Koh Tao

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To get the bad news out of the way first we were robbed last night! We went to the Koh Tao festival which is like a big village fate to raise money for and Eco project called ‘Save Koh Tao’. Anyway, while we were at the festival someone came into the apartment and helped themselves to a few things, really strange choice of stuff to steal but they took my credit card and Rach’s I-Pod and external hard-drive for her lap top and a watermelon from the fridge! I’ve cancelled my card and it hasn’t been used so that’s fine, the biggest disappointment is that we have lost all the photos so far of the journey and everything because they were stored on the external hard drive! So overall we were lucky really, it could have been worse, it’s just a bit random really. I'm really gutted about the watermelon!

We’ve spoken to the police this morning and requested that we be moved to a more secure apartment across the road, they’re cheaper and more secure there but we have to wait until next month so we’ll just have to be careful for a few days. Anyway, I’m just pleased that it’s not as bad as it could have been.

That’s the bad news over with! Apart from that everything is going well. So Far I’ve done a total of 13 dives and finished the first course of ‘Rescue Diver’, it’s similar to what me and Dad did years ago but lots has changed since then. I’ve now started my DMT which is Dive Master Trainee, this will take a few weeks to do but it’s enjoyable so it’s fine. I’ve only done 2 practical lessons so far, a skills circuit which I passed but will need to do again, this is not just doing the skills but actually explaining how to do them to students underwater so not that easy, need more practice. Also I completed a naturalist dive yesterday which is just a dive where we recognise different types of fish and the signs for them underwater so that we can point things out to students as we see them underwater. So that’s 2 things ticked off, quite a few to go though. Doing a night dive tonight, so I hire a torch for 150baht (£3) and we do 1 dive off the boat, it’s my first night dive here so I’m looking forward. A lot of different fish come out at night too. Oh, I saw a grouper fish yesterday, it was about 1.5 meters long and 0.5 meters wide! That’s the biggest thing I’ve seen so far since I’ve been here. The diving is good here, I love the warm sea water and sunshine when I get out of the water and the visibility underwater is good too.

So the diving is going well and I’m really enjoying it. The instructors come and go, some of them anyway so there should be opportunities when I qualify hopefully. There’s so many dive resorts here that if I can teach well I should be ok so I’m just being as keen as I can to help out and will put my name down to assist on Open Water courses soon. Open Water courses are for people who have never dived or just starting so it’s an opportunity to assist the instructors, look after the students and get some experience.

I’ve met quite a few cool people here, one of the boys on my course had an underwater camera and he’s putting some pics on FB today so you should see the pics on there. Some good photos though. We have a little group of friends here but they’re from all over the place, there’s Ben and Rowan from England, another Rowan from South Africa, River from Korea, Alex from Holland, Jamie from Newport and Stefan from Austria! We all dive together sometimes. I’m doing the night dive with River tonight so she’ll be my buddy.

Ummmm, what else is happening......I’m trying to spend as little as possible, it’s pretty cheap here but you still have to be careful, like Gambia really, quite similar prices for stuff. Oh yeh, a good thing happened a day before yesterday, I found a mask and snorkel underwater on a dive! I’d already bought a new one that I was using for about £45 but I prefer the one I found so I’ve sold the new one to Rowan for £40, so I’ve now got a mask and snorkel for £5 so saved a bit there which is good!

That's it for now....until the next update, rock n roll!

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Comments

[RachK]

Cool...
All sounds good JK! Shame about the burglary...v bizarre though hey! Sounds a lot like Gambia, like you said so I've got quite a good idea about it all really. Serekunda Serekunda!! Have fun at the party tonight and speak to you from Amsterdam Dolphin with dad :) XX