Well...hello from Nixon today!!

Like Cooper mentioned, after getting over my initial diving difficulties and beginning to feel comfortable in the water, the open water (sea) dives were quite good fun!! To pass the Open Water we had to demonstrate some skills while sat on the bottom and after that, we just got to swim around following our instructor, looking at fishies! It's good because they obviously dive here all the time, they know the good spots at each of the dive sites and before completing the course, saw a Stingray, Moray Eel, Koh Tao's very own 'Nemo' family and many, many more!

In my Open Water group there were: Instructors Laura and Simone, Divemaster Ania, then ex-army Carl, American couple Sarah and Craig, Dutch Esther and myself. We, complete with girlfriends, boyfriends and ting tong ladies (Carl) watched our video, expertly choreographed by a videographer who joined us for a couple of dives, and then went out for a nice meal to celebrate.

Many beers later....Katie and I decided to join Sarah and Craig in heading back to our resort along the beach!! A fine idea despite the high tide that left a slither of sand for us to walk on for a while, until even that disappeared and we were forced up onto the road.

Throughout the course, my instructor Laura has been going on about how good and worthwhile the Advanced course is, and while I was intrigued enough to do a couple of the five dives involved, wasn't sure about it. Three others from my Open Water course were going to continue on to it, so after some deliberation we both decided to sign up for it!Then decided if we were going to continue on diving, we should probably do so in style with our own masks and snorkels!! Some considerable spending later we retired for the day, ready to face our Advanced course the next day!!

So, over the last two days we have successfully completed Navigation, Naturalist and Night dives, plus a Deep Dive and a final one dedicated entirely to maintaining peak buoyancy in the water through controlled breathing. All this now means that we can now call ouselves Advanced Divers! Very exciting!! Just a quick note for anyone confused about Naturalist Diving - this is NOT Naturist Diving involving nudity, but normal, fully wetsuited and equipped diving identifying fishies and coral!!

On this course we were joined by Carl, Craig and Sarah from my Open Water class and also a Canadian girl called Jen who Katie met the other day fun-diving. It was nice to do it all with familiar faces!!

Anywho, on from diving - to another water based activity!! New Year's celebrations. Not traditional I hear you say, well, there's no Auld Lang Syne but Thai New Year is traditionally celebrated with a good all-day soaking of EVERYONE and EVERYTHING! We joined in the revelry, buying water pistols (Cooper went for a massive super soaker-esque one and mine had a tank to put on my back filled with water for extra long life spraying!)

We headed up to Sairee where the main party on Koh Tao was in full swing! It really was great fun, blasting anyone you see from young kids, to old grannies all delighting in the New Year and returning a good soaking with either a well aimed bucket, or sometimes less to our agreement with talc or dough - eugh!

Eventually the 'fighting' died down to a dull squirt and we were left to enjoy the sunset from a beachside restaurant.

We have decided to stay on for a few more days and will indulge in some fun-diving tomorrow. It's been so nice over the last few days to have been 'buddies' with Cooper. As I'm sure you can imagine, it's not the most 'natural' environment for a person underwater but being with Cooper really helps keep me calm underwater. Sometimes she takes it too far though with antics that make me laugh so much I almost spit out my air-regulator, like underwater roly-polys and dancing etc. It's nice that we can both really enjoy scuba diving together now and we're both at the same level!!

It's been amazing over the last week, learning to dive, seeing the underwater world that so many don't get the opportunity to enjoy first hand. But not only that but the island itself is a paradise! The white sand, the clear sea, the palm trees and the warm sun...oh and of course the very friendly people!! Especially yesterday I just couldn't get over how everybody gets on and joins in the fun (can you imagine the same in England - even on a nice bright sunny day??) Yes, it'll be sad to move on, but that said, we're both looking forward to the rest of Thailand that we're yet to explore, the Andaman Coast, the North and then onwards! Magic!

I suppose that's enough from me today, Cooper says 'hello' and will no doubt be reporting in full for our next blog!

Love to all and Happy Belated Easter and of course Happy New Year!!

Nick and Katie

xxx