Tanote Bay and Aow Leuk

Koh Tao's east coast faces the sunrise and is the island's quieter side. Tanote Bay has granite boulders on the shore and out in the water, which give portraits a shape nothing on Sairee can: sitting on a rock above clear water, or framed between two stones. The reef starts almost at the water's edge, so this is also a bay where a session can end in the sea — walk in over sand, never stand on the coral.

Aow Leuk, a little to the south, is a sheltered bay with calm water, the easier place for a family with children who swim. Both bays have their best light in the first hours of the morning; by midday the sun is high over the water and the boulders give little shade.

Both are reached by steep roads, partly unpaved, so a four-wheel-drive taxi or a longtail does the moving — taxis on the island are pick-up trucks, and the drivers know which roads are passable after rain. Nobody should arrive at a session in a dress on a rented scooter. In the wet months, about October to December, rain and rough seas are most likely; February to April is the driest stretch.