Koh Tao

---

From Bangkok I headed down to Koh Tao learn to dive. I have always avoided diving because of my fear of the sea but one of things I said to myself when I left was to try and do as many of the things I have avoided before because I was afraid of them.

I was learning at Bans diving school which I discovered is the biggest in the world as they qualify over 30,000 divers a year. Tao has a very relaxed atmosphere which was a very nice change to the bustle of Bangkok.

I arrived at 5pm and my first evening was greeted with a nice surprise as my friend Jack from home who I knew has been on Koh Tao since July actually worked at Bans so that night we enjoyed a few beers as he regaled me with how fantastic his life now is and to be honest he did make me just a little jealous!

My first day of training involved 3 hours of theory then about 5 hours in the pool as we learned all the basics of diving - getting used to breathing under water, what to do if your mask fills with water or comes off etc.. - the mask had been my big worry due to my lenses but fortunately I had no problems.

The next day was my first dive and I was immediately hooked all the fears you have of the sea disappear whenyou can see what is down there. Another dive that morning was followed by the exam in the afternoon. We had all been worried about failing the exam but in the end it was a bit of a farce as our instructor left the room and we all just swapped answers not sure what Padi would say about that!!

The final two dives were great as we had a lady with us who filled our dives so have some nice footage of the dive to bring home. Saw a few angel fish, clown fish (Nemo to those who have seen the movie) and the highly aggressive Trigger fish who attacked the video camera which made some great footage.

After these dives I was now an openwater diver but I had already decided to do the Advanced as the dives on this course sounded so much more interesting.

So the next day me and three other guys from the openwater course set off in the afternoon (thankfully as we were all a little worse for wear from the lovely whiskey buckets) started the Advanced course. Our first dive was our deepest to date going to 30m which to be honest felt no different from 15 except that the visibility dropped considerably. After this we went to a very cool dive site where we got to do quite a few swim throughs which is where you swim through gaps in the rocks/coral. Our last dive of the day was the night which I think all of us naturally were the most nervous and excited about. We had a new instructor with us who unfortunately turned out to be rubbish as the dive was very chaotic and although there wear loads of barracuda down there we wear the only group of 8 who didn't see any! Despite this the night dive was a worth doing as you literally cant see a thing other than where your torch signs quite an unnerving experience.

My final dive involved me and my buddy navigating ourselves around two pinnacles about 25m below the water. However as me and the 3 other guys who had done the course had rented a underwater camera together we decided to all stick together. It would be kind to say we did not do well as after heading for about 5 minutes on one compass heading someone else led under another heading and so forth. After about 25 mins of swimming through open sea basically seeing nothing we decided to surface to discover we were now about 300m from the boat a very long swim in slightly rough seas with all the gear on. We all had a good laugh about it especially our instructors and despite our clear lack of ability we were all confirmed as Advanced openwater divers.

We had quite a few beers to celebrate and got to witness the famous snorkel test where newly qualified Master divers have to give their pledge and then drink a bucket filled with some pretty disgusting things through their snorkel - no one finished the bucket and everyone pucked which I would imagine is the normal result!

Next stop is Krabi another blog will follow shortly!!

Take it easy

Mark

---

Comments

[deleted_166051]

Impressed!
I'm impressed because i'm scared of the sea too and there is NO WAY I would ever go that deep underwater particularly in the dark when you can't see what is down there with you!!