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Published: January 5th 2008
The next part of our journey took us to the small island of Ko Tao. We had booked to do a Scuba Diving course over the new year so we were both really looking forward to it. When we arrived, we were greeted by a guy from the diving school who had come to collect us and taken to what was to be our accommodation for the duration of the course and that afternoon we made our first dive.
I've never really been a fan of swimming in the sea as you can't tell whats lurking below the surface but as soon as you go below in your scuba gear its amazing to see whats down there. Before we packed up our flat in Oxford, I did try and keep tropical fish in my fish tank but as Nik points out quite a lot they all died in regular intervals so it was amazing to see hundreds and hundreds of them swimming about freely and not worrying about someone making sure that the water is the correct temperature!
The first course that we were booked on to was the Open Water course where you do five dives and go
down to 18 metres. It also involved a lot of theory work and homework which neither of us really enjoyed but by the end of the three days we had loved every minute of it. We loved it so much that the following day after we had 'graduated' as qualified scuba divers, we booked ourselves onto the Advanced Open Water course which was a further two days in the water and another five dives!
As before, we had a blast. We had the same instructor for the whole time which was really good and we were the only two people in our group so we had more time with Elaine, our instructor, so that she could point out what were doing right and wrong.
One decision that we had to make for the Advanced course were the areas that we wanted to cover. We decided that one of us would do a photography course and the other learn about, and identify, the fish. The idea with this was that I would point at the fish, write the name down on an underwater slate, and Nik would take a picture of it. Well it didnt quite work out that
way! Every time I saw a fish i'd have to look it up and then try and get Niks attention and then it was down to Niks ability to get the fish in the shot! To be fair they do move really fast so i'll let her off the images that she produced! Although there aren't many fish in the pitcures there were thousands down there from little Tetras at about 2cm to large Titan Trigger fish that were about 75cm long!
All in all the two courses were amazing fun and we really enjoyed the week that we spent on the island. New Year was kind of a non event as we were so tired from all of the diving but we did manage to get down to the beach to see all of the fireworks going off! Having passed the two courses we are now both officially Advanced Open Water Scuba Divers so we can go to any diving spots in the world and see whats lurking beneath the surface!
On to Phuket next and only seven days before we leave Thailand for Malaysia! Can't wait.
Craig & Nikki x
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yes it is scary in the sea! well done you.....not sure i could do it. can't blieve you're qualified divers! ha ha all looks cool tho....malaysia next then? it's all go isn't it?! love always me xx