Koh Tao again and again and again and again! Love it!

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Current Mood: Time to Study.

Panoramic image above is from Aow Leuk Beach. the best way to spend the arvo if the mad man isn't there

Leaving the UK is never easy and to make it harder this time I was leaving even more people behind. my Brothers and Sisters are having Kids of their own. Mom held it together quite well this time (I think she is getting used to it) and Little Josh looked confused. I actually think he was more upset that Casey was leaving as it was me who used to scare him and make him eat pickled onions after telling him they were grapes hahaha.

Dad came by the house to collect us and we shot down to London for our flight. Saying goodbye in the quick drop off bay is never ideal but it gets you away before the crying starts. Check in was smooth, flight was uncomfortable but after three of the buggers we finally landed in Bangkok at around 12am.

Flying through Customs this time we managed to hit Koh san Rd before 1am so I had time to catch a few games of the world cup. For the Next week we waited around Koh san, sleeping in late, staying up for games and hanging out with our new Spanish and German mates Mary and Jan. After convincing them to change their entire plan around so they could visit Koh Tao we arranged to meet them there and said our farewells. On came the trip of doom to paradise island. The Night train from Bangkok to Chumpon is a great set up. You get a bed, a fan and all of the food you would like. All through the night people come by selling drinks and grub to your liking. Be warned though that these trains do have thieves on them. If you are sleeping keep your small bags under your head. Whilst we were on the train one guy had his bag snatched. Stupidly though the thieves didn’t count for me being on the train and upon helping him we found it stuffed outside the train on the boarding steps track side so nobody would notice it as they left the train later on. See you later suckers.

Chumpon Train Station is a smelly as ever and the Lomprayer catamaran service at this time of the morning is a bit of a pain. Do not let the ticket exchange charge you again for your transfer to the ferry. You have already paid. Wrangers.

The Catamaran from Chumpon to Tao takes around two hours stopping at Koh Nang Yuan first before dropping you in Mea Haad of Koh tao. Jumping of the boat and setting foot on one of my favourite places in the world was as ever exciting.

As I was doing a Dive course with Buddha View they arranged to pick me up from the pier. You get free pick up from most operators on the island providing they know you are coming. If you are coming out to do open water, Advanced or Rescue diver courses I recommend ocean sound dive and Yoga. For DMT and Instructor courses. Buddha View. The first options will allow you the pleasure of Ko, the Ocean sound driver. If you are lucky you will also meet his wife and child, Goy and Gong. (apologies if the spelling is wrong. Let me know)

Anyway on the Buddha Taxi we Jumped and down to the south end of the island we went (Chalok) where Buddha view is set. I knew I was in for a big few days early on as we understood that we would be here for around three months. We would need to set ourselves up. Night to night you will pay 600bht to anything up to 4000bht if your loaded. We were going to get long term so you can expect 7000bht-20,000bht per month.

First of all to get set up we had to get a bike so we could look around easier. On the scooter I jumped and for the best part of two days we searched everywhere until we found Orachan house near the Castle Party. Do Not stay here. Nice rooms but a fierce landlady who really is there just to rip you off. Be warned. After 3 weeks of staying there watching the price rise daily we decided to move into a vacant block behind what would be my later employers and friends building of Ocean Sound. The resorts name is Tropicana and for 7500bht per month we got a great little ocean view room up a little flight of steps (110 of them).

All set I had a week to kill before the beginning of my Staff instructors course so Casey and I just chilled back with a few new friends and old and simply fell back into the Koh Tao way of life.

One week later however my time would change completely. Whilst Casey sat in the hammock, I was in Class. Studying, auditing and marking future Instructors through their instructor development course. As stated before Buddha view is Great for doing both the Divemaster courses and idc’s.

After a month of studying and nurturing the guys on the idc my work was done and I was able to relax with Casey. My first day of relaxing however destroyed me and I found myself in need of some after sun pronto.

Standing in the street under the shade I was greeted by my good friend and co-owner of Ocean Sound Dive and Yoga who offered me the chance to help him out by taking a few of his students for their open water Dives. I was stoked and sure enough this one course turned into me teaching full time for two months longer.

