We arrived in Koh Tao yesterday after a really early morning, but lovely calm boat trip.

Our room is basic, but slightly better than the last one (no gaps between the roof and floor), although we only have a cold shower, which is a bit more of a wake up call than we need, but none the less also quite refreshing! We chilled out and settled in when we arrived yesterday morning and just went for a little walk down the beach to scope out the bars for later in the week (when we go out to celebrate Steve and Vals wedding!!!).

Our dive school told us to be there at 8am so after we'd studied the dives books a little, then we watched the sunsite whilst having dinner and a beer or two and took some nice pics.

Turns out its a little busy at night here & our room happens to be over a little bar that loves Karaoke till 1am+ and the window doesn't close, so we woke up a few times even with ear plugs in.

This morning, we went and watched a few dive videos, answered some questions and started to get to understand what you do. By our first break, I was breaking out in a sweat, heart was racing and I was starting to get worried. Not everyone knows, but I have a slight fear of water in so much as I have only just managed to fully submerse my entire head in water (a few days ago in Phangan). Then we got the dive kit on and made our way (I was more like this /) to the pool. We went under the water straight away. It felt so weird breathing under water and people telling you what to do. When he said "take off your mask, put it back on and push the water out through your nose", I thought I was going to throw up! That was it, I couldn't focus and all I could think was 'God, I can't do this. I can't even cope in the pool how can I go in deep water? God I haven't been listening to a word he's been saying!"... Then it hit me, I couldn't! I went up to the top and burst into tears. I made one!! ... There were plenty of people near the pool, which made me feel even worse and I was so so angry that I couldn't do it. Ant of course was like a duck to water, but was also worried about me so probably didn't enjoy it as much as he could have. The instructor told me to sit at the side, whilst he went through some stuff with Ant and another guy on our course (who by the way went out the night before, had had 4 hours sleep and threw up earlier half way through the videos!!). Then Alex (the instructor) came back and did a one to one with me. I managed a lot more and was starting to feel a bit better, but still very very scared. But then came the old, take off the mask and don't breath in through your nose! I tried and tried, but I was exausted mentally and physically, so he said we could stop for the day and I could try it again tomorrow. This afternoon, I felt really down, because I want to do this to conquer my fear, but also so Ant can do other dives around the world, with me too. So I took myself to the side and had a word and I think I'm ready for tomorrow. We have to do two actual sea dives tomorrow, not too deep, so I think I'll be ok. I think if I can make it through to the end, I can pretty much do anything so fingers crossed! ;O)