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Published: April 22nd 2008
Another one
Perhaps a little overkill with the sunset pictures, but this was on my second night and they just were so amazing every night that I couldn't help it. Koh Tao, a scuba divers paradise, and my third major stop in Thailand. How I ended up here I'm not quite sure. First I never thought I would make it to Koh Phangan. Then I was going to head straight to Koh Chang and skip Koh Tao all together. Then I found myself on the ferry to Koh Tao and very soon I was signing up for my open water scuba diving certification course at Ban's Diving Resort. I had told myself at one point that I had no desire to ever scuba dive. I didn't need to put myself in the uncomfortable position of being at the bottom of the ocean attached to a tank of compressed air as life support. But here I am, writing this blog, having visited Koh Tao for 4 nights and holding my Open Water Certification card in my hand. Things have a strange way of working themselves out. I call it going with the flow.....
Nevermind how I did end up on Koh Tao, lets just say that it was a good decision and a fortunate turn of events. When I arrived on the Island I just followed the crowd of people of
Ferry Ride to Koh Tao
The ferry I never thought I would get on to. the boat and boarded a taxi that was destined to arrive at Ban's Diving Resort. I knew nothing of Ban's at the time and really had no idea where else to go. So in the event that you don't know what you're doing, follow the heard of people, squeeze onto the back of a pickup truck with 12 other backpackers and their backpacks, and hold on for dear life. When I arrive at the resort I make several trips up and down a sizeable hill to talk to the people at reception, get prices, look at a room, and then move my luggage in to that room. In the end I feel like I just did an hour long training session. The details....I'm staying for 4 nights, taking a 3 day open water certification diving course, making 4 dives in the ocean, 1 full morning of pool instruction, 3 evenings of theory and video, and the rest of the time to get to know the members of my class.
On that first evening we get an orientation from our German instructor named Mario. Mario seems cool enough. He has been teaching scuba diving for 12 years now and I
First night
While we were watching our orientation video for the dive course I snuck out to the deck to catch a glimpse of this sunset. think they have all been at Ban's. He mentioned that he did some military service in Germany. He also shared with me later on during the week that he spent part of his life addicted to some heavy drugs and dealing in large quantities. He claims to have stared death in the face more times than he can remember and has surrender to the island life. His office is the ocean and his students are happy backpackers and holidayers from all over the world. His colleuges are people from all backgrounds and all parts of the world with the same passion for the ocean. He seems happy for the most part with his life and brings a terrific energy to the classroom, be that in the pool, ocean, or video room for theory. He speaks great english and has some funny sayings that he uses often. He loves to say "Cool, cool". Most of the time he is brilliant at what he does. He shares a positive light with his students. He radiates joy and positive energy most of the time and this stays with his customers as they move on to their next destinations or even back home. When
More sunset
I even found someone else to leave the video with me to take this photo. backpackers or others on holiday leave with positive energy like that they take it with them and it spreads around the world. This is one way we can serve humanity. You can be the bearer of positive energy, light, and it spreads just as fast as it came to you. Mario has a downstream effect that makes me really admire what he is doing. Some might make the mistake to judge him for escaping to Thailand to live the easy life and hang on a boat with young people all day. But he works hard, most days starting very early and ending late. He goes out of his way to spend time with his students after the clock stops on his job. And the same goes for his colleuges.
But Mario has a bit of a darker side to him. He took several opportunities to "inform" us of the current state of the world. His stance of global changes in the environment were very emotionally charged. This shouldn't come as a surprise since his whole life is based around the ocean and marine environment. As he sees changes happening in his office over the years he has developed very
It got better
The sunset kept on giving and another twenty minutes later I got this photo. politically charged theories as to why it is all happening. He is pointing the finger all over the place, at America, George Bush, and elsewhere. On several occasions he spoke about the war in Iraq, America's struggling economy, the warming of the earth, and many other catastrophic events that could either end the world or devistate many millions and billions of people. It was all rather grim and he did direct a lot of his frustration, fear, and anger at America. As one of three Americans in my dive class we were all a bit put off by it. Why would a guy with such a gift to inspire and make people happy turn the switch to ram fear down our throats? The guy says he has seen death and recovered from disasters, yet he still wants us to live in fear. As if he hasn't seen enough of it to know that the alternative, living in love and happiness, is a better alternative. I appriciate that he wants to spread awareness. But certainly there are better ways to do it than by putting down America, pointing the finger at me as if I have anything to do with what
Pool Party
Our first day of the course was learning skills in the pool. Here is all our gear waiting to get its first use. my President does or the economic situation of my country, and injecting fear into our minds about how the world is going to fall apart in 5 to 10 years so live it up now or else.
