Diving!

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Good morning from sunny Koh Tao!

Last night we went for 'a couple' of beers to celebrate our new diving qualifications but there was a downpour so we were 'forced' to stay in the bar a bit longer. This is the reason we're sat in an internet cafe instead of doing anything constructive or touristy (John is claiming it was the diving that's made him feel unwell, hmmm). I now drink beer! Singha is my favourite, Chang apparently has formaldehyde in it so we're laying off that now (though it is much cheaper!).

Right anyway, so John told you about our two nights of trains, the lying down one was fine but not sure i'd repeat the sitting up one though i do think they hadn't attached the seats properly on purpose so when you went over bumpy bits, everything bounced so was less likely to wake you up...

So i've spent the past 3 1/2 days with 4 girls (3 from NZ and 1 from the US) learning how to dive - the first bits were all in a classroom watching videos and doing tests but it was all worth it - our final 2 dives (out of 4) were amazing! John's now an advanced Open Water diver which involved going deeper and navigating and diving at night!! I'd maybe like to do that sometime too but it all gets a bit expensive so we'll probably wait until we're in Malaysia to do any more dives. Can't wait though! I do still keep feeling like i'm still on a boat... swaying in my chair....!

So other than diving we haven't done much on Koh Tao - it's a lovely little island, very tourist oriented which isn't neccessarily a bad thing after our trip to the north. We had to move hotels this morning as we were in free diver's accommodation so we've gone upmarket ever so slightly (no insect life spotted so far!).

A great thing about spending time with people who are also travelling is that you get lots of tips! So tomorrow we'll get a boat to Koh Phangan where we'll head straight to a place recommended by Payton and Rich. We've also got a few more ideas for the west coast and even for NZ so all good.

Right, we're going to go and chill out somewhere else now (it's a hard life...!). I'll add some photos later.

Jo and John xxxx

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