We chose to dive with Big Blue Diving because they had great views on tripadviser. And we also chose to learn to dive in Thailand because its the cheapest place in the world to learn to dive.

From the word go, I had a great impression of Big Blue. Although I was half asleep from being part jet-lagged and having a crappy night sleep on an overnight train - we met our instructer, he gave us a free cup of iced juice and showed us to our room and I had a nap straight away! Love it.

Big Blue is situated right on the beach. It goes 1st) the sea and beach, 2nd) the Big Blue bar restaurant and dive shop, 3rd) a sandy path, 4th) our room ! We could see the see from our door, so lush.

After my nap, me and Nath headed down to the beach. It was one thing I wanted to do on my birthday, hit the beach, sunbathe and have a swim. Perf! Then at 5pm we met up with Iain (our allocated diving instructor) to start our open water diving course. We had two hours of meeting the other people on our course - x2 Danish guys, Kell and Henrik, x1 French guy, Julien and x1 Norweigan guy, Ole - and watching videos, then we were given homework to do for the next day! So I had to do homework on my birthday, at the tender age of 24 !! After our introduction had finished, I stayed in the classroom a touch longer to get started on the homework and Nathan surprised me with a birthday cake and candles :D !!! So nice of him :)

After we'd done the work and eaten cake, we got spruced up and went for a nice Indian meal. I had a coconut shake and fish curry - it was delicious.

Skyped to Nan that night, couldnt reach Mum. Got some txts from people back home wishing me a nice birthday and lots of msgs on facebook :) Happy birthday to me and this is my summery of our first day on Koh Tao.

Written by Stacey :)