I don't mean to place Mario in a bad light. I bring this stuff up mainly because aside from scuba diving the main theme of my stay on Koh Tao was learning how to deal with these kinds of topics and particularly how do deal with peoples prejudice and ill feelings towards America. It didn't only come from Mario and it wasn't the first time I've been told America is to blame or Americans are typically shitty people. Of course the obligatory statement usually follows..."I'm totally generalizing and you seem like a nice enough guy, but most Americans I've met are shit". My five days were valuable to me because in the end I felt more pride to be an American than perhaps ever before in my life. I was able to see how I, an American, was approaching life in a loving and accepting way. I was able to really grasp the fact that we are all born the same and
Super Mario
Our instructor, Mario, talks to his understudy Ben about something not that important. Mario was a great instructor. We were lucky to have him teaching us. that because we are brought up in different cultures or countries we carry with us different stereotypes, customs, worldviews, and feelings. I also realize that we have the power to overcome any of those and look deep into someones eyes, heart, and spirit to see that we are all the same and we have everything in common at our core. I adopted this mantra..."Yes, I'm an American, but do not judge me for what you have seen on TV or read in the paper. I'm a human being just the same as you and I live by the same universal laws that we all are governed by. I meeting you on neutral ground so that we can collaborate in our experiences and come away better people. I open myself to you and I do so without the expectaiton that you will do the same for me..... I AM LOVE"
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Wow... I really didn't plan on talking about any of that. My fingers just kept going on the page. I was just going to give you a play by play of my time on the Island but instead wound up talking about Love and Fear. So I'll give
Exposure Suit
All Suited up for my intro pool session. you some of the highlights of my stay rather than a play by play. This way you hopefully stay with me until the end of this blog.
On our first day of real diving instruction (by real I mean in the water) we arrived at the pool at 9:30 after having been fitted for gear. We spent the next 5 hours approx listening to Mario teach us about safety, equipment, and skills we would need to master before getting our certification. Skills like can we buddy breath, retrieve a lost regulator or mask, clear a water filled mask, do a controlled ascent without air, and some more stuff I forgot now. The pool session was long but necessary. I got slapped with the reality of what I was doing when we went in to the deep end and I looked up to see the surface of the water so far away. But the session was informative and it gave me some confidence going in to tomorrows dive. Mario was great about making sure we all felt comfortable and he never had our comfort too far from his minds. He really stressed just keeping an open mind, relaxing, and being
Classroom
It felt nice to be in the classroom again after a couple years. It wasn't biology this time but I did feel right at home. Mario giving us some theory on diving. with someone with as much experience as him I felt safe. Safe makes all the difference when diving. You end up using less air because you are relaxed, you can control your buoyancy better when you are not stressed, and you can focus on why you are diving in the first place.... seeing the marine life.
My diving group was also a highlight of the trip. There were twelve us us in Marios group. Two girls from Sweeden who lived and worked in SIngapore. An American named Josh, from NY, who was my buddy the whole week. By buddy I mean the guy I stayed arms length from on every dive in case the shit hit the fan so to speak. There was Miram, another American from LA. Lee and Gereth who were from England and were mates from back home. Then the South African fellow who was travelling with Lee, Gereth, and Miram. He looked exactly like Frotto from lord of the rings. See if you can pick him out in the photos. There was team London. These two Indian/English guys were awesome. They had plenty of style and were good laughs. Lastly there was Mark from England
White Rock
Our first dive site on the first day of proper diving. The visibility was 25 meters, or so they say. All I know is that I could see grains of sand on the bottom of the ocean from the boat. It was spectacular. as well and his buddy Marishka from Holland. I had a chance to talk at length with almost everyone durin gour week together. Some friendships were stronger than others by the end but I enjoyed each one of them.
Another highlight for me was that during the lunchtime hours and married couple would show up in front of Ban's Diving Resort with a food cart that served Som Tom and BBQ meats. The combination just seems to find me wherever I go. I ate the Som Tom and meat on a stick or BBQ chicken every day. It was not the best I've had so far on my journey but a familiar taste that I was happy to sit down to every lunch. It was also cute to see them work as a team. He did the meat and she mixed up the salad. She was always chewing this deep red root stuff that stains your whole mouth blood red. This meant that she couldn't taste the papaya salad to see if it was right so she would always have her partner lean in and give the ok. One day after she got to recognize my face I offered
Scuba Gang
Team Alpha we called ourselves. These are the guys that I was grouped up with to explore the underworld. to be her taster while she prepared my Som Tom. I leaned in, gave a quick taste, signalled for more fish sauce and she smiled and served me my papaya salad.
