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Published: April 17th 2015
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The bus back and night train were nothing special as they were just repeats of the original trips. We had another day in Bangkok spent going to the cinema and a night at the hostel nearer the sky train. During that time we emailed dive companies on Koh Tao to get the cheapest deals but in the end decided to wing it, like ‘proper travellers’. A late train and a very early boat trip allowed us to get to Koh Tao in 9am and managed to grab one of the last spots on the Big Blue diving course and resort. Orientation was at 5pm so that gave us the opportunity to have a couple of beers and explore the island and find the party spots. However, the drinking was put on hold once we had been orientated as we were given homework and early wake ups for the next 2 days. Not that we minded as instantly I loved diving! The training was easy, just a bit of theory designed for a 12 year old ( though I was the only person that 100% the exam..) and a some pool time in the baking hot 35 degree sun. The basics learnt
in record time according to our Californian suffer chick instructor called Addy and we were ready for our first dive the next day. God she made the training interesting!
The next day was a 5.30 start, something I have not done since I was swimming at age 14, and after a bit more theory and our diving exam (perfect score, dec got 2 wrong) we were ready to embark on our underwater adventures. We boarded the 50 man boat, with its unlimited supply of free tea, coffee and biscuits, and headed to our first beginner site. After checking and rechecking our equipment along with numerous buddy checks (Bangkok Women Are Really Men being the order of checks) we jumped off the boat and submerged down the buoy line. The first thing that struck me was the utter and complete silence that accompanied the journey down the rope. All I could hear was my own breathing which was a surreal and unnerving experience to begin with. The feeling soon passed and once we had got down to 12m I was fascinated by the world that had just opened up around me! Hundreds upon hundreds of fish of all different types were surrounding our group on a 360 degree scale. Everybody was unrecognisable in their masks, snorkels and regulators so for 45 minutes we swam around doing our training exercises without a clue who was swimming next to you! We did our circuit of the rocks and then ascended to the surface, with safety stops and slow kicks etc. Once on the surface, all I wanted to do was to go back down again, now the initial nervousness that accompanied the first ever dive has passed. We waited for an hour drinking tea, eating biscuits and chatting up the Swedish girls in our group. Progress was slow on all fronts unfortunately. The second dive was just as good as the first, the fish more plentiful and the coral different colours and shapes along with some man made animal shapes having been added as well. That was our first day of scuba-ing over and what a first day it had been! I was hooked from the first dive and had already decided that the advanced course was an absolute must whilst on Koh Tao.
The Final day of the SSI open water course was another early start and another rushed spicy pot noodle. This time we were heading further out to a dive site that had a wreck and a huge rock, home to numerous blue spotted stingrays and huge grouper fish. This was the site that had the best chance of seeing a whale shark swimming by, as they had been spotted the previous day. Unfortunately they stayed away from us and weren't spotted that day, but we still saw the grouper and stingrays and a fleeting glimpse of a school of barracudas. So still a feast for the senses during that deeper dive to 18m! One final dive at another dive site without anything of note happening and that was us qualified open water divers! We were finished by lunchtime so after a big lunch it was siesta time before getting on the beers whilst watching the dive video created for us on our final 2 dives. The video was unbelievable, as was the price they were asking for it. After a polite decline it was just more drinking and time to check out the night life in Koh Tao, which turned out to be pretty epic. Unfortunately I had to get up the next day to start the advanced course so was feeling very ropey the next morning. At about 5am I decided the best way to get the alcohol out my system was to vigorously exercise. So after 'hundreds' of press upstanding sit ups I went to bed feeling drunker and more sicker than I originally did!
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