Despite time being short, a stop on the island of Koh Tao had to be done. This is the second most popular location in the world to learn to dive, but my view that this is an expensive hobby to add to my repertoire remains, and travelling on a budget wasn't really going to stretch to a PADI course whilst here.
 
The numerous dive shops offer a variety of courses and excursions for beginners through to those who travel with their own gear, so diving really should be top of the list of any visitor here. 

The lovely beaches however, are a good reason to take a break from the deeper ocean, although the low tide did leave a rather dubious looking 'scum' on some of the sand.
We also found that in the built up areas, away from the beach, particularly between Sairee beach (where we were staying) and Ban Mae Hat, the foul stench of open drains starts to make you wonder about the sewerage system.  

There was a 'cesspit' out the back of our room in the first hotel we stayed in, and we realised the out of date Lonely Planet wasn't all that out of date and perhaps brushing teeth with tap water (that smelt like sewage!) was best avoided. However, the drinking water here is 10 baht (per 1.5 litre bottle) more expensive that the mainland and they only sell one brand in most places, which has an odd taste! 
 
We requested an upgrade to get away from the smell and then located alternative accommodation for our remaining time here. After moving we felt a little better and were then able to enjoy the laid back attitude of this lovely little island.

Everything I had read about Koh Tao had allured to the fact that there was more to do than dive, and I was looking forward to exploring the whole island on foot, as several guidebooks had stated the 21 sq km's was doable this way. It turns out that perhaps the humidity and heat isn't set up to make walking for long periods of time, a pleasant experience and there was definitely more coaxing us to just sit back and relax here.
 
We rented a kayak to get out to Koh Nang Yuan which are the tripartite islands just off the North West tip of Koh Tao. It's a private island which apparently charges 100 baht per person on landing there. As we landed our kayak on one of the sand banks that connects the 3 islands and headed for the viewpoint, no one stopped us or charged us a fee so perhaps it is only for those arriving by boat or ferry. The view was pretty spectacular as was the amount of sweat draining from us in the sun as we clambered to to the top - stunning!

I have to confess to eating my first non Thai meal whilst here in Koh Tao. The influx of Western restaurants and the price of the all you can eat pizza offer at one of them was too much to turn down. The combination of this meal and the water however, seems to have left me feeling unwell for the first time since leaving home. It's almost (in 10 days) 2 months so I guess I'm pretty lucky really.

One dish I hadn't tried before but is on a lot of the Thai menu's here is 'No name with chicken'... absolutely yummy, like an onion bahji but with veggies and chicken :). That soon had me feeling more human again.