Of course the diving was a highlight for me. If you have never been diving before then I don't think you can really grasp how increadible the world down there is. I've only done 4 dives and none of them more than 18 meters. But I did see some increadible biodiversity. We saw sea snakes, eels, baricuda, parrot fish, trigger fish, loads of other fish, amazing coral, nemo, and my favorite, sea cucumbers. There is also the added bonus that if you are good at controlling your buoyancy you do feel weightless and you can glide, twist, turn, flip, and flipper everywhere without any struggle. The grace of your movements is met with the beauty of the marine life. It is a perfect combination.
The night life on Koh Tao is also pretty fun. People doing their dive courses or who are diving the next morning are generally smart about not getting to pissed and then finding themselves leaning over the side of the boat the next
Buddy
When you dive you always dive with a buddy. Josh and I were paired up from day one. We both checked in to the resort at the same time and we were both from the States. They just assumed we were mates from the start. We were a good team. Josh only kicked me a few times and his air tank only hit my head twice. day puking up a lung. But the atmosphere for night time socailization is great. The beach is calm, the music at most bars is current and varied enough that stopping at four different bars in one night won't leave you with that one song stuck in your head because they played it at each spot. On my last night the whole group of dive students and out instructors went out for dinner and spent a great night on the beach bar hopping. I said instructors but I have not mentioned the others yet. Mario was the main dude, but Mick, his Irish Colleuge was my guide on the dives. We broke our class up in to two teams of 6. Mick took us, team alpha, and he was a fantastic dude. Funny, positive, and easy to talk to. The other guy was Ben. He has been working for Ban's for maybe 4 months. He is training to become a Dive Master and in the process working for the company, assisting on dives. Mario and Mick both started out just like Ben. They came to Koh Tao and took and open water course like me. Then they got the bug, did
Thugs
Another shot of Team Alpha their advanced course, dive masters, rescue diver, instructor training and so on. Ben is on his way I guess.
That was my last night with all those people. In the morning I packed up my things and did a very intense workout with Lee, one of the English guys. Lee is a soccer player and I think that immediately made him my friend. He said he had not met many Americans that enjoyed soccer, let alone played for as many years as I have. Turns out that Lee and I had loads in common. Most importantly our interest in spirituality, our views on the world, and our interest in fitness and soccer. So we exercised together that last morning on Koh Tao. They recommended that we avoid strenuous activity on the days we were diving. We were just getting used to how our bodies would react to the diving conditions. Despite precautions there is always a chance of getting Decompression Sickness or "The Bends" if too much nitrogen is absorbed by your body. Rigorous exercise will force that Nitrogen out too quickly and could harm you. So I stayed away from the exercise. But I was really feeling like
After my first dive
This is me after my first look at the world under the sea. It was so incredible that I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for hours. I needed some so we layed it on thick that morning. They guys who worked at the resort had made some weights out of concrete and they slid on and off a makeshift barbell. They had rigged up a pull-up bar and there were some dumbells. Along with a steep hill and my creative mind of exerciese and we were all set to get to work. When we finished my shorts were dripping with sweat, my shoes as well. I could have easily lost a half gallon of water during our session. We go in the ocean and cleaned up. I spent the next hour packing and saying my goodbyes to people. I boarded a boat for the mainland at about 2:30pm and arrived in Bangkok at 5:30am the next day. It was a long ride but I have a good book, and slept pretty well overnight. Having been to Bangkok before I was pretty comfortable knowing the I had some knowledge of the city and this wasn't like stepping off the plane into a new place like Hong Kong. I'm very excited to be going back to Bangkok. It will be the only place that I cross paths with
Open Water Divers
All twenty or so of us coming back from our first day out in the ocean. my last travel experience from two years ago. I plan to visit some of the same places, stay at the same guesthouse, pig out at the same food stalls, and shop at the same markets. We'll see what new adventures Bangkok can bring me as well.
Thanks for sticking with me on this one you all. I'm glad you made it to the end and I'm also very glad I did too.
In Gratitude
Marcus
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Suzanne
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Yay!
Yay Marc-ee!!! Looks sooooo fun! What an experience! You are becoming such a little angel in the world....