So we left Bangkok and got an overnight bus to the ferry port which was where I saw the sunrise as I tiredly hugged my bottle of water, half awake half asleep. The ferry was on Thai time and arrived all to late but at least I could sit on the side with my feet dangling off of the edge and enjoy the sun with the rest of the backpackers.Pulling up to Koh Tao was great, it's a little island with an equally little rickety bamboo pier jutting out into the water like the yellow brick road leading me to Oz.Koh Tao is a fab, its friendly with good weather - the beaches aren't the best but I wasn't there to get a tan, I wanted to dive!

On the boat we had been approached by a guy from Big Blue, one of the dive schools on the island which offered free board and breakfast for anyone diving.When I got off of the pier and onto land I found a "taxi" more like a van ready and waiting to take me and Kim over to the dive school just around the island.Big Blue is brilliant, as we approached I saw a happy looking blond lady ready to welcome us along with a few others into the dive centre, which was a restaurant on a deck overlooking the beach.We sat under the shade of a tree and discussed diving options and then I signed my name on the line and was given my itinerary - which involved homework that night to be done and ready for my first day the next morning.Kim unfortunately couldn't dive because of an old medical thing so I was going to do the course by myself, I was a little nervous about diving but also really excited.

Day 1

Involved classes in the morning, which I learnt the basics behind diving and our 2 instructors walked us through what we would be doing that afternoon, I found out that my dive buddy would be a lovely girl named Marian who would later make me laugh so much from saying the word snorkle I snorted coke out of my nose and I would have an English instructor named Dan who would become like my brother and named our team of 6 divers as Team Awesome!! After our lessons we headed to the kit room to get our equipment which amongst other things involved a very unflattering wet suit and a tall guy named gjis putting on fins and doing a cat walk strut which had me in giggles.

After lunch we headed for the boat - to be honest I was brickin it, the idea of breathing under water seems completely unnatural to me but if my parents could do it then so could I so I put my game face on, jumped off of the roof of the boat to cool down and then prepared to dive.Dan had taught us a phrase to remind us of all the things we much check before we were safe to dive, so all you could hear was all six of us chanting "Bangkok Women Really Are Fellas", which stands for BC, Weight belt, Releases, Air, Final Ok, after that we were good to go so one by one we hopped off the back of the boat and swam closer to the shore where we would practice the techniques of diving.Breathing underwater is as weird as I thought but in a way it becomes natural, the only issue I had was the fact I have no teeth on one side of my mouth which made my regulator dig into my gum making it bleed however Dan promised to find me a better mouth piece for the following days diving and all was good.I ended up having fun that afternoon, after learning a lot about what to do in any kind of emergency and how to talk with hand signals underwater we got to swim a little deeper and have some fun learning how if we breath in or out we go up and down - so we all sat there playing with our weightlessness until our air ran low and it was time to head back.On the way back I sat at the front of the boat and watched the sun set excited for the following day.

Day 2 was more classes and our final exam which was a bit scary, apparently even 10 year olds can pass so it should be easy but I wasn't sure, it turns out it was really simple and our 2 mornings classes helped loads. I passed the theory test with 100% score! And the rest of my group got 85% or more meaning we all passed and were allowed to dive properly that afternoon.So it was time to dive in the sea with actual fish - we would do 2 dives that afternoon and I was really excited to get in the water and get down there.I had every reason to be excited, after a little trouble descending due to some people not being able to equalize we were finally 12 meters underwater and it felt great and actually really natural. Dive one was our chance to practice our skills from the day before with Dan, we found a patch of sand and sat down, then in turn we did routines such as taking our masks off, putting them back on and clearing them of water, taking out our regulators and removing our weight belts - all skills which will help us in emergencies.The oddest skill to practice was when Dan turned off my air, its to show you how it feels to be out of air and have to share with someone else, it's not the nicest feeling to not be able to breathe but no one panicked and we all passed.After that it was time to explore and it was incredible! A whole world that you rarely get to see, more than any other time on my trip I felt like a complete outsider, a guest in a place I didn't belong, so I made sure to respect my surroundings and swim carefully.Because this was my first proper dive I wasn't too far underwater which meant that the sun could still reach me and light up the colors of the coral and fish, obviously I haven't dived anywhere else but I thought the colors of the fish in Thailand were mind boggling - so bright so vibrant and so intriguing to look at, I was literally swimming in a kaleidoscope.

