I finally have some down time - its raining now - and thought I should bring my blog up to date so I'll start off filling in the gaps since I last left Bangkok.
On Monday (2 April) evening I took the luxurious bus from Bangkok arriving in Chumphon, Thailand about 3 AM. Chumphon is a city on the Gulf of Thailand where you catch the ferry to Ko Tao. After a few hours sleep in the waiting area we boarded the ferry for Ko Tao around 7 AM on Tuesday (3 April).
The dive operator that was recommended to me - New Way Diving - picked me up at the pier on Ko Tao. At their office I signed up for the PADI Open Water Diver course which I could start the next afternoon. Then I checked into a not so great, overpriced bungalow that - thankfully - was included in the price of the PADI course. That afternoon I explored Sairee Beach, the main beach on Ko Tao where all the travelers - most of them Swedish - stay. That evening I met up with a group of travelers that I met on the boat ride for a fun dinner and evening. I think we had at least 8 people - from England, Australia, and Spain.
Wednesday (4 April) I hit the beach in the morning since I didn't start the PADI course until the afternoon. Around 2:30 PM we met at the dive shop to fill out a bunch of paper work, had a course introduction, and watched some videos. We were given our course textbooks and homework! I had a quite night, as the next few nights would be.
Thursday (5 April) we started at 9 AM with some class room stuff and then after lunch we boarded the dive boat and went to a shallow bay to get our feet wet. It was a pretty mellow day just practicing some basic skills underwater and getting familiar with the scuba equipment.
Friday (6 April) we started at 9 AM again with some more class room stuff. After lunch it was time for our first real dive. We had 2 dives that afternoon and they were fantastic. Really good fun. It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.
Saturday (7 April) was our final day of the PADI course. We had our 'final exam' around 11 AM before boarding the dive boat for our 2 afternoon dives. Those dives were great too. Each of the 4 dives over the 2 days was better than the previous. Before the exam that morning I had to switch bungalows since my accommodation was no longer paid for and it was too expensive to stay there. I found a nicer, cheaper bungalow closer to the center of the beach. That evening the 3 Canadian guys and British couple that were in my class all met up for some drinks and dinner. Then we met our instructors and others from the dive shop at a restaurant to watch a video of our last day of diving. An underwater videographer had joined us on the days dives to film us. He put together an awesome video which we watched and then had the option to buy but it was way too expensive for me. The Canadian guys bought one so hopefully I can get a copy from them. The video was really cool. Then we celebrated pretty hard all night until some ungodly hour.
Sunday (8 April) I slept in until after noon. After a late lunch - or really late breakfast - I detoxed on the beach. I followed that with another late night out. The great thing about having a bungalow close to the beach and all the bars and restaurants on the beach is that I can leave my sandals at my bungalow when I go out. Thats a nice change of pace from the 'big city'. Most nights I go out 'island style' sans footwear.
Monday (9 April) morning I was woken up by one of my instructors knocking on my bungalow around 10 AM asking if I wanted to join the British couple - from my PADI course - who were starting the Advanced Open Water Diver course in a couple of hours. I really hadn't given it much thought yet and I was too hung over to even consider it at that point so I turned down the offer. But later that afternoon I went by the dive operator and signed up for the Advanced course. Although I would be a day behind the British couple it really wasn't a big deal as the 5 dives that make up the AOWD course don't have to be in any particular order.
So I negotiated hard for a good price on the course and was signed up to start the course early the following morning. I had a mellow night of reading and doing homework.
Tuesday (10 April) morning we met at 6 AM to go diving. The first dive was our Deep Dive, where we went down to 30 meters/100 feet. That is a lot of water to have above your head!! The thought of it was a bit scary to me from the surface, but once in the water it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. 30 meters really didn't feel to much different than 15 meters. We did a little test at the bottom to check and see if any of us were experiencing nitrogen narcosis (harmless) - none of us were. The second dive of the morning was our 'Underwater Naturalist' dive where we took some identification plates (pictures of fish and coral) down on a dive with us and tried to identify fish and coral. We saw so many beautiful tropical fish, a sting ray, an eel, and a bunch of other stuff. Really cool. That afternoon I went to the beach for a few hours before meeting back up at the dive shop at 5 PM for our night dive. Our group of 5 (3 students/2 instructors) were the only ones on the boat and the only ones at the dive site. We geared up and entered the water after the sun had set but while it was still light out. We all had under water torches - obviously. Slowly it got darker and darker. We swam around for a while checking stuff out before stopping on the bottom where we turned off the lights and played with the bioluminescent plankton. That was really cool. I was glad that we had a group of 5 because I may have been a bit freaked out if we had only been a group of 2!! Very freaky and very cool. It definitely didn't feel like a place humans should be..... We surfaced to a dark, star filled sky, with the lights of Ko Tao flickering in the distance. That was one of the coolest experiences of my trip. I did more reading and homework that night.
Wednesday (11 April) I had 2 more morning dives so once again we met at the dive shop at 6 AM. It was only my instructor and I for these two dives - other groups were on the boat - as the British couple had done these dives the day I was hungover. My instructor for both the OW and AOW courses happened to be an attractive German girl..... but she wasn't single. The first dive was a navigation dive which was really quite difficult. I had to follow a bearing (the easy part), count my fin stokes (to measure distance), breath, regulate my buoyancy, and try not to ascend or descend, all in the open water without many visual references. I tried semi-successful to navigate a square. On the way to the second dive site we raided some fisherman's traps (which were illegal anyways) to find 3 strange fish and a squid. I jokingly told some one that was her lunch. The second dive was a dive strictly to work on my buoyancy control which is the most important aspect of diving (other than continuous breathing). You control your buoyancy by regulating your breathing. I tried to swim slowly through a square hoop without a whole lot of success. It was really good practice though. We also saw a school of squid ironically which were about the size of a hand! We got back on the boat to find the captain had cooked up the fish and squid we had taken from the traps. It was delicious and the freshest seafood I've ever eaten. Guess I wasn't joking about 'lunch'. Upon returning to the dive shop and having our homework checked I was officially an 'Advanced Open Water Diver'. The two early mornings of dives had made me quite tired so that afternoon I took a long nap, before going out for a little while that evening.
Today, Thursday (12 April), I got to sleep in. Then I went to the beach for a few hours before the rain sent me scurrying for cover. I'm not sure if I'll do any more dives or not. I would like too, but the 2 diving courses have really blown the budget.
