The island of Koh Tao is the smallest island in Thailand and even though it still gets thousands of tourists a year it is the least effected by the party tourism culture which is very evident on the islands. Many people come to Koh Tao for their scuba certification since it is one of the most affordable places in the world to obtain it. I unfortunately was not able to do so but still was able to enjoy myself immensely on the island. My very first night there was for Matthias' birthday and we had a really good time celebrating. Unfortunately some asshole robbed me on the beach and I was without a phone for the entire time on the island so I do not have many pictures to show. Even though it was very unfortunate and ended up costing me quite a bit of money it actually made the time there even more peaceful as I did not have the constant draw to technology that we get nowadays. I was able to just enjoy the scenery, the peacefulness and relax. 
I spent almost every day on the beach since Matthias found a very affordable place for us to stay that was less than a two minute walk to the shore. With this location and the price it was only a room with a bed and a fan but at this point Matthias and I had no problems about sharing a bed, especially to save money. The bathroom and shower were right next door to the room and since the weather was so nice on the island I did not miss the hot showers. Almost every morning we would wake up and go to one of two places for breakfast depending on how tired we were. If we were lazy we would go just down the street but if we felt good than we would go to our favorite place that we discovered. It was just a small local restaurant owned by a Thai family called "Mama's". We ate at least one meal there almost every day. She was a very nice lady with good affordable food. We had almost everything on the entire menu by the end of our time there. Another place that we enjoyed eating at was a restaurant right off the beach that had beer for the same price as the stores (which was very nice) and some amazing pizzas that would really fill you up. We went there a few times when we wanted our western food fix.When we were not eating I was relaxing. As I said I spent pretty much every day at the beach. Some days I would bring my hammock and just read while others we would play with the Frisbee or tennis ball in the water. The beach was pretty long and we would switch off which area we would hang out in. The water was very warm since it was not too deep and the sand underneath would absorb the sun. You could go out about 30 ft at least and still be up to your waste. We wanted to go further but after this point there was coral which you do not want to go walking around in! One day playing frisbee we met a french girl named Emile who we ended up spending quite a bit of time with. She was really good as frisbee since she played ultimate back home in France. Her and Matthias were much better than I but by the end I was able to get some throws to go further along with out them curving down into t he ocean. I've always been the worst at frisbee golf when we go play, which my family can attest to.
There were beaches all over the island but for the most part we stayed on the one by our house. One day we did go to the opposite side of the island and take our scooters to another beach. This was another really nice beach with a little deeper waters, nice snorkeling, and a giant rock to jump off of! It was about a 10-12 yard jump after having to use a rope and chain to climb to the top. It was a very long and tiring swim back to the shore so I only jumped twice. Matthias on the other hand lives jumping and I don't even know how many times he went. While snorkeling around the area I unfortunately cut my foot up pretty bad on the reef and this made me unable to rock climb later in the week which I had been planning on doing since I arrived on the island. Instead there was just more laziness and relaxation. I didn't really mind though since it was the last of my time in Thailand before a crazy busy month in India.
Another part of the island that I loved was that there were dogs everywhere. Since its a small island which has many tourists and many people get stuck there for years and own dogs they were all friendly. There was one big long haired Rottweiler (I didn't even know they had long haired rots!) that was a lot of fun. She would always come try to steal the ball or frisbee when we were playing. There were a few days that we played monkey in the middle with her for a long time. She would swim so much and just be enjoying life. She did end up getting the firsbee one day though and that ended our time playing with it. She bit it right in half. She also punctured a volley ball, soccer ball, and rugby ball. I think its one of her favorite things to do! She was a real fun dog and one night she even followed me home! I had to walk her all the way back and run out of site in order for her to not follow me again. I guess she really liked me too.
Overall Koh Tao was my favorite of all the islands in southern Thailand. I get why it is one of those places that people can get stuck in. Some for many many years. It was a nice place to celebrate both Matthias and I's birthdays, relax to finish my time in South East Asia and I loved finding a local restaurant to go to all the time again. That's one of my favorite things to do when I'm in a city for awhile. Over all I was there for 11 days and was sad to go. I took a night ferry back to the mainland which was a different experience. I just barley made the boat and jumped on board right before the took off. I was very lucky! I go the last "bed" available which were just mats laid out on the floor. It took me quite some time to fall asleep but once I did I slept surprisingly well. When we got to the mainland we were dropped off at some random dock. Here I had to wait for about an hour until a truck came to take us to a restaurant where the bus to Bangkok would be picking us up. That bus ride I slept like usual and woke up once again in Bangkok where it all began. I did not do much in Bangkok as I'm not the biggest fan of the city, but I did go buy a new phone. I was suppose to take a bus to the airport but they did not show since it was rush hour and there was so much traffic so I began to worry and aught a taxi. I was stressing the entire was there but luckily I made it to the airport on time. I even tipped the driving with almost all of my remaining Baht (Thai currency) since I was so happy and no longer had any use for it. I made my way through the airport and customs without any issues and was soon on my way to India!
