Today we were up early and ready to start our new venture... The underwater world. I have to admit I really could have done with a few hours longer in bed this morning but I was excited to get going with some real practical scuba skills. After hearing all about it from Sam's travels it's always been something I've wanted to experience for myself and always been up there on my travelling to do list.
The dive resort here is really good, it's in the south of the island at Ban Kao so a lot quieter, peaceful and less touristy! It's just me and Amy on our padi open water course so very personal tuition. I've heard from a few people there is a whale shark around at the moment and it's been spotted in the last few days, our dive instructor showed us the video- looks amazing! This is top of my bucket list, if we miraculously see one I have promised I'll buy him a beer and a whiskey shake.
So today we headed off in the back of the resorts pick up truck after getting all our gear together to a pool at their other resort. Here we learned more about the equipment, how to put it all together, safety checks and how to jump into the water! This was a bit nerve racking as you have a weight belt on and the tank and jacket is very very heavy! I took my leap of faith and felt for the first time the relief and amazement at the ease of taking in a deep breath underwater. We got a feel for how to use the gear and manoeuvre with it and had to complete various skills like flooding the mask, taking it off, pretending to run our of air and use your buddies alternate, experimenting with buoyancy and various other scenarios. Some things felt very odd and unnatural, and once or twice I had a bit of a mini panic knowing I was underwater! But the more we did it the more my confidence grew and now I can't wait to get in the sea tomorrow! Koh Tao means literally means turtle island and apparently is one of the best places for diving. Come to me mr whale shark! Fingers crossed for good visibility!

P.s. The Mosies out here are ridiculous, so much worse than Africa! You don't often see them but we have nearly 40 bites between us, sneaky b*****s!! I had 3 pop up on my big toe alone which were insanely itchy!!!! We're putting on loads of repellent but not even deet seems to deter them! Ahhh!!! More time needs to spent underwater I feel where they can't reach me.