One of my favorite fish from that day was a lovely little yellow fish named a Box Fish mainly because he is square, we all swam over to him to have a look and he seemed quite happy to have use around (maybe it was because there were bull sharks in the area and he felt a bit safer) he kept turning on his side like he was showing how square he is - what a cute little fish with what seemed to be an actually personality. I also saw sting rays, stone fish, a clown fish (nemo), barracuda and a really cool star fish which was huge with white fur and actually walked along the floor of the ocean, so surreal to watch but really cool.

Day 3 was the day of my final 2 dives and also the day we would be filmed by a videographer.I got up early at 5am and got breakfast and my dive gear before we boarded the boat at sunrise, this time we were on a big boat with other dive groups such as people doing their advanced dive courses and teachers getting their licenses.The atmosphere on the boat was great, the weather conditions were perfect, everyone was buzzing with excitement to get into the water and before we knew it we were.On my 3rd real dive I went down to 18 meters where it's a little darker and the fish are a lot bigger, we were going to be diving at a drop off so for the first time I would be diving in open water, without the sea bed underneath me I most definitely felt exposed - especially knowing 6 bull sharks were circling just 5-10 meters below in the depths.I enjoyed the dive though especially seeing some of the fish around me, they were a lot bigger and better than I had seen before and they happily swam in between my group without a care in the world so that we could all get a good look.Our camera guy was nowhere to be seen during the whole dive but he reassured me later he had got some amazing footage.After 30 minutes underwater we surfaced but not before almost bumping into one of the most venomous jelly fish in the sea - the box jelly fish.Luckily both me and my dive buddy saw it and told our instructor who got the whole group to dodge it but that jelly fish wasn't the most impressive, in fact when we got to the surface I saw something even more amazing - a jelly fish named the queen of the sea, which is a big see through blob which has little colorful fish living inside it! Like a world with in a world or something it was amazing to see up close.

After some messing around with the camera guy it was time for our final dive and a chance to play a bit underwater.The current was insanely strong and after a couple of minutes swimming I realized I hadn't moved! I kicked harder and finally managed to get around a ridge and out of the way of the sweeping current, our instructor took us past an eel park and into a little space surrounded by rocks - we were told we were going to be a rock band and each had a part to play to the camera, I was a guitarist.Then came the best and most exciting bit - Dan had a surprise for us all, he lined us up and showed something to the camera then one by one he gave us our license cards! We had passed and we were graduating whilst 18 meters underwater, I was so excited and danced around weightless with my buddy Marian before it was time to surface.I was sad that my course was over because I enjoyed it so much, my group was hilarious and made the whole experience a hell of a lot of fun. I would recommend everyone to try diving its something you will never forget, I mean the images you see on nature programs and all that just don't match up to the real experience of swimming in amongst these incredible life forms, being out alone in the blue one second and then next finding yourself surrounded by a school of fish so colourful and in my mind happy that all they want to do is swim around and enjoy life.

That evening we all gathered at the sofas on the deck overlooking the beach and watched our DVD its brilliant to be able to see what you look like to the fish and a great memento to take home with me, after that we all went out together as a celebration and a final farewell. I learnt so much on Koh Tao and I will never forget the experiences I had, diving is now a hobby of mine and I'm going to try and dive in other places whilst on my travels, hopefully in Vietnam and maybe the Great Barrier Reef in Australia? Im so pleased that whilst travelling I didn't just see things and witness things I have actually learnt something worth value and substance and I have a new skill to show from it.

But diving couldn't last forever and before I knew it Christmas was just around the corner - as was my next island, I had a Koh Samui Christmas lined up but little did I know just how memorable a Christmas it would turn out to be ….