Ever since our roadtrip through Australia and New Zealand, our inner clock is pretty much aligned with the rhythm of the sun. When it rises, so do we. And so does the chuck, who sings his song at 5:30am and 6am for everyone to hear.

Staying at the Beach Club Hotel for about 6 weeks, we slowly developed a morning routine. At around 8:30am we make our way towards one of our favorite breakfast location. Usually, this is when we come across a diversity of cute animals. If we are (un)lucky, we meet the occasional spider (I really don‘t like them) or gecko in our hotel room even before we take a step outside.

Once we open the door, we enter a whole different climate. Heat and humidity welcome us while we get our shoes – the encounters begin.

With the shoes on our feet, our eyes wander along the outside walls of the hotel room. There is at least one, sometimes three little geckos. Once we see them, they seem to get a little nervous though.

We leave them be and make our way down the stairs towards the entrance of the hotel. At this point, it is like we see the white hotel cat chilling on the side of the trail. He tends to pur very loudly when patted, which is very adorable.

We take a quick detour to see the ocean before entering the more crowded places.

Here, we cannot miss the cute brown dog. He finds people to sit with and spend some time with them. He does wear a collar, but I have never seen him with an owner. Tourists do provide him with cuddles, food and water though.

When he gets to hot, he just stands up and walks into the ocean. You can almost see the steam created once he hits the water.

We now make our way up the hill towards the main road.

Almost on top of the hill, we quietly hear some chatter. A turn of our heads to the left reveals some ducks chilling underneath the trees.

They are not fenced in and still they are not trying to escape. I hope it‘s because of a great life they have there.

We now arrived at the top of the hill and take it to the left, nearing Sairee Beach.

To the left, we see the Prana Café. It is very likely we will see either the mama-cat or at least one of the kittens. When we eat at the Prana Café, they play around with guests and sometimes behave like little devils. I was very surprised when I recently saw them sleeping so calmly, cuddling each other. They are so different when they are awake.

To the right, we usually also see at least one cat. This one seemed to be comfortable in a very odd-looking sleeping position.

It‘s crazy to me in which positions animals can sometimes rest.

We are walking down the hill now.
Not far away, we can already see two dogs running around being excited. They seem fairly young and as if they were best friends. We started calling the two little misciefs „Double Trouble“ – if you see one, the other one is usually not far behind. You gotta be careful if you cross their paths on a scooter, as they are very energetic, fast and don‘t care for what could be in their way.

Before we arrive at the busy zone of Sairee Beach, we cross a bridge. Depending on the tide, the water below is non-existent or pretty high. One day during a low tide, we spotted a frog. After some close obervations we realised it wasn‘t just one frog, but at least 6. Some sitting on top of each other. It made me think of a documentary I had seen, in which some frogs die during mating, because they are being pushed underwater and cannot come up for air. I was glad for the low tide and didn‘t think they were at risk. Seemed like they had a good time after all.

We have now arrived at the busy zone of Sairee Beach. With shops to the left and right, the street can get busy very fast – you always have to look out for scooters and tourists walking on the wrong side of the road.

Shortly before we take a right turn, we come to a wider area. Here, we search for Rufus. In 95% percent of the time, no searching is needed. He usually lies somewhere asleep or chilling in the heat. He seems to be such a relaxed dog, it is stunning. He does not care about anything or anyone – he let’s everyone be and just enjoys his existence. We later figured out that he even is a Google Maps Attraction.

Every time we passed him, we took at least one picture. His positions were just so cute, we couldn‘t pass on the opportunity. I even did a sketch in his honor and will work on a sticker set soon.

Saying bye to Rufus, we take the turn to the right and are only 100m away from one of our favorite cafés to get our morning fix of fruits, granola, smoothies and coffee: The factory café.

Chances are high, that during this walk, we see at least one insect, e. g. a centipede. Especially after a rainy night they come out and move around.

I really enjoy how diverse not only the marine ecosystem is, but also how the flora and fauna on land. Especially the amount of friendly dogs, who run around spending time with tourists was very surprising to me. I had seen many dogs – especially strays – in the past when I was in Mexico, but over there they did not seem very happy or healthy. On Koh Tao, they do.