Koh Tao

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hi everyone! I know it's been a few days since we've updated, but they've been busy days for us 😊

we took the overnight bus from bankok to chumpon, then the highspeed catamaran over to koh tao. i don't know how we got so lucky, but we got the very front seats on the upper level of the bus, so we had lots of leg room. it was a long and uncomfortable ride, but it wasn't as bad as some of the buses in cambodia. we left bangkok at about 8;30ish and arrived at the pier at 5:30, then had to wait until 7:30 for the catamaran to pick us up. the ride on the catamaran was pretty good, and i was definitely glad we took the highspeed one. we were picked up at the pier by people from our dive resort and we rode in the back of a truck to buddha view (the dive resort) we were really tired by the time we got in and the room that was included with our courses wan't very nice. we switched to another little resort a few doors down, and it was much cleaner. my course started that afternoon with an orientation and a boring video.

the next day i had more classroom time, then practice time in the pool. i did pretty well, but i don't really like the feeling when you have to take your mask off underwater. trev did a refresher dive in the afternoon, because it's been a few years since he's been diving. every evening is pretty much the same here...hang around talking about diving with all kinds of people from the resort and drink some beers. go to bed and dive the next morning.

the next morning i had one more classroom session and trev had early morning dives. we met up for a quick lunch, then got onto the same boat for the afternoon. i had two dives at a site called aow leuk. it was great to be in the water, and i had a lot of fun, but the visibility wasn't great. we've had a lot of rain and clouds here. i still got to see some cool fish though, and more practice skills. trev spent the time snorkelling. he said it was actually pretty good, i think he got to see more than me!

yesterday was the last day of both of our courses, so we started on the morning boat together. the first dive was at chumpon pinnacle. i wasn't sure what to expect for visibility because the day before had been so bad, but it was really clear and looked fantastic. there was lots of marine and coral life and i felt like i could have spent all day down there looking at creatures! after that dive we continued on to another site called the twins. the visibility was also really good there and had more great things to see. i totally love diving, i'm hooked. i'm going to do two more dives here (deep and navigation) so that as we go other places i'll be able to go on most dives.

today we're having a chill day (probably the first of the trip) and we will continue with divng tomorrow. that's about it for now...

love, court

well my diving started off with a refresher dive at japanese gardens which was really good then i had to pick the five dives i was going to do on the following days. the first two i did were the peak performance boyance where you learn new techniques and get better at boyance control, including learning to float upside down and maintain position and move forward and back upside down. then a naturalist dive where you learn about the reef and identify fish and corals. the day i was diving on the same boat as court we went to chumpon pinacle and i did my deep dive (30m) and felt the effects of nitrogen narcosis (not to worry its basically like getting drunk and go's away when you come up a bit) and then i did my navigation dive combined with a me and my buddy go on our own dive and try not to get lost (you always dive in pairs). Then last night i did my night dive which was really cool, me and my buddy had a 5-6 foot baracuda swimming in between us and we did not even realize it (our dive master told us afterwards) we also saw another great baracuda kill a fish (which sounds a little wierd but it was really cool). So as for pictures it has been raining almost everyday we have been here and we have been diving so pretty much no pictures but i am going to rent one of the dive cameras tomorrow for my dives and we are exploring and picture taking on the island today.

trev

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Photos

my open water class
That's me waving

Comments

[Jasmine]

Hi!!
Your pictures are beautiful!!! I'm so glad you two are enjoying your trip...I think the most important thing i've learned from reading your entries is that the FOOD is amazing! haha Be safe and have a fabulous time! Can't wait to see more pics :) Love you!! Jasmine