Same routine with the muesli at 6am then off to Master Divers for our third official dive. This time we went Japenese garden, Koh Nang Yuang. When we got there we had to do the last part to our tests. We had a camera man following us for the day too! We had to take our mask off fully under water, then put it back on and clear it... You get water in your mask whilst scuba-ing so we're used to it... Well when it came to me I was ready and rearing to go. I took some deep breaths then inhaled, took the mask off, breathed out the little bubbles slowly and put the mask back on. When I tried to clear it I could still feel the water (my eyes were shut). The instructor was right infront of me watching and I knew the cameraman was to my side so I gave a big blow (out my nose - that's how you clear the mask) and still no joy? I felt the mask to see what was wrong then realized, I'd only put the mask over my eyes so when I'd been blowing I'd just been blowing in the instructors face..... Laughing under water is hard! I put the mask on properly and cleared it. The instructor couldn't stop laughing. Apparently no-one had ever done that to him.... Lee did his test straight away no problems so we set off exploring. Its amazing how much your confidence grows from dive to dive. You start controlling your buoyancy. This time swimming around we saw a big school of yellow tailed barracuda. That ugly white eyed eel was there too. Then as we were heading back to the boat James (the instructor) started doing a gun motion with his hands towards me then pointing away. I thought he was trying to say look at the cameraman BUT it turns out (I found out when we got on the boat) he was saying watch out for the trigger fish!
Next dive site and our final dive was at white rock, Koh Tao. We did our final underwater test which was Buddha buoyancy (this time I was better than Lee) then we swam off. This time I was more confident swimming up to the coral, having a swim with a school of baby barracuda. Lee seemed confident from the first dive. He drifted off quite a bit on his own. We were suppose to be buddies (swim together/ look out for each other) but I got fed up of ducking from his fins. He'd see something and swim towards it unaware that he was taking me out in the process! James ended up partnering up with me and he kept an eye on Lee (do you remember Lee aka ace venturer in the Dominican...). James spotted a white and black rope over by the coral and gestured I come over to see it then we swam through two huge corals and there was a huge sea turtle! After Lee had saw the turtle he must have got all excited because he lost a contact. We swam the rest holding hands (I was kind of like his guide dog). This was our favourite dive. When we got back on the boat everyone was talking about the turtle then James said about the sea snake... Sea snake? Yes the black and white one on the coral. Did you know thats the second most deadliest snakes in the world... My face dropped I said 'why on earth would you tell me to come so close to the second most deadliest snake!'. Lee was so calm?! Boys!
Did I mention Lee tripped over this morning on the way to the dive? I've tripped in the same spot everyday - there's a random kink in the road/ foot path, not all the way across the road, it seems to move to purposely trip us up. Well today I was on the ball and did a giant step over the bump... Lee took half his toe off... How heavy footed! Everyday and not a scratch, the first time he trips and he gets that eye tingling pain in his toe! The plasters on his toes and feet now ensure very little foot showing?!
We went back, had our photos took then got out temp card. We are now open water divers!!
We decided rather than pay 2,000bht each we'd buy one disk with the photos on and take it to one of the Internet shops to copy.
Later on we met up with one of the lads, Dave and his girlfriend Katie for dinner and some drinks. The whole diving thing takes it out of you. Instead of going on to serenity beach we said good night at midnight and went bed.