Hey! WE left Koh Samui the next morning to get the ferry to Koh Tao. It took around 2 hours. When we arrived we wandered down to the dive school, Master Divers, and got our accommodation and signed up for our open water course. We got taken to our guest house and given our room. No air con just fans! At 2pm we were picked up and taken to the classrooms to start the theory of our course. We watched 2 cheesy american dvds and then did some quizzes! We even got homework! The next day we were picked up at 7.30am and taken to the dive school where we boarded the boat and headed to Japanese Gardens just of Koh Nuagn Yuan. We did our first confined water dive which involved swapping our regulators (incase they fell out) and clearing them and also clearing our masks of water and taking them off and putting them back on. We then did a short dive back to the boat. We had lunch in the tattoo bar and then spent the afternoon in the classroom watching 2 more cheesy dvds! The next morning we did confined water dive 2 where we did some more skills like breathing you're buddys air, and taking off weights and scuba gear on the bottom and on the surface. We changed our tanks on the boat and then went for a short dive at about 10 metres. In the afternoon we had our theory exam and passed! The next day we had the morning off so had a well deserved lie in except the government electricity went off at 8am so our fans stopped so it was so hot in our room we couldn't stay in bed! We sat on the beach for a bit and then were picked up at 12.30 to go diving. We headed to Chumpon pinnacles which is a bit further out. We did an 18m dive. The first part was great but as we turned the corner of the pinnacles the current was so strong everyone started running low on air. I kept floating up to the surface as the current pushed me back. At the time I thought it was something I was doing. Trying to stay down took up so much energy I was low on air so I tried to catch up with the dive master. I then realised we were on our way up as we had reached the moor line. My breathing was all quick though and I had 10 bar of air left so I was a bit panicky. Then someone kicked my mask so it filled with water so I sorted that. Then I couldn't see Steve, because I panicked and swam off. By the time we got to the top I was breathing really quick and I was not having a good time. I got back on the boat and from talking to all the instructors I realised that the condidtions were really bad. It made me feel better that it wasn't just me! It wasn't the best first dive but for the 2nd we went to Twin Peaks which was really calm and we saw loads of stuff! The next morning we started our advanced open water course. Our first dive was at Japanese Gardens where we did Buoyancy. We practised hovering and we did a swim through! The next dive we did navigation where we navigated a reciprocal heading and a square pattern. We had some lunch and then in the afternoon we went shopping for masks. We both bought a mask and snorkel. We got a taxi back to the guest house and then were picked up to go on our night dive. We went to Pottery Pinnacles. Getting in the water was the most daunting bit. We were then passed torches which we kept on for the whole time. The waves were really rough but when we got down to 10m it was fine. It was kind of eerie in the dark but not as bad as I thought. We saw a stingray (not the same that killed Steve Irwin) and a giant grouper. We were up bright and early again this morning to do our final dives. Our first dive was at Chumphon Pinnacles where we went to 30m. The visability was about 20-25m and we saw loads of sharks (grey reef and black tip). It wasn't as scray as I thought it would be. They didn't really pay us any attention and looked very graceful! The dive was so good we stayed at the same place for our final - multi level dive. We saw loads of sharks again too! We had some lunch and then boarded the songserm ferry to Chumphon. We are now in an Internet Cafe in Chumphon waiting for our train to Bangkok. Ems and Steve xxx