My first glimpse of Koh Tao was through sleepy eyes at the unbelievable hour of 6am. I had come from Chumphon on the only means of transportation from the mainland then - the infamous 'coconut boat'. It was a night boat, in the sense that it ran at night, but had no facilities for sleeping -you simply found yourself some sacking left over from transporting coconuts and curled up. In the morning your clothes would be imbued with the smell of coconuts, a smell which would stay with you for days afterwards as a constant reminder of the journey. It was a trek that only the hardiest of travellers wanted to make, but word of Koh Tao was beginning to get out. That was in 1995.

Koh Tao boasted a grand total of 10 dive shops in that year, a number many considered high for a 21 square kilometer island, but very few in contrast to the 26 dive shops we have here today.
Having located by chance, one of the smaller of these dive shops, I applied for a job as a divemaster and was ecstatic when I was hired. I got the impression that not too many people came through looking for work in the sleepy little bay of Chalok Ban Kao. Like most dive shops then, diving was from a traditional longtail boat. In good weather, we would not hesitate to go to distant sites like Chumphon Pinnacles and I recall one or two visits to Sail Rock, nearly 2 hours by longtail! However, bearing in mind what our customers had been through to get to Koh Tao in 1995, there was no hardship in this style of diving.

These days, the longtail is used only to go from the beach to the diveboat, a journey of less than 2 minutes, and even the smallest diving schools have larger modified fishing boats which offer shade and a dive deck; some run daily speed boats and purpose built dive boats.
In 1995, 'bungalows' were very basic wooden huts, my first 3 months passed happily in one with no shower/toilet and no electricity, located in splendid isolation at the water's edge. Today, 3 fully fitted bungalows stand where my little hut once was, offering private bathroom and satellite television.

For the visitor, the modernization of huts and bungalows has allowed for a greater diversity of visitors coming to Koh Tao - many resorts have facilities for families, even air-con is becoming common in many resorts.
Most dive schools now have bungalows attached at a variety of prices which can be booked along with your dives. Electricity is still supplied as it was years ago, by individual generators, thus not all bungalows have electricity 24 hours a day, but plans and lines are in place for government supplied electricity in the near future.

Among the many changes I have seen, the arrival of supermarkets has been a welcome one, even if these days there does seem to be a supermarket every 5 steps! In 1995, two 'supermarkets', both located in Mae Haad supplied basic goods - bread & shampoo as I recall - and anyone going to Koh Samui or the mainland would come back laden with supplies. Getting around is easier these days, too. Many shiny new taxis await the arrival of every boat in Mae Haad and roads, which were once only dirt tracks, making them almost impassable during the rainy season, are now concrete. The more adventurous find motorbikes and mountain bikes for rent on every corner.
The number of visitors grows every year as facilities improve and travelling to and from the island gets easier. These days you can choose to arrive by speed boat, express boat, high speed catamaran or slow boat from a variety of destinations. Samui airport has flights all day to and from destinations such as Phuket, Bangkok, Pattaya and Singapore and the newly established Andaman Airlines flies from Bangkok to Chumphon. Night trains and buses run North to South and East to West across Thailand, making this now one the easiest places to travel in Southeast Asia.

One of Koh Tao greatest changes in recent years has been the marine life. Possibly due to the El Nino effect, Koh Tao now has more reported shark sightings than ever before, bull and White tip reef sharks being commonly seen at the deeper sites.