Koh Tao- pt 2

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The morning broke and the Hangover hit full force but we weren't meeting until 10am. This meant a run to the seveneleven for a couple of sausage and cheese toasties and 3litres of water. miraculously this abated the hangover enough to function by the end of the theory and the start of the diving at 1pm. We were going to do 5 dives in total; 3 on the first day and then 2 the following morning. The first dive went a bit rocky as I inhaled seawater on the dive in and preceded to chunder over my mask, regulator and snorkel. After a quick wash in the sea and a ribbing from the entire group, we descended to 24m. We did our exercise tests and then our buoyancy tests, swimming through tight rings and underneath bars until we could all control our descends and ascends by just breathing alone. The next dive, the underwater navigation, started off really well using the dive computer. That was until we switched to the compass on our other wrist. It was then I realised, 20m deep, I had left my compass on the boat. Ah shit! However, being the resourceful chap I am, I hid this fact from the dive instructor and pretended to navigate my way around the dive site whilst all I was really doing was following the person in front of me. Who really needs a compass anyway when you have grade 8 drama under your belt?

The final dive of that day was the night dive and by far my favourite dive. We descended at twilight, only with a small handheld torch to find our way around. Once at the bottom, we swam slowly around exploring the nooks and crevasses for the nocturnal amphibian life. All of a sudden, it was pitch black so the only illumination was the crappy torch that shone only a couple of metres. The rest was the black unknown. Anything could have been lurking beyond the torch, just waiting to attack and feast on my steadily expanding potbelly! It was thrilling but quite stressful and I enjoyed it immensely. The highlight was the hermit crab with the shell as big as a boulder, which I spotted and showed to the rest of the group. We arrived back late so was only time for a quick Pad Thai before bed for another early morning.

The first dive of the day was the deep dive, the one I had been looking forward to the most. We would descend to 30m and stay there for as long as our oxygen would allow. We had to test our bodies against nitrogen narcosis, or getting 'narced', the condition of getting too much nitrogen in your bloodstream. This slows your reactions and makes your feel high so I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately my reactions were the same on the surface as they were at 30m so that was no fun! We also took a packet of crisps and a egg down to show how the pressure compresses the crisps and keeps the yolk of the egg intact, well until it is eaten by all the fish! The scientist in me found this fascinating, however I was solo in this as the rest of the group found it dull. Bloody teenagers... This dive was the shortest but I loved how I had managed to Go so deep. It made me more interested in the deep diving course! The final dive was the wreck dive, which made me feel like James Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies or Thunderball as the ship was American warship. We posed by the guns and checked out the fish inhabiting the bridge, but these weren't as plentiful as other dive sites. But by the time we come up it meant we were advanced divers! No time to celebrate though, as we were getting the night boat and then a minivan to Penang, an island off Malaysia. So just time for food and a much needed sleep on the beach before the boat. That was our time in Thailand finished and what a time it had been!

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