Koh Tao

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Where to start!

We spent just over a week on Koh Tao (an island off Thailand's east coast) with the intention of doing an open water PADI course, but ending up doing the advanced course as well. We dived/dove with the Davy Jones' Locker Diving School, which we highly recommend to anyone thinking about doing it. I think the best thing about the diving apart from the actual scuba bit was meeting a great group of people that we basically spent the entire time with. There were 7 of us on the course all from the UK apart from one Canadian and two instructors: Luke and Rory (who came around with us a lot too). At the end of the open water course Laura won a free beer off the instructors for getting 100% in her theory test (I didn't get 100% because I kept putting the answers in the wrong boxes ;P, and I'm sure I won a beer by doing a double loop through a ring underwater but our instructor said my fin clipped the ring!). In Koh Tao there are lots of bars and restaurants along the beach, and every business seems to have a dog which is always after human affection; so all along the beach you can play fetch with the dogs which provides endless entertainment (if you throw a ball of sand it disappears and the dog can't find it, but loves coming back for more!). Everything seemed to be about 50-100% more expensive on the island, probably because it has become so western seeing as the economy of the island is run by Western owned dive shops.

The actual diving was incredible, and annoyingly addictive. We saw some amazing fish, a turtle and some stingray. We went on a night dive, which is quite spooky, and a deep sea dive (30m). By the end of the course we were able to have a lot of fun as we were able to control our buoyancy to the point where we could sit in mid water and do lots of loops. On the last dive we took a camera down with us and were given the results on a disc, so we can't wait to see those photos!

After a days rest we sadly had to leave, but we were glad to get back to our trip as Ko Lanta and Koh Tao felt like a bit of a holiday from traveling! We're currently in Bangkok after a long boat/bus trip lasting 3 movies and and lunch break.

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