So, the next couple of days have been all about our Open Water PADI.

Weds 28th, was our first day on the boat. Thailand Divers has its own and today was especially busy with every slot (for your air tank) taken.

Today we head out to Phi Phi Island to dive which is a 2.5hr boat ride away.

It was pretty choppy and Wayne gave us sea sick tablets just in case.

That said, we took them just as sea sickness started as we sat downstairs going through our test for Chapter 5 ;which we studied the night before) and boy did we start feeling rough!

We both went white and started cold sweating. Wayne said to watch the horizon which we did as we answered his questions - neither of us could look at him as we felt so sick and he took the decision there and then that we would not take the exam ad wait until everyone was on their third dive and the boat would be stationary (a good call me thinks!!).

The first dive of the day I found tough. Walking off the boat into the sea I didn't hold my mask right enough and water went into it which caught me off guard.

I also found it hard to equalise my ears which made them painful.

After some skill exercises my ears really hurt and as the dive wasn't easy (the water at Phi Phi was very choppy) I was in two minds as to whether to continue.

Once we got back on the boat we changed our air tanks and had lunch then everyone headed down to get ready for the second dive.

I decided to give it another go and put on my kit again.

This time I held my mask on firmly with two fingers and this time walking off the boat was good!

My ears still hurt and were difficult to equalise so I kept needing to ascend a bit each time we decended though this time the skills went ok.

The waters on both dives were really clear and warm. We had to kneel on the sea bed to do mask work (got some impressive coral scrapes) as well as practice our buoyancy just above the bed (a few more scrapes until I improved!).

We then revised for our exam whilst the others did the third and final die of the day - The RDP (recreational dive planner) was tricky to master and we both were concerned about this section.

Thankfully we both passed with good results (92% for me) which meant we could continue our dives the following day.

Thursday 28th December
Today the first thing we did on the boat was take our sea sick pills! (lesson learned!).

The waters were much calmer and the trip to our dive sites for the day were shorter and less choppy.

The first two dives were to complete our PADI ad they both went well.

Rob has a great knack for buoyancy whereas I really needed to work on mine.

Amongst other exercises we completed were using our lungs for hovering (breathe out and you drop slightly, inhale and you rise) and how to remove and get back into your BCD.

We went to 18 metres and the amazing thing was as the sea bed slanted, without a depth gauge you couldn't tell at all how far down you were!

These two dives went well and we were really happy to be told we had passed our PADI (wahoooooo!!!).

Our third dive was a fun dive - no exercises just scuba baby!!!

The cameraman followed us for a bit so we would have some footage and this dive was fantastic!!!

The fish, coral and fauna were beautiful.

Rob fell in love with diving from the start - it took me this dive to really start enjoying it and now I can't wait for our next dive!

So, we are now both PADI certified Open Water Divers :0

We celebrated with some dinner and also went to a Bhangla Road in town which is famous for its lady boys and a whole host of other, let's say 'interesting' varieties of clubs.

We walked down this road for a bit as I wanted to experience it and then started to walk back to the hotel.

On the way back we saw this amazing VW van that had been converted into a bar :0

We stopped here for a couple of drinks and the young barman whizzed up cocktails like a pro as his partner took orders for the customers sat at tables on the pavement. - It was an awesome bar and when the barman saw we weren't enjoying our vodka and come as there wasn't enough vodka in them (watered down me thinks), he just poured another long dash into our cups and voila - happy customers!!)

Tomorrow we fly to Penang, Malaysia and will see the New Year in there.

We haven't heard back from the hotel we booked online and as we can't remember which hotel it was we are going to have to wing it and see what we can get when we arrive.

Georgetown, Penang, here we come.

Goodbye Thailand and thanks for the PADI ;0