Advanced Diving in Koh Tao!

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NOTE: This was written two days ago, but internet was having issues. In Kho Phi Phi now!

Hey everyone!! Well, I am officially a certified Advanced Open Water
Diver. Last night, we went on our "night dive" and awoke a sleeping
green sea turtle... the thing was MASSIVE and absolutely beautiful.
There were 5 of us (plus our instructor) forming a semi-circle around
its cave, and we literally had to break the circle in order to let the
turtle through - that's how close it was!! We then all sat in silence
(well, duh, we were underwater, but you get the picture) as it just
swam off into the darkness. It. Was. AWESOME.

Today, we had our deep dive (which certified us to go to 30 metres,
where I happened to have a giggle fit - a lot of people get nitrogen
narcosis at 30 metres, which makes you feel a bit like you're on
laughing gas) and our "computer dive". Our computer dive is basically
when our instructor says here's a map.. here's a dive computer... here
are your limits. Have fun! See you in 40 minutes or so! So, the five
of us went off into the great abyss.. by ourselves. No instructor. Of
course, 90% of accidents happen above surface. Right before we jump
off the boat, our friend Freddie says, "Hope we're in the 10%!!"
...Well, there's this thing called a trigger fish. It's a f'ing beast
and extremely territorial. Basically, if you get in its territory, it
will attack you until you get out of it's area. So, what happens, when
we're all by ourselves underwater for the first time?

I get attacked by a freaking trigger fish. Naturally.

We're just swimming along, attempting to navigate our way around White
Rock, and all of the sudden, I feel something slam into my right
arm/side. I look to my right and see this huuuge fish and at first I'm
like, "Oh, hey, cool fish" and then about 0.5 seconds later, I'm like,
"OH F!@*". Sooo, I start kicking away, with my fins pointed towards it
(apparently from Christina's point of view, I also smacked it with my
bare hand, which probably pissed it off even more). It started going
for my fins and actually bit one of them off, so as the fin floats up
towards the surface, the fish goes after it and I get away to safety.
By the time I get out of its territory, I realize that I am one fin
short and attempting not to panic. Thankfully, some random (most
likely very experienced) diver witnesses the whole thing and goes up
to the surface to get my fin. She is, however, still in the trigger
fish's territory, so as she comes back down, the thing starts going
after her. The whole thing, to say the least, was a really awesome way
to end the course (and I don't mean that sarcastically - after the
shock of it wore off, we were all like... that was FREAKING awesome).

Needless to say, I'm fine, I surfaced with two fins post some more
swimming around, finding our boat underwater (navigation skills whut
whut - thanks Freddie), and completing a successful safety stop (and a
successful dive).

I'm now certified to do night diving, dive one-on-one with a buddy
(however, I will not be doing this anytime soon - divemaster please!),
and dive down to 30 metres. All in all, it's been a great experience
and I can no longer imagine a life without diving. Seriously, what
have we been doing all this time?? What are we going to do after we
leave here? I just want to keep diving!!

We'll be on Koh Tao tonight and are planning on reuniting with
everyone on Kho Phi Phi tomorrow (i.e., where The Beach was filmed)!
Hope everyone is doing well in the States =)

PS - I'm trying to post some photos but for some reason they aren't
transferring to this computer! I'll try again later =)

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Comments

[Eric]

I enjoyed your Thailand post. It made me want to go there. My blog is looking for travel photos. If you have any time, email us some at [e-mail] or check us out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your travels, Eric