Koh Tao

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In Koh Tao we completed our open water and advanced open water scuba diving qualifications. We really liked the vibe in Koh Tao- it was a bit rough round the edges which was a nice change from overdeveloped koh Phangan. We stayed in a tiny little Bungalow/shack made out of wicker with no flushing toilets and surrounded by cockerels which started to crow at sunrise. It just about held up in the stormy weather we had for most of our stay on the island- not that this really mattered as we were underwater most of the time. I (Laura) was pretty scared about going diving but thankfully we had a really great instructor who was very patient with me me and i really enjoyed it after the initial couple of dives. We saw some really great stuff- angelfish, bannerfish, giant barracuda, triggerfish, stingrays and best of all A TURTLE!!!! i was so excited when i saw the turtle and completely forgot that i was underwater and nearly spat out my regulator trying to do a 'woo hoo"!!! Check out the picture as this is the one we saw. He was so calm and he just munched on the rock whilst we watched him. I could have watched him until i ran out of air as he was so cute. We managed to do a night dive aswell which i was extra scared about but it was exciting and we saw a giant barracuda- and made it out alive!!!! The triggerfish have a bad reputation for getting into scraps with scuba divers- so naturally i was terrified every time we saw one. However, despite our instructors best efforts to get a nip on the fin, they werent bothered by us at all- and they sleep at night which was a comfort on the night dive. Things on koh tao were really laid back and we would have gladly spent more time here had we not made plans to go onwards to koh samui.

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