Cheers to all of my students at Ocean Sound for making my temporary stay a great one. I hope to enjoy beers with all of you again soon. To name a few:

Franziska Ramisch (drink more water) and Eileen Altmeyer (please look after her), Catherine Tong, Tristan Mayo, Mary Mayo, Charity Mayo and Shayla Riggs (can’t wait to meet the rest of you), Valentine Hamad and Damien Faure (hope you come back to do your open waters with us), Ivan Torres and Nicole Berkovich (hope you guys enjoy being top lawyers in Newyork), Daniel Minett and Samuel Tenoudji-Cohen (good luck with the rescue course), Martin… you need to dive to finish your DMT, Good luck Bro, Abhimanyu Bhargava (hope to see you in the heavy weights), Nick Keyte and Carmen Gomez, Joeri Wouters, Kristen Hedley, Abigail Jones, Jitske Bosma, Evan Halikias, Chelsea Jeter, Daniel Chernowitz, Julian Etzel and Suk Ting Choi (Ginia Gin), Elliot Brenner and Julie Brenner San van der Meer (the biggest guy I’ve ever taught next to Turkish Danny, Oliver Smith and Olivia Needham (Well done you two) Arup Kumar Chaki… OH MY! Finally Joshua Brock, Elise P Brock, Florian Yamin, Diana Suen, Ulric Ferner, Clark Birkelund (the next Microsoft owner), Caroline Gunther and David Rynn. Good luck moving on to your next dive levels and what ever you do in life. Ocean sound hopes that all of you come back to see them again real soon. Especially you Mr Arup. Bring all of your friends. Will North offers great swimming lessons in his free time.

Ocean Sound as a dive School is a very professional outfit. They are offering the newest standard of Padi open water Courses and are the only ones to do so on Koh tao at this time. They are also number one on Trip Advisor with Faultless reviews. They have another half of operations that is run through Cyn at the Yoga studio (hence the name Dive and Yoga) Though the teams change on Koh Tao through visa issues and work permits the Staff at Ocean Sound are all Vetted and must be experienced to work there. At present asides from me leaving 1 months ago at time of writing the team is still the same. The set up is fantastic and still its growing, adding more classrooms. The feeling here is relaxed and fun to be around. And unless you and your group want more the group sizes remain to a maximum of four per instructor. For further reading please have a look at them on trip advisor or at www.oceansounddiveandyoga.com

Whilst working here, after work I was usually found down at a Bar on Chalok beach called the BAR NEXT DOOR (greatest bar on the planet). I would usually be here cooling down (after a run) with all of the shops students sharing stories and beers until the sun had set. Without all of these guys Named above the island would not be what it is today nor would any of us western instructors be permitted to enjoy such a lifestyle. On behalf of the island I think thanking you all would not be a problem. I do either way.

After a great few months diving, hanging out with old friends, Will, Cyn, Jesper, Phil, France, Antal, Juan, Perry, Mark, Teelek and of course the lovely Katie the time came to move on to our next adventure.

Can’t wait to see you all again in December for a cheeky week on route home.

Love to all at home,

Niki

(Upon leaving we heard the sad news that two British backpackers had been murdered on Koh Tao. This saddens me deeply. For anybody reading these articles please do not avoid the island due to what happened. The Young Couple before the event seemed to be having the times of their lives at that point. Koh Tao Urges you all to come out and do the same. As ever though ladies and gentlemen, wherever you are in the world, take care, stay together and enjoy your selves in a safe manner. My heart goes out to the young couples family)

Tripadvisor comments below:

Diving with Ocean Sound is by far the most amazing thing I have ever done, I'm completely hooked!!
Niki was such an awesome instructor and I felt completely safe at all times... Apart from in the bar afterwards (far too many buckets and night dives!! - really good drink btw!) The shop is brand new, as is all the equipment, and you are never in a group of more than 4 people - which is a massive bonus!
Such a life changing experience that I would recommend to anyone!!
Thanks so much guys, Olivia

Last month I did my Padi Open Water course at Ocean Sound Dive & Yoga. It was just perfect! The course was perfect, the instructor was perfect, and the material (+ dive boat) was high class and new.

We were planning to stay for a couple of days at Koh Tao, but at the end we stayed for two weeks. And we did another 8 dives at this school!
I definitly highly recommend this dive school, with it's very kind and experienced dive instructors.
Ow, and during my course my girlfriend did some very nice yoga classes. She was very positive about it! Great combination Dive & Yoga!

Visited August 2014

San

Lovely dive school on the quieter side of the island - groups are max of 4. I had Phil who was brilliant and made me feel very relaxed, which is important as a complete beginner! The whole team was really fun and very professional. I also had a yoga lesson with Cynthia who was great at catering for all levels and made everyone feel welcome. They even sorted out new accommodation for me just by the school and helped me out with getting my bag over from another hostel.

Visited July 2014

Lucy

Just spent ten days on Koh Tao after my last visit 5 years ago. I haven't done much diving since I was there last and decided to do a Scuba Review. I'd researched dive schools before I left and found Ocean Sound where I enquired about reviews and received a lovely, friendly email in return. Funnily enough, on our first day in Koh Tao, I was with my partner in 7 Eleven trying to figure out which sim card to buy when a really nice guy next to us said that if we weren't sure, pop over to the dive school he worked at across the road and the guys there would be happy to help us figure it out. It turned out the dive school was Ocean Sound! I was about to go and find out where they were located - a nice coincidence...

