Hello again! Just a note from Cooper this morning as Nick is currently underwater! He is out completing the 3rd and 4th dives of his course, so all going well by this afternoon he will be a fully qualified diver!

We headed across to Ko Tao on Monday on the boat, luckily enough we were approached by a tout for the dive centre we were going to anyway...so we got Nick's course discounted and a free room for 4 nights! Our bungalow is hardly luxurious, but for free we are not complaining! Lucy (here is your mention) you could not stay here, there is only cold water and the toilet doesn't flush, you have to fill a bucket next to the loo and chuck it down!!

Asides from the basic accommodation though (which to be fair, still has a comfy ish bed which is the important bit!) the resort is nice, everyone here is really friendly and we are enjoying our time here a lot. The weather has picked up although we have still had some rain, it's annoying because it shouldn't rain this time of year here and it churns the sea up making visibility not so great.

Nick started his course on Tuesday while I sunbathed and got nice and pink in the process. The next day i had my Scuba Review course, which was a bit scary after 4 years out of the water! However it went really well and I was pleased that I hadn't forgotten everything and signed up to some fun dives for yesterday afternoon. So we were both out on the boat yesterday as Nick and his group were doing their first open water dives!

After a few initial nerves from Nick over some of the skills he had to demonstrate underwater (mainly removing his mask, putting it back on and clearing the water - not the easiest!) he did great and I think even enjoyed himself! My first dive got off to a bad start when one of my ears didn't want to equalize (pop to ease the pressure) and also I clearly wasn't weighted enough as I kept drifting up to the surface! Eventually I was off though with my small group and the rest of the dive went well, not masses to see but the second one was much better.

We moved to a more sheltered dive site as it was quite blowy and the sea was a bit choppy at the first site, the second site was fab and as it was more sheltered visibility was better too. I saw loads of fish that were so pretty as we swam around the coral reef. We saw quite a few Trigger fish, which are pretty big and grumpy and prone to try and bite the fins of divers thinking they are a bigger fish come to threaten them! Thankfully no-one got ‘triggered’ today!

We will hopefully be able to go out for some fun dives together after today when Nick finishes his course which will be good, and I think we are going to stay here probably for another week or so. It is Thai New Year next week, the Songkran festival, which should be good as they have a big all day party and lots of water fights apparently!

Tonight we will get to watch Nick in action underwater as on your last dives of the course a videographer comes with you and makes a cool video of the morning! Then everyone watches them in the bar that night and if it is good he will be able to buy a DVD of himself working a wetsuit!! No doubt there will be celebrations to be had to mark the occasion too!

Carrie – I love your thoughts and questions, they are so funny. Tuk tuk is a good word you are correct, and they are loads of fun! We have questioned whether we could make one road legal at home but somehow I doubt it… Lucy – here is your second mention! We were very excited last week when Lucy mentioned that she was looking into the possibility of coming to visit us in Thailand, however this hope was then cruelly dashed a couple of days later when she decided to go to Ibiza instead!! Charming!! Only joking, we let you off really, as long as you come to the US for a visit instead…

We have no real plans for the next 6 or 7 weeks that we have before we fly to Bali, we are considering a trip to either Cambodia or Laos, but flights are far from cheap and the overland options involve very long and reportedly uncomfortable journeys…so we will see!!

Hope you are all well, is it Easter this Sunday?? I don’t think I’ll find an egg here…rubbish.
Keep the messages coming, lots of love…

Katie and Nick xxx