We met them bright and early at the pier and after saving a guy who had a little too much fun at the full moon party the night before, they instructed us to hop onto our boat so we could catch up for lost time and do introductions later. The big introduction mostly consisted of where to find the bar. They had a big blue cooler box on board filled with ice and beverages. Simple and to the point.

The guys were ready to kick off the fun and like all of the other tour guides we have met here seem to absolutely love their jobs.

The boat slanted up at an angle in the front to prevent flooding which would later prove to be a difficulty when getting around (of course they put the bar at the top and once the deck got wet you can imagine a few people slipped and slid down) but in the mean time the main concern was holding on so you didn’t slid down the bench as we headed off towards our first snorkeling spot.

We were each handed our snorkel equipment (a pair of goggles and a mouth piece) and told to climb up and jump in. Maggie and Laura wasted no time and headed to the top of the boat.

I waited for Maggie to climb back out (you know I needed a photographer because it’s all for the photo ops with me as my dad once pointed out when I tried surfing in Florida) and jumped right in.

I was a little freaked out by the mask at first because it covered my nose and made me claustrophobic. I was feeling very annoyed with myself.. I used to be a lifeguard, so what was so hard about putting my face in the water with a mask?? After sitting a few minutes with my head above water I grabbed a life vest to sit on and practiced putting the mask on. Snorkeling is on my 24 for 24 list for crying out loud.. I had to do it!

Turns out you have to spit in the goggles to keep them from fogging up (this tip briefly brought back memories of my swim team days) and once you start looking around at the fish you kind of forget about the goggles squashing your face. It probably took me all of five minutes to forget my claustrophobia and turn into a little kid chasing fish. Although if the claustrophobia had gotten the better of me, I more likely would’ve had to start doing some research into the difference between resin and rosin when I arrived home to see which option would be best for treating this condition. Nevertheless, I managed it!

We swam around a bunch and soon Maggie and I were the only two left in the water. Clearly I ended up loving snorkeling..

We hopped back on board and headed to our next spot, the Japanese Garden. The boat ride was half the fun.

When we pulled up to our next destination, the guys tried to convince us to back flip off the top. We settled for a nice little triple jump.

After swimming around for awhile we climbed aboard again and headed in towards the private island nearby to check out the beach.

We stopped to make a few quick human pyramids then climbed along rickety boardwalks and expansive lengths of stone stairs to the top of the island. Once there, we still had to climb up onto the large rocks to get the full view.

The sky was beginning to look grey, so we headed back towards the boat at a hustle. We had only just set off from the pier when the rain started pouring down. The entire deck got twice as slippery and we were whipped with wind and rain as the boat flew over the growing waves. So naturally we had to take advantage of this and turned the slanted deck into a large slip and slide.

We arrived back to Koh Tao looking like wet dogs and dragged our belongings off the boat. We figured why not walk back to the resort since we were already soaked. I thawed the chill with a warm shower and crawled into bed followed directly by Maggie. We may have been out like lights for the time but stay tuned because when the rain stopped we crawled back out of bed, unwilling to miss the lady boy show on schedule that night.

*All photos with the water mark belong to Goodtime Adventures and were taken by the guys with their GoPro. You can find the full album of our snorkeling trip here!