Whilst on the beautiful Koh Tao, gem of the Gulf of Thailand, most people dabble in some form of watersport - usually scuba diving, which Koh Tao is particularly famous for. I went with the intention of doing my PADI Open Water course, which would allow me to dive for fun around the world in the presence of a certified guide and dive company. I came away slightly obsessed and wanting to dive my way around the world, which of course I did not budget for. Within an hour of arriving from Koh Phangan, Dave and I both commited ourselves to the PADI course at Ban's Resort and to each other, as loyal dive buddies, whilst Rooney, having done his PADI previously, was given the go ahead to try his hand at free diving, where you hold your breath whilst diving down to depths of around 25m.

Dave and I were thrown in straight away, having our first lesson via DVD on our first night on the island. The DVD had some useful information, such as the vital knowledge that 'Scuba Divers have more fun than regular people'. Our instructors were Mario (quick to be dubbed Super Mario), a German guy who has been teaching on Koh Tao for 16 years and totally knows what he's talking about (did you know that if people insist on continuing to slaughter sharks and they become extinct, the world's climate change problem will quicken up in a major way?); and Mike who rapidly became recognised as one of the many dive instructor lotharios of the island (a pretty solid example of this is the way Mike asks hot girls when they are leaving Koh Tao. If more than a couple of days away, he tells them to come back to him at the end of their holiday. His reaction at hearing of one Swedish girl extending her stay after one hot night with our Mike was nothing short of horrified.)

Dave and I were without fail 15 minutes early for our morning sessions (in part due to neither of us having the correct times on our phones but mostly because we were super keen). Joining us later was what has to be one of the best PADI diving groups Ban's has seen - nine of us from around England. As a rule we were generally joined half an hour after class started by James and Liam, who had inevitably been out partying until 5am the night before.

After our morning classroom lesson and afternoon pool session, we were due to dive for real the next day, down to 12m. We headed out into the gulf of Thailand to one of the nearby dive sites, setting up our gear and getting briefed along the way. Taking our first stride entrance into the sea, I somehow manage to make mine resemble a belly flop - oh so graceful. Excited but inevitably nervous, we began our descent. And my descent was short. I only made it down to about five metres. My ears just wouldn't equalise (they must pop as they do on an aeroplane, but due to the constant change in pressure as you descend, this needs to be done every few foot or so). After near on twenty minutes of trying, Mario came to the surface with me and said the best thing was to go back to the dive boat, telling me not to worry and that we'd sort it out. My ears hurting so much and not wanting to push them and burst my eardrums, I head back to the boat convinced I won't be able to dive at all, so I had a girlie moment and had a bit of a cry. Which ain't pretty when you have no tissues and the dive boat is toilet paper free.

When everyone came back from the dive, depsite them all being on a massive high from how awesome it was, they were all concerned and gutted for me. Great PADI team. After another briefing and some decongestive tablets the start of the next dive came around. This time, success! And seriously, there are few things cooler than sitting on the floor of the ocean whilst massive tropical fish swim around you and the rest of your diving class high five you on equalising and getting down to 12m for the first time.

The following morning's third and fourth qualifying dives to 18m were somewhat tainted by the fact I'd had hardly any sleep. Sadly, not because of partying (we were advised not to drink a lot before diving), but due to tossing and turning all night scratching, then finding the cause of the itchiness - bedbugs. A notorious horror story among backpackers, I was bitten all over and had to escape to the resort's security hut in order to get a couple of hour's kip. How I wished the Em, Stef and Jen's beautiful hotel wasn't a taxi ride away at this point! I would wish bedbugs only on the worst of people - their bites itch far more than mosquito bites and they are a nightmare to get rid of. But there's nothing like a dive to wake and cheer you up. That night was dedicated to the celebration of the nine of us completing our PADI course with a 100% pass mark (nothing at all to do with the fact we were allowed to go off to discuss over lunch). Things got pretty messy, ending in Matt and I skinny dipping in the sea at dawn caused by the consumption of too many buckets and Changs. Thus a firm friendship was formed, as only skinny dipping can cause.

Koh Tao is an amazing, friendly place - the food is excellent, the bars are perfectly set up with bean bags on the sand and tiki torches lighting the beach and the diving is fantastic. Swimming through a school of chevron barracudas as they surround you on all sides is something everyone should get to do. It's the sort of place where people move to do what they love for a living: diving all day long and ending the day sat in plastic chairs waist high in the sea, glass of wine in hand, a lilo serving as a beer table in front of them whilst they wait for the sun to set. Idyllic. The island equals Siem Reap as my favourite place on my trip so far (despite the bedbugs and the massive cockroach that fell on my one night) and I will definitely be going back. I would have liked to have stayed longer to enjoy the nightlife more, or move onto the west coast of Thailand to Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta with Emily, Stef, Dave, Rooney and all of the friends I'd made over the week whilst diving to carry on the partying in Phi Phi to celebrate Matt's birthday and the Royal Wedding with some fellow Brits. Unfortunately my visa was due to run out so instead I said goodbye to all for the next seven months and had the joy of a 30 hour journey via overnight boat (with approximately seven life jackets onboard), scooter and several buses all the way to Kuala Lumpur. Nowhere near as much fun as a M150 fuelled week on Phi Phi...but I hear there's some excellent diving in Malaysia. And if anything, Koh Tao taught me something really important: scuba divers do have more fun than regular people. Fact.