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Published: December 24th 2012
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Koh Tao
South side of Koh Tao, where my resort was located A long held ambition has finally been fulfilled. It has been something I have been thinking about for years, but somehow I never managed to actually get down to it. There was always something that got in the way of me and my fishy business. Money more often than not, or lack of water, a key ingredient when one talks about our watery friends. Ever tried to do a diving course in Central Asia? It is easy, you don’t need to wear any air tanks, you can walk on the bottom of the Aral Sea without the need of any protective gear. Of course, you won’t see much in the way of fish, except maybe a dried out example or two.
But I am not in Central Asia anymore and so the time has come where all the stars and the planets have aligned in such a position so as to make it possible for me to complete my open water diving course; the first step on the aquatic road to that strange new underwater world. And where better to do it than in the one place where they churn out divers by the numbers, the continues conveyer belt of
Koh Tao
Sabrina explaining with elaborate hand movement what to do, to Seriogo and I.
Photo taken by: Marielle Koh Tao. You come in on one side as a land dweller, and you leave on the other side a diver of some sort. As far as factories are concerned Koh Tao is a rather pleasant one, with an admirable setting. The huge turnover means that doing a course here is cheap, which is the reason I, and everybody else, comes here in the first place. Another much more personal reason was that I was able to meet up with a fellow guinea pig with whom I have had the pleasure of doing a clinical trial, Mr. Ewen from Scotland who dives in his kilt and uses his bagpipe as an alternative air storage device.
Ewen was doing his dive master in Koh Tao, and since I was doing my course at the same resort as him, he decided to come along several times to watch me do my skills and act as my personal photographer. Yes, in preparation for my diving course I decided to buy one of those nifty camera/underwater casing combinations so that I could actually take pictures when the time was ripe. As I was just a novice I wasn’t allowed to use the camera
Koh Tao
Cramp! This is what happens when you have a hangover underwater!
Photo taken by: Marielle myself, which is where Ewen came in. Actually I should say Ewen and Marielle a French lass, who was also doing a dive master course and was assigned to our class as well, to help out if need be. Both took it in turns to take photos of me making a fool of myself underwater and of whatever fish and corals they deemed fit. Thus all the pictures on this blog that were taken below the level of the sea are credited to them. On top of the two dive masters in training, we of course also had the actual instructor, who couldn’t work the camera because she was too busy teaching us how to keep alive in the watery depth.
As for the skills, the first thing I learned to my detriment was that it is not a good thing to have a massive hangover when starting your first day of diving. I can tell you that it wasn’t enjoyable to have to take of my diving mask and put it on again when my eyes already felt like sandpaper, or to burp in my regulator on a constant basis, neither was it much fun having to practice
Koh Tao
Help, how does this whole weight belt thing work. Did you say left hand buckle open or right hand?
Photo taken by: Marielle loosing that regulator and finding it back so I could put it back where it belonged, in my belching mouth. Yes, I had a hard time concentrating that first day. On top of everything else I actually ran out of air way before everybody else (seems you breathe rather more inefficiently as a novice with a hangover). Since I don’t like blaming myself for all of this, I would hereby like to blame Ewen for taking me out the night before which was the cause of all my misery. My only comfort is that he felt just as bad the next day.
Luckily I am a quick learner and the following days I didn’t touch a drop of alcohol until the course was done. Ok, that is a lie, I had one beer each of the following days, but they don’t count! At the end of the four days it was declared to me, with much triumph, that I now belonged to the ever growing group of open water divers. In those four days I mostly saw my instructor making funny moves with her arms as she tried to show us what to do, I saw my fellow course
Koh Tao
Fishy
Photo taken by: Marielle mates, I saw plenty of fishes (strange that), a blue spotted sting ray, a moray eel, various corals and other critters whose names I don’t know. After the course I saw the bottom of many a beer bottle, an altogether different liquid experience.
With my new found skills in hand, I left the island and made my way to Malaysia. The initial plan was to go down the east coast and visit the islands off it, but it is monsoon season on that side, so I have had to ditch that idea. While I am deciding on what to do as an alternative, I have landed myself in Penang, a place I have been before. I shall spend Christmas here and by the end of it I hope to have reached a satisfying substitute for east-coast Malaysia. It is not really that much of a problem as it only constitutes a tiny part of the current trip and the rest will remain unchanged.
For now, all that remains is to wish you all a Merry Christmas and, with the world not having ended a couple of days ago, good luck with filling in the whole of next year
Koh Tao
And more colourful buggers.
Photo taken by: Marielle and the rest of your lives!
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jenny adams
non-member comment
awesome!
nice one!