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Hello hello,
So the last time I wrote (well heather wrote for me due to the ol wrist problemo) we had just arrived in Samui. As i mentioned we stayed in Chaweng in a backpacker type place called "The Wave", the wave was pretty cool with some friendly owners, we were initially in a nice room but it was a little out of our price range so for the second and third nights we switched to a basic room (500thb a night). Chaweng is very developed and westernized, the only locals you see are working in smaller shops, god knows how they afford the rent. We had some ok food but everything nice was pretty pricey so we had to stick to budget joints. One thing that put a big downer on Samui was the amount of powercuts, in 3 days we had 4 long power cuts (some for like 8 hours) and the amount of rain, also the really really rank smells coming from the drains, nasty. I would say that the highlights of samui were the nice beach (although also pretty developed) and the bar we found which had a great pool table and lots of people who
were up for a game. Apart from that I wouldnt return to Chaweng and would only return to Samui with a bulging wallet and stay at some secluded luxury resort (maybe some day!).
We moved to Koh Tao on Monday which was a little early due to not really vibing Samui. We caught the slow boat (which was still pretty quick) and arrived at about 2pm. I had already booked my SSI open water course with "Scuba Junction" before the start of the trip and I rang the manager to see if we could be picked up from the pier even though we had arrived earlier than planned, this wasnt a problem and we had a free pick up before I had time to order a street vendor pancake (which are delicious out here). We got taken to the dive shop and we were shown our wooden bungalow, which is really tiny! The smallest and most basic we have stayed in so far (not even a toilet flush) but also very cheap so cannot complain! Straight away we realised how cool this little island is, its just paths for the most part with little bars and restaurants dotted in
between the numerous dive shops. We had a lovely dinner in a bar looking out over the sea and looked around the main part of the town a little. The next few days were spent relaxing on the beach and watching the sun go down mixed with some beers and food (happy days). We were invited to an evening the dive shop were hosting which was a good laugh, got to meet lots of people and did bowling in an alley where people replace the pins by hand, pretty strange experience, i won (naturally) haha.
Thursday was the start of my course and my wrist was healing pretty well so I was given the all clear from the dive shop. I met the other people who were on my course, 2 americans, zach and rachel and an english guy, also James. We met our instructor, named G and went to watch the first videos. That evening I had some homework to do (pretty easy mind you) whilst eating dinner and I took an early night due to the full day I had for Friday.
Friday was the first full day and we learnt all about equipment before more
videos and then going to the dive site where we learnt underwater skills like taking off your mask under water, what to do if you run out of air etc etc. Everyone managed the skills first time which is apparently pretty rare so that was sweet. We then did our first full on dive which was amazing, once you get your buoyancy sorted it feels like flying and Koh Tao has some amazing coral an fish to see, we saw a stingray on the first dive amoung many bright and beautiful fish and coral.
Saturday was pretty similar, more videos and then out on the boat, we did more skills and then had our second dive. This dive was so so amazing, we saw a turtle! twice! which was pretty amazing, more stingrays, huge triggerfish and nemo's!
So today was the last day of my course, we set off early (7am) for 2 full on dives, Heather came on the boat today to do snorkelling whilst we were underneath her and she said she saw some awesome stuff even from the surface so that was nice. We had a guy filming our whole day and we are going
out for dinner, drinks and to watch the video which should be cool. The dives again went well and everyone managed all of the skills first time. After we came back to shore we had to do a final exam which everyone passed (it was pretty easy) and we were given our Open water Cards so everyone in the group is now certified, a pretty cool thing to have! I have loved diving, the people I have met and I am so glad I picked Scuba Junction, they are awesome! I hope to do more on the great barrier reef and in Fiji so getting certified here will help lots with that.
We move on to Koh Phan Ngan tomorrow for full moon partying which should be good, but in honesty right now I really dont want to leave Koh Tao, its brilliant here, nice weather, nice beach, nice people, nice food, amazing diving! It really does have everything a traveller could ever want. The only bummer was that my camera broke which cost 40quid to fix, but I cant blame that on Koh Tao!
Im off to go enjoy the rest of my time here, next time
I write I will probably be hungover, such is the Koh Phan Ngan way (so I'm told).
Au Revoir
James
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