Under the sea, under the sea, darling it's better, down where it's wetter, take it from me.......
So we arrived in Koh Tao after our short hungover boat ride from the full moon party and found a rep from the dive school we had booked with, Big Blue Diving. They drove us down to the school which was situated on the beach. When we arrived it was really hammering it down. We were welcomed by an English guy who worked there and he took us out of the rain, talked us through the course and showed us to our room, a 6 bed dorm that was free because we were diving. He told us to come to the bar at 5 for the first session and until then we could do what we wanted. It soon stopped raining and we had a bit of a walk round to see what Koh Tao had to offer. Couple of 7/11s, few bars, and quite a few ladyboys advertising for their burlesque show that was on every evening.
After having a look around we headed to our 5pm class. This included filling in a few forms, meeting our group, and watching a couple of videos on diving. Our instructor, Helen, put on the DVD and left the room. Considering the night before we had only had 2 hours sleep I managed to take this as an opportunity to catch up with a bit of sleep. So, not a very interesting first session but we were still really looking forward to our first time underwater the next day.
That evening Pete and I headed to dinner with the others from our group, and then four of us headed to watch the fire shows at one of the beach bars. These guys were really good. Three guys spinning and throwing batons and other things on fire. At one point they came into the crowd and were spinning them around my head. Luckily I froze instead of trying to move away from it. After the fire show the two girls we were with mentioned going to the ladyboy burlesque show. Pete was well up for it. I thought "f*** it, when in Thailand....." So off we went and we got what some people would describe as the best seats whilst I would describe them as the worse seats. They were front row on the side of the stage, right next to where some of the ladyboys came out. Also, I was closest to the door. Could this go at all well? Of course not. So after a few cheesy dances and sing alongs one ladyboy (who was really scary) decided to put her scarf round my neck and try and get me on stage. I stubbornly ignored the shouts of the audience and refused (only half a beer down and she was terrifying). Luckily a guy on the table next to me stepped in and got up instead. So the show went on and ended with the big finale, three guys from the audience taken back stage, stripped to their boxers, given a bra and wig and paraded around the dance floor. The show ended and we headed back to bed as we had to be up at 8, but this wasn't until Pete announced that he wasn't sure about some of the girls and in fact thought a couple were good enough looking that they were just women and it might have been a scam. Yeah right!!! Anyway, each to their own :)
So next morning we got up, met at 8, and watched the last couple of videos. After this we learnt about the equipment, how everything works, and a couple of useful tips. After lunch, we headed out to a shallow bay, to test the equipment and learn a few useful skills for when we were under water. We learnt what to do if your regulator (mouth piece connected to oxygen supply) falls out, or if your mask fills up with your water how to clear it out. This included if your mask came off, how to put it back on and clear it. We learnt how to stay buoyant too. We all picked them up straight away and so had enough time to get an extra dive in. This was down to about 6m below sea level. We saw some cool fish including cleaner fish that sucks your cuts. In an argument they would call it cleaning. I say biting. After this dive we headed back to the school, cleaned our equipment and had the evening to chill. Dinner and back to the fire show with a couple of others to chill before an early night.
Next day was Sunday and we were up again at 8 to meet at 9. We met to learn the final theory information and went over the older stuff. This was followed by our open water exam. This was taken under strict exam conditions of 5 people sat around a table whilst the instructor went off saying "let me know when you are done". Needing 80% on a test aimed so that children from age 10 can do it was easy enough but we were doing it between 5 of us, and it was multiple choice questions. We did manage to get 4 different marks though and the questions we each got wrong were all different. Pete and I got 94% and so to get our qualification all we need to do was complete 4 dives.
After lunch we headed out on the boat for our first two dives. There was a storm starting where we were so we were taken to the other side of the island to avoid it. This didn't exactly go to plan because the storm followed us. We had our briefing and then headed to the bottom floor to put our stuff on for the first time. As the storm hit the boat rocked more. With not too many rails to hold on to and putting the heavy tank on our back standing up was quite a funny challenge. Once all ready we took one big step off the back and we were in. Once we got underwater it was really calm and you forgot about the storm above you. This dive was at dive site Laem Thien Bay and we went to a depth of 12m. We saw loads more fish including clown fish (nemo) and parrot fish. By the time we came back up about 40 minutes later the storm had stopped and it was a great afternoon weather wise.
After a couple of hours chilling on the boat we went for our second dive of the day at Japanese Gardens. We entered the sea by sitting on the edge of the boat facing in and rolling backwards off into the water. On this dive we headed about 12m deep and saw pretty similar fish to the first dive of the day. We saw a massive school of barracudas too. We then headed back to the school and relaxed by the fire show again. After this was an early night as we started our final day at 6am because we were going for 2 morning dives.
So early wake up yesterday and our group was joined by Keith, a videographer. He came on our last two dives with us, filmed us, the marine life, and cut it all together. It looked really great so Pete and I got a copy between (we are going to try and upload it but it's going to be a huge file so probably won't work). So we set off on the first dive at dive site Twins. Entered by standing at the back and jumping backwards. Went for a really good dive, down to 18m. We swam through a bit of the reef and had a bit of a mess around underwater. We saw loads more cool fish including a puffer fish and a moray eel.
Between dives we chilled on the boat again. We jumped off the top floor and then some people moved to the roof. If we manage to get the video up online look out for Pete's not so smooth jump/stumble off the roof. If not just imagine. After messing around for a bit we headed back down for our final dive. This one went to about 15m. This one was a bit more of a laugh. Posing underwater with our mask off and regulator out and pretend fighting, followed by us rocking to Blur - Song 2. All of this can be seen on the video. We eventually headed back up and once all on the boat headed back to shore as Certified Open Water Divers.
That night we were finally able to go out for drinks as we didn't have diving the next day. We all headed out to celebrate and it was just a typical night out but included the process of Pete falling asleep on the beach, waking and and making his way back to the room, realising in the morning he left his camera down at the beach, and it wasn't there in the morning. At least it lasted 3 weeks right?
So we are now heading to Japan to visit my brother Ben for a few days and will be returning back to Thailand in a week.
Hope everyone is well
Josh and Pete x