A bungalow was the ideal solution to this problem. So I packed up my stuff in the morning and left the hostel in search of just such a place. I should be cheap as well, which was a bit of a problem, until I ran into Clive. An short, white bearded, big bellied Londonman (who has not been living there since he was 15 - but live pretty much everywhere else in the world since) with a khaki shirt and shorts. He looked like he was ready to go on a safari.
He approached me and offered an apartment with sea views and all the bells and whistles for a very good price. Usually I would have been suspicious but this felt authentic somehow.
The only drawback to this place was, that it was on the other side of the Island. In the east, away from all the bars and restaurants and all the people I got to know on the island - drawback? not really, I actually was looking for some peace and quite.
If I wouldn't like it he would drive me back for free as well, so nothing to lose really.
Soon, his 40 years younger (she was 30) thai wife, picked us up in a jeep and we started our journey 3 km to the east coast.
On the way we stopped to pick up a spare tire and replace it with one on the jeep, drove by the supermarket to pick up food for the restaurant, the drinks market for some beer (also for the restaurant and the bakery for the breakfast in the morning, I guess.
After all the errants were run we finally headed to towards the Hin Wong apartments that he advertised, and in deed the place was brilliant. I was greeted by a 2m iguana on the way to the reception which was probably 300 meters over a rocky path through some sort of small jungle.
I was show the little apartment and immediately liked it. No further thought was wasted on if I wanted to stay here or not. For only 50 Baht more than the bed in the 12 bed dorm this little apartment with magnificent view over the bay and it's own little kitchen, fridge and bathroom was well worth the money.
At 2 pm was the next scheduled shuttle back to Sairee that took me over the steep ridge which would have been a pain to walk in the humid weather on Koh Tao.
There wasn't much to do on the beach during the day than, sit around, drink a caipirinha and read a book - interrupted only by the odd dash into the sea.
The last official shuttle back was at 6:30 which was too early to get some food, but we could arrange a unscheduled shuttle to go back at 9pm, which left us some time to get a great Thai dinner at SuChilli (famous Massaman Curry) before winding down the day at the beach.
After this I, back at the apartment I finally got to enjoy a few quiet minutes on the balcony, looking out to the sea and reading my book before falling asleep in a large double bed under a mosquito net and the sounds of the waves splashing over the rocks below.
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