Blogs from Ko Tao, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 2

Today I overcame my sea phobia and went snorkeling with the others. So many different colored fish and only a couple of feet from the shore. As we swam further out it was sad to see all the broken coral that had obviously been trampled on by us humans. This cove is quite shallow. George and the kids went snorkeling on the other side of our little peninsular and said that though it's a bit of a climb down to the water it is much deeper so the coral is still beautiful. I'll go there next time and see it Later in the day the three came back from a long snorkeling session and told me how they had seen a black tip shark and they had followed a turtle for about half an hour. They ... read more

So after Tom and Andrea left us, we were back on a boat again in no time heading back to Koh Tao. This time round there was no time for beach hopping, it was strictly PADI! The first night we had homework to do, before even putting our feet in the water. The next few days we spent in and out of the water and in the classroom qualifying for our open water PADI! Our group consisted of six girls, four of us were physio's (poor jo!), and Maria the crazy Italian! We nicknamed ourselves 'Alex's angels' as a tribute to our instructor. On the last night we had all agreed to meet up on the bar crawl in town. So as the older ladies we went back for a nap and then a quick shower ... read more

Ko Tao is reputed to be the cheapest place in all of Asia to dive or get diver certification. On this relatively small island there are sixty four dive companies. One of them - Baan's Diving - boasts certifying more divers than anywhere else in the world! Well, since we were just next door on Koh Phangan, we decided to come and check out Ko Tao and while here get reacquainted with the sport before heading soon to our next, dive specific, destination. Its has always been a bit unnerving to return to diving after several months absence. Will we remember all the important stuff? Diving after all has so many ways to mess you up big time if you screw up. Will we remember to equalize? How challenging will maintaining neutral buoyancy be this year? ... read more

The start of 2016 landed Rochelle and I on the scuba-centric island of Koh Tao. This little chunk of land in the Gulf of Thailand is visited by millions of tourists every year with one common goal: diving. With over 70 different shops on the island competing for business, Koh Tao is a diver's playground. We originally came to visit friends from our live-aboard boat in Cairns and enjoy the beautiful beaches of Southern Thailand. Within three days Rochelle was working at Roctopus Dive as an instructor (again) and a week later I signed up for my Divemaster course. I spent the next month smashing out academics, skill circuits, course assists, and stress tests while Rochelle became known as the DSD Queen. (DSD's, or try divers, are people who would like to try diving without doing ... read more

A Koh Tao, j'ai eu la chance de faire de la plongée sous-marine pour la première fois. J'ai fait 2 plongées de 40 minutes et je suis allé jusqu'à 12 pieds de profond. J'ai ADORÉ ça.... C'est vraiment cool de respirer dans l'eau comme un poisson. J'ai vu pleins de poissons de toutes les couleurs! Aussi j'ai trippé quand j'ai vu une murène de près. Pour le baptême de plongée, mon professeur parlait français! Il m'a présenté le matériel de plongée et comment on s'en sert. Il m'a montré les règles de sécurités et les manœuvres d'urgences. Je me suis pratiqué à vider mon masque sous l'eau et à retrouver mon détendeur si je le perd. La prochaine fois j'aimerais faire mon cours de plongée!... read more