I had to do at least one hike in Koh Tao. We decide to pick a route that would take us to the top of the island. It isn’t the highest we’ve ever climbed, but it was a fairly long hike, and we had an interesting encounter and a hazard along the way.

A lot of this hike was along the road. Koh Tao is a small island with roads going around the outside, atop it a few small forested hills. We were to hike as close to the peak as possible, around 320 meters above sea level.

Along the way we would encounter several viewpoints that you have to pay to enter. These are often nice places to enjoy a beer, or whatever your poison is. Pick the right ones and you’ll have a great view of the sunrise or sunset. We didn’t go to any of them this time, instead focusing on the hike.

When we were inside the forest we caught site of a monitor lizard. I was in awe, I’d never seen one before, let alone in the wild. It seemed a little wary of us, and we kept our distance, but I managed to get a few pictures of it as it slowly made its way back into the foliage.

Shortly after we “peaked” the island. We didn’t go to the actual peak, as it is covered in heavy jungle and not walkable without cutting through a bunch of undergrowth. Still an achievement in my book.

It was around this point that the storm hit. We were instantly drenched, had no waterproofs, not even an umbrella. At first I cursed our unpreparedness, but we decided to press on. At this stage walking back would have taken us even longer so we pressed on in the rain. It was actually a beautiful sight watching that storm roll over the jungle.

The rain stopped just as we got back to town, of course. We swung by the 7-Eleven to get some snacks before returning to our hotel to dry ourselves out and rest.