Hello all!

Well, we've been having an amazing couple of days on Koh Tao island here in Thailand. We are incredibly relaxed and even getting up from the sunlounger is an effort now unfortunately! But we have been having a great time learning how to dive. We signed up for an Open Water SCUBA course which is a 4 day intensive course that aims to get you that confident that you can actually dive by yourself (with your buddy) and without the aid of an instructor. We aren't sure if we are that confident just yet to dive alone (and not that stupid!) but our confidence has increased greatly and we have mastered many scuba skills that we would never have thought possible a week ago!

The first day of the course included meeting our instructor Steve who's from the UK, lots of theory and watching DVDs - this was frustrating as all we wanted to do was get in the water and do it ourselves! But it was pretty helpful and in lots of depth and we had to do an exam after each chapter. We only had a group of 4 which was the perfect size. Then on day 2 we had our first water experience where we learned how to kit up (so exciting!) our gear, check air in our tank, do safety checks etc and jumped in to the water from the boat for the first time. The water here is just beautiful - it is completely clear and even in the very shallow water you can see so many fish it's unbelieveable. Easily the best place either of us has ever been diving/swimiming in before. All we did on that day was have a little swim around getting used to the equipment and breathing under water which is just such a strange sensation on its own. We learned to take our masks off underwater (harder than it sounds), take our regulator out of our mouths and put it back in calmly (again, harder than it sounds because for a moment you are actually under water without any air - scary!) and play around with our buoyancy a bit under the water. We both really enjoyed it but were shattered after only half an hour of doing that! All the learning and getting used to a different environment is pretty tiring.

On the third day we had to get up early (for us) at 8.30am to watch some more of the DVDs and do some more tests including our final exam which we did pretty well with. After passing the exam (with a little help from Steve!) we got to go back out on the boat for our first proper dive. There was only the 4 of us, our instructor and a couple of other people that went out which was really good. It was so exciting, we got all geared up again and jumped off the boat and this time we just had a fun dive and chased some fish, played about a bit and enjoyed the surroundings. Holly's ears took ages to equilize as we were down at about 12 metres and kept popping which was really painful, but after a while she managed to clear them and we were off again. After about 30 minutes again (as we are new divers we suck up our air pretty fast and when you get better you can stay under longer) we went back on to the boat for a cup of tea and biscuit. It's amazing how drained you are after such a short time, but the sugar burst helps loads and after about 40 minutes we were kitted up again with a new tank of air and back in the water! The second dive that day was much more enjoyable as our confidence had grown loads and we saw even more fish who were really friendly and very interested in us! We must look like these weird aliens to them under the water. We did a few skills at 12 metres on this dive which was pretty tough as we had to prove that we had mastered the skills whilst staying buoyant at the bottom and trying not to get distracted by the fish all around us. But we all passed the test and headed back to the boat for an early dinner and SLEEP as two dives really took it out of us.

Our final day of the course was today. We met the group at 7am (ouch) and headed straight to the boat. There was a massive storm on the island last night (really thunder and lightening and heavy rain that actually woke us up in the middle of the night it was so loud) so the water was all churned up. But the visibility (or 'viz' in diver talk, ha ha!) was still okay, not as good as the previous day but we could still see. This time we were treated to an underwater vidiographer who was lovely and filmed the entire dive. We get to watch it later and can buy it for 50 quid if we want to... hmmm not sure if our budget stretches to that! Our first dive was at a place called 'Shark Bay' (no sharks much to Matt's disappointment) just a fun dive, taking a look at all the beautiful fish and coral, signalling to each other under water and then trying to find our way back to the boat. We got down to 18 metres which is the furthest you can go down at 'open water' level. The water was really choppy which meant when we got back on to the boat we all felt pretty sea sick which didn't help as it added to the exhaustion after the dive and Holly's ears were suffering again too. Both of our masks were pretty bad and were letting water in/squeezing our faces off so we were both uncomfortable when we came back up. We've been told that the most important piece of equipment is to get a decent mask so are considering in investing in one. Holly almost passed out at one point when getting back on to the boat (probably from the heat, ear popping and exhaustion from the dive), but after a few biscuits and TLC from Matt, we were good to get back in to the water and do our last dive. This dive was by far the best location (at a place called Red Rock so named because underwater it is just full of these beautiful terracotta rocks everywhere) and full of fish gliding around on their business (they always look as if they are going somewhere importantly). We saw some gorgeous angel fish and Matt got right up close to one of them and even a trigger fish which are quite vicious as they are incredibly territorial. We kept away from them! On this dive we had to do all of the final skills in order to pass the course, so had to take our masks off underwater, fill our masks with water and clear them, do emergency ascents from the water (major ear popping for that one, ouch!) and breathe off each others tanks. This dive was unfortunately pretty painful for Holly whose ears were still suffering from the previous day (she shouldn't have really gone in but wanted to finish the course) and couldn't equilize (popping ears, like on the plane when they pop you need to do the same underwater). After about half an hour it was just too much so we all came back up to the surface and were told that we had passed our qualification! So even though we suffered a bit, we passed the course and are now both qualified divers. We are so chuffed and very proud of ourselves (it's been the greatest achievement of our trip so far).

Now we are debating whether to stay for a few more days and complete the advanced course which includes a deep water dive (to 30 metres), underwater photography, navigation and even a night dive if we want to (although we are too chicken). It would mean that we would be more confident and be able to do so much more next time we go diving (which will be on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia). It's 300 pounds though for the both of us (including accommodation) and although it would be amazing to do (and cheap, we couldn't do it that cheaply anywhere else in the world), we just aren't sure that we can spare that amount of money. So we're currently weighing up the pros and cons. It's very tempting to do it whilst we are here and living the laid back island life, but we do still have quite a bit of our trip left to do and don't want to be desperate for work when we get to Australia next month! We're off to see our dive video now (and may part with 50 pounds, ouch!!!) and get some extremely cheap dinner as we have spent far too much money lately!

Lots of love to all and sorry for the overuse of exclamation marks, diving is just one big exclamation!!!!!!!!! Matt & Holls xxxxxxx