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Published: December 22nd 2009
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Koh Tao is awesome, I am having a great time. I really love the diving. Correction to the last blog - the PADI Open Water course we are doing is 4 dives over 3 days, including some classroom work and an exam. The diving school is cool - Phoenix Divers. Our instructor is a Thai called Matee. He first instructed Gus when he was at Kho Tao. Phoenix Divers are on the main beach on the island - a beautiful spot. All of the shops / restaurants / dive schools here are in a strip that opens up on to the beach. There is a path running along this strip that is only wide enough for people or motorbikes - no cars! there is a road further in the island.
A diving day starts at the dive centre at 7am - you pick up your dive bag consisting of all your equipment and wetsuit and get a Thai longtail boat out to the bright pink Phoenix dive boat which is mored several hundred yards out into the bay. The boat then goes out to the dive spot while you set up your equipment and scuba tank - checking the air etc
and going through the dive breifing with the instructor. The first dive we did after the training was at a depth of 12m for 38mins, in a group of 5. I was a little bit anxious about is as I had spent the night before vomiting from what I originally thought was food poisoning but I now think was a stomach bug. Phil had something similar in Koh Samui. Anyway whatever it was I had'nt slept much and had'nt held any food down and my stomach ached... But as soon as I got in the water there was no worries. The dive spot is called Japenese Garden because of all the coral - it is really nice. We saw loads of tropical fish. The second dive we did that day was to about 14m for 41mins and that was at White Rock, a slightly deeper spot. Here we saw to Trigger Fish - a pretty ugly looking fish - they grow up to about a metre long and can be aggressive especially when they are breeding as they are territorial (they bite) so generally you give them a wide berth!
That night we checked out Koh Tao's nightlife which like
everything else on the island is based around the beach. They have a thing about fire chains and fire staffs here - when it gets dark people go on to the beach and twirl these burning chains in time with music or twirl burning fire staffs really fast - it looks very cool, kind of like a martial art. We just sit in the bars watching them. The food here is god - slightly more expensive then other parts of Thailand but there is loads of fish - I have been eating squid whenever possible instead of meat - I have also eaten barrachuda (in a curry!).
The next day we dived on Chumphon Pinnacle to 18 metres (my deepest yet) - it was unbelievable. As soon as we got to a decent depth Matee pointed out a bullshark below us. As I peered down at it I noticed there were loads of them! For the whole dive I would say there was always a bullshark somewhere in sight. It was an amazing feeling swimming with them - a real buzz, they are so graceful in the water. The instructor told us they were somewhere between 2.5 metres and 4
metres in size - big! Although the bullshark has attacked humans in Australia (more than the Great White) They do not attack humans in the Thai Gulf. The instructor said this may be due to them having enough fish to eat here and also to do with the water temperature. Either way you wouldnt swim with bullsharks in Aus! We did another dive that day at the Twin Peaks, though I cant remember too much about it as I got seasick on the boat back! This was our final dive of the Open Water course and when we got back me and Phil both took the exam and passed so are now qualified PADI Open Water divers! Ther is no way I could stop there though as it is so much fun so we decided to enrol on the SSI Advance course - 5 more dives including a night dive and more specific training that will allow us to dive to a depth of 30 metres! more to come on this...
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Tobe
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Congratulations.
Well done boys, congratulation on the PADI. Place looks stunning. So envious. Those huts on the beach look as close as you get to paradise. Sweet. Keep on loving it.