We got up at 8.30am and went to the 'Blue View Divers' shop at 9.30am. Helen did her try dive in the pool near the dive shop at approximately 10am with Caroline a dive master from Northern Ireland. The try dive was for Helen to experience breathing under water using the full diving equipment. Helen found this comfortable and enjoyable and was happy to move onto learning the skills needed for diving. It cost 4400 THB to learn the skills and discover scuba dive. Helen used 2500 THB from her colleagues (leaving present) towards the cost. After this we had breakfast at the 'Sunflower bar', we shared Thai fish cakes and pineapple fried rice, as usual they were spot on. We then went back to the dive shop to begin our briefing for the discover scuba diving in the afternoon. The briefing was basic but was thoroughly explained by Emma from Leicester. We were told that because it was half moon the tides were low with little or no currents. This makes for ideal diving conditions. We then strolled down to the pier to get to the longtail boat, which we found out was going to be solely used by us and Emma (our diving instructor). We were very lucky to have the boat to ourselves. Our first diving point was at 'Bida Nok', which was a cove off an island south of Phi Phi Leh. After putting our equipment on we prepared to enter the water. As we were diving off of a longtail boat this meant we had to use a different technique to get into the water (which is locally known as the 'James Bond roll'). We sat on the side of the boat with our back to the sea, we then rolled backwards off the edge of the boat. Our right hand was placed on our weight belt and our left hand was placed on our regulator and mask. For our first dive at Bida Nok, Helen had some problems as she had water in her mask and dropped the regulator and panicked. We had to surface for a minute or so then continued with the dive, we had excellent visibility and saw an abundance of beautiful fish including two blacktip reef sharks, a baby and an adult. We also saw a baby clown fish, angel fish, moorish idol fish, a huge school of barracuda, porcupine, puffer fish, trigger fish, starfish and soldier fish. After our first dive we stopped off a small beach in Maya Bay to have lunch. On our second dive Helen had no problems descending. This dive topped the first dive due to slightly calmer water on the surface, the aquatic life seen and the equally beautiful coral. On this dive we saw a beautiful hawksbill turtle (medium size). Jay came within an arm's length away from the sea turtle as it calmly swam around us. We then saw a banded sea snake weaving through the coral. This is one of the most venomous creatures on earth and we were only a couple of metres away from it! We also saw a school of glass fish which completely surrounded us. This was amazing. When we got back on the boat Jay was buzzing and Helen was tired due to the varying pressures under the sea but after a cool shower, she woke up and realised what she had experienced and accomplished.

For dinner we went back to the 'Carmalo' restaurant as we liked it there last time. Jay had the massaman curry pizza again as he loved it last time and Helen had sweet and sour chicken with steamed rice. The portion was Helen could not finish it off.

After dinner we went to the 'Reggae bar' to watch some Thai boxing. Helen tried an Archer beer for the first time which she found quite nice. The first fight we watched was a couple of western guys which was not a great fight to watch. The second fight was a couple of guys from the audience. This was amusing but was not a good sight for Thai boxing. The last fight we watched was the real deal with two Thai guys. This fight was of a much higher standard and was interesting to watch. They used alot more of their elbows and legs unlike the other two previous fights, which were more like western boxing.

After watching an awesome display of Thai boxing we went to find the 'Hippies bar' but did not find it. What we did find was a patch of the main beach with loud clubs and bars. As it was getting late we headed back to our room to pack our stuff ready for Koh Lanta.