We were met off the train at Chumporn by a woman selling ferry tickets to Koh Tao, leaving at 7am so we obliged and got on the coach (sam had to run down to a cash point and be picked up en route!). The ferry, which was meant to take 1.5 hours took more like 4 and was the worst journey in history. We had already been warned by Katie in Kanchanaburi that the crossing was rough and to take sea-sickness tablets but we had no time to prepare ourselves going straight from the train!!! Everyone around us was being sick, the sound and the smell were enough to make those not being sick ill even if they weren't affected by the sea! There were loads of guys trying to sell resorts on the boat, and one told us that the best way to overcome the ill feeling is to go to sleep, so I did and any feeling of nausea went quite quickley!!! Karl who couldn't sleep told us that the staff were really good, positioned down the aisles, handing out sick bags, and swapping used ones for new ones!!! We arrived and got a taxi to a resort we decided upon - Coral Grand. We got there and were given an introduction by a dive instructor, James, into the diving we could do etc etc. Karl and I signed up, meaning we all got free accomodation for 4 nights! We grabbed some breakfast/lunch and then I sunbathed until the first diving lessons began at 3pm. These were just theory and we spent the afternoon in the classroom watching videos and reading text books!!!!

The next day we had lessons again in the morning and then went to the pool in the afternoon where we spent most of the time underwater!!! I had troubles at first getting to grips with the underwater breathing as it feels strange until you are used to taking long, deep, slow breaths through your mouth only!!! Once I had mastered that I encountered problems with the filling the mask and then emptying it underwater, as well as taking the mask off and swimming before putting it back on as I don't like opening my eyes underwater! I did however, at the very last moment manage it before we finished for the day! We went for dinner at an Italian and then back to bed.

The second full day of the course was again learning in the classroom in the morning and then out to sea in the afternoon for our first open water dives! I was really quite nervous despite trying to convince myself otherwise, and as we were just about to board the boat our instructor gave us sea sickness tablets as it was quite choppy...which probably didn't help!!! Once at the site 'White Rock', we got in the water and it was awful! It was so choppy and when our instructor told us to look underwater at the descent rope, I couldn't see it! My breathing was all over the place and I ended up panicking and swallowing loads of sea water as the waves were coming over my snorkel (which we were told to use on the surface to save air). Everyone had gone down and James came back up and tried to persuade me to go down but it was no use! By this point I was thoroughly panicked! I had to get back onto the boat, and I thought I had blown it and wouldn't be able to continue! No matter how much I thought I was missing out and was cross with myself though, everytime I looked at the water I knew I couldn't have gone down...so in a way I had no regrets! When they surfaced though, they came up to the upper deck and went through how the dive went, and then James, who was the sort of guy to take no s***, basically told me I was coming down on the next one!!! I didn't have much time to think about it! The boat moved to a calmer spot at 'Twin Peaks' and I made it down! At first my breathing was a bit laboured as I was nervous, but once down beyond 5m I was fine and loved it!!!! I even managed to empty my mask first time!!! This raised my spirits no end, and its true what they say....its addictive!! If I hadn't have completed the second dive though, I know I would have been put off by the experience of the first dive and never tried it again thinking it just wasn't for me so I'm really glad looking back that I persevered! That evening we went for a walk along the beach and had dinner on the sand at a BBQ.

The final day of the course we did a morning dive - leaving at 6.15am! Again I was nervous, but having completed a dive the previous day I knew I could do it! Again we went to Twin Peaks so it was calm. The first dive we went down to 16m and the second, 12m. The second dive of the day (our last dive) was amazing despite poor visibility of about 3-5m - it was more a fun dive than doing skills like the other dives (although we did do some skills with a compass). We saw so many amazing fish including NEMO(!!!!!!) and loads of sea cucumbers which looked really odd on the sea bed! I had to double take! In the afternoon we had our exam which we all passed (Me, Karl and a spanish guy Frances and an ozzie guy peter). I then felt really rough, whether it was dehydration or other affects of diving I don't know, but I had a splitting headache and my whole body ached and I couldn't bring myself to eat so I slept it off and didn't go to dinner.

The next morning I still didn't feel right, but eating made me feel a lot better. We went to a cafe for breakfast and Sam and Karl bumped into an ozzie girl they had seen out the night before (they didn't come back til gone 3am!). She seemed like a real laugh and had filled sam's address book with random email addresses on every entry...including: [email protected]!!! BBC World News was on in the background and when his parting speech came on it reminded them both!!! Our boat wasn't leaving Koh Tao until 4pm so we spent the remainding time chilling (Karl and I sunbathed, Sam sat in the shade!). The boat back to Chumporn was much better, less choppy and not many people were sick. I attempted to go to the toilet near the beginning of the journey and I was walking all over the place!! We had almost got there without any apparent vomiting nearby when a lady to my right was sick everywhere! The funny thing is hardly anyone noticed as they were all asleep! I had my head in my arms over the table in front and it sounded like a bottle of water had spilt! Luckily for us we avoided sea-sickness again! At Chumporn we waited at the ferry terminal for a taxi to take us to the train station for about an hour where we got some food. We then got the train from Chumporn to Hat Yai, where we then changed onto a bus to take us to Satun. We were just boarding a taxi (Jeep with open back) when a Danish guy (Mikel) came up to us and asked if we were going to the bus station, as thats where he was heading too. He jumped in with us and it turned out he was heading to Langkawi in Malaysia too. We got the bus to Satun, and then a taxi to the ferry terminal, where we waited for a while until the 1.30pm ferry. This was a really smooth crossing in comparison and no one was sick!!!