of natures splendor. Complete with some mellow, ambient tunes resonating from a little beach bar in the background. It was always an amazing start to the evenings' fun.

Koh Tao was small and remote. The closest neighbouring island was an hour away by boat. Somehow you get a strong sense of how beautiful life is, how easy it is to take the important things in life for granted when you are this far away from everything. Enjoy it as you are only here once. The possibilities are indeed infinite.

To this day, one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen and experienced was on the water just off this island as we were heading to Koh Phangan for the full moon party (yay!).
The sun looked like a big orange fireball slowly sinking into the sea on the horizon, burning the sky orange and reds as it went. On the other side of the boat, the moon on the same axis, was half visible on the opposite horizon! Rising from the sea to meet the night. And they were both so big and vibrant! It was sooo cool to see and quite a spiritual moment (but that could have been all the drugs I'd taken).

The journey back was hellish as we had stayed up and partied into the next day (and for the next few nights). The heat was unforgiving. I'd also lost my shoes as I'd buried them for safe keeping and someone dug them up. Thanks for that! (Well, it seemed like a well thought-out plan at the time haha).