I had the best experience here - the team are all really great and make you feel comfortable and very well looked after. My Dive Master Antal was fantastic, and really focused on finding us cool things to see underwater. I'd had a bad experience in the past and was quite nervous getting in the water again, but Antal was patient and I felt completely safe. The dive boat was brilliant - we even got breakfast on the morning dives and safety is top notch. The small groups also make a massive difference.
All the team were awesome - if you dive with these guys, don't be surprised if you find yourself down at Bar Next Door at the end of the day having a Leo or two (it's hard to resist wanting to spend more time with such friendly people!). Thanks so much to all the crew there. I can't wait to come back!

Visited August 2014



Honestly, when I first arrived in Koh Tao and actually saw the huge number of diving shops around the island I wondered why Ocean Sound has such great reviews, as, come on, how different can the diving around the island be...
However as I started my diving course I realised why this is the case. Its the general vibe Ocean Sound gives!!! Its truly very friendly, relaxing and warm!!! The instructors are all super cool, exciting to talk to and fun. Not to mention its all quite professional and they really want you to get the best out of diving. My diving instructor (Open water) Niki was awesome and energetic and really showed us a lot on the ocean floor. The place Ocean Sound is also adds to this setting as the area is quite peaceful with good restaurants. For me personally, I really enjoyed (and benefited) from the Yoga lessons with Cynthia! Cynthia is super sweet and chill! Out of all the Yoga lessons I ve done I really felt these ones affected me in the most positive way (maybe it was the atmosphere). Also loved the music that was played during the lessons!
Overall just a GREAT place to dive. I ll be back for my advanced course!!!

Visited August 2014

Abhi

I had an incredible experience with Oceansound who were friendly, professional and fun. Before completing an open water course in a group with three others (four is the guaranteed maximum group size at Oceansound) with Jesper I was a bit nervous. Jesper made sure that everything we did was engaging, clear and I always felt prepared for what came next. It was a training style that put me completely at ease, built my confidence and I giggled a lot too. In fact I enjoyed my time learning to dive at Oceansound so much that I also did my advanced open water there too. For this course Niki was my instructor and, just like Jesper, he was enthusiastic, great at pointing out things to see underwater and diving with him was a real pleasure.

The price for open water is fixed at pretty much the island average for those including accommodation on a PADI course, although Oceansound is the only dive school using the new PADI material for Open Water. The reason why Oceansound don't barter on price is that they are determined to provide you with a quality experience and they really deliver on this. The kit is all new, the dive boat is excellent and the instructors, well the instructors are about the nicest people you could hope to meet.
The benefit from being in Chalok rather than Sairee means that the accommodation provided in the course fee is a lot better than the equivalent for a lot of other dive schools. Tropicana Resort gets a bit of a bad rap on Tripadvisor, but is genuinely superior to the options we saw in Sairee. If you don't like it, Oceansound offer the open water for a bit cheaper so you can find somewhere to stay more to your taste.
It's hard to say one dive school is better than another if you haven't been to more than one and we only experienced one other dive school while on the island, going on a trip to sail rock (only offered by Oceansound once a month.) Although the other dive school was really well reviewed on trip advisor (why settle for less than 5 stars) the service didn't compare with Oceansound. I felt like I was on a conveyor belt of dive trips and the kit wasn't as new and looked after either. Given the choice I would have done every dive with Oceansound.
Last thing to mention is that the yoga is also great. I tried this with some friends I made on the open water course and went as a total novice. Cynthia, who runs the yoga side of Oceansound was a wonderful instructor, making sure everyone in the class was, literally, stretching themselves but also enjoying their experience. The more advanced friends I went with left feeling as excited as I did. I think I might have picked up another new hobby, but the very reasonably priced class with an instructor as good as Cynthia will be hard to match.
If you are in two minds about who to dive with in Koh Tao, you could get there first and speak to the dive schools in question and then make a decision, or you could book with Oceansound right now. Either way, you'll end up wanting to dive with them and having the best diving (and yoga) experience possible.

Visited August 2014

Georgina

We were diving for the first time and we found the school fun, cool and professional. We did our PADI Open Water with Will North and he helped us feel completely comfortable at all times and was a brilliant teacher. We then did Open Water Advanced with Niki (who was only filling in for a few weeks) who challenged us more and was fun.

Highly recommended school, keep up the good work!

Visited August 2014

Nick

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