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Published: February 10th 2009
Jim
Under the sea
Under the sea
Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full time to floatin'
Under the sea
Again, a nice Disney tune to set the scene.
After Bangkok, we made our way by bus down to Ko Tao. Interesting to say the least - apparently, when we're told to be there at 6pm for the bus, the actually mean
9pm. Stupid us for not getting that. So we had to spend a few hours waiting for the bus, although we did get to meet and talk to some nice people - an Australian and Spanish who live in UK.
We finally got on the bus, I was just dropping off, when BAM - a huge sound erupts as the thoughtful (?) bus drivers put on a nice movie for us. "Shoot 'em up". Involved lots of death and, bizzarely, carrots being stuffed in people's eyes. NICE. It was so horrific I couldn't help watch it.
Eventually we got to the place where we had to get the boat to Ko Tao at about 5am, so were waiting there for a few hours. A man came around with leaflets of accomodation etc, and we liked the look of one - Ban's Diving - so we decided to go there.
The first thing I noticed getting off the boat was the crystal water with fish, the green mountains and the white sand. Bliss.
We got herded onto an open top van that drove us to the diving place, where we checked in. Koh Tao is like the diving capital of Thailand's East coast, and so Flic immediately signed up for her refresher diving course.
I was still uncertain about the diving, so didn't sign up. For the next few days, Flic did lots of diving, while I was at the pool getting nice and pink.
Eventually, I was so bloody bored that I signed up for a four day Open Water course, just for something to do.
The first proper day of the course was in the swimming pool. It was horrible, the most horrific thing in my entire life. I felt like I was drowning under the water, and had to do horrid things like filling the mask with water and having your air supply turned off.Blurgh. I wanted to give up - actually, I tried, repeatedly, but the instructor took me on 1-1 tuition and kept me at it.
The next day was the first sea dive, and the night before was horrible - I couldn't sleep at all. In the event, it was actually fine, and I was a lot more comfortable in the sea than in the pool.
After two days of sea diving, my course was finished, and I was qualified to do dives with an leader. I wanted, however, to do the Advanced Course so I could go just a buddy team (2 people), do deep dives and night dives etc. Flic decided to do it with me, so was really fun.
The best thing was for 3 dives we were on our own - we went down and swam around, navigating (badly!!) and had to do it all ourselves. Was really good experience, even though there were hiccups - my air ran out, we got lost and my ear decided it didn't like the water anymore and decided to hurt my LOTS until we went up to the surface. Stupid ear.
Anyway, we took a camera on two dives, so have some great underwater marine life pictures, which will be coming shortly. We saw some cool stuff - blue spotted sting ray, morray eel, lots of coral, Nemo fish, yellow back fusiliers, triggerfish, ember parrotfish, blueringed butterfly fish, and lots of others that I can't remember.
The actual place is very nice here - sandy beaches, clear water and good, good food. We go on RealGap in 3 days, which is very exciting!
Only a short entry, but this keyboard is really stiff and my fingers are in agony.
We go to the Full Moon Party in Ko Phangnan tonight - fun stuff! We hope. It could be hell. In about 12 hours we'll see.
Update again soon.
UPDATE:
For photos of our dives, visit http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88185&l=5636c&id=510604934
For general photos of Koh Tao, visit http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86679&l=c87b4&id=510604934
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Aunty Furry
non-member comment
You be careful with those ears. You don't want to end up like me..... Glad to hear your are having such a great time.....and being BRAVE......