Kao Tao is the smallest of 3 islands (Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao) and is only 21 sq km. It used to be exclusively a dive destination but more and more travellers are visiting that aren't diving.

The main area is called Sairee which is where we are currently staying. After lugging our backpacks around for ages trying to find some cheap places to stay that were decent we finally found Asia Divers resort. The rooms here are really good just like a proper holiday room with a TV! (Although the showers were still cold!)

We decided to stay a week here and spent the first few days around the pool. We wanted to do some diving here as its one of the best places in Thailand to dive but everywhere wanted a diving certificate to take you on fun dives or they were charging quite a bit for 2 dives without a proper qualification. After weighing up the options and the money situation we decided it would be worth our while to do our open water PADI certification so that we have it for Malaysia and oz and its one of the cheapest places to get your PADI qualification in the world!

We had a few days sunbathing then we enrolled in our PADI Open water course with Sam and Vicky so that there would be just us 4 on the course together. On the third day we started the course. Our instructor was called Richard and he had 10years diving experience and we were also lucky enough to have another instructor called Ali and a trainee called Ben, so we had 3 instructors for the 4 of us which was great! The first day we had to watch a video and do lots of exam questions then we had a few hours in the pool to learn some of the skills. For some reason I got really nervous about going in the pool and doing the skills as I knew you had to take your mask off and take your regulator out and things like that, and that's what scares me about diving, losing your mask or not being able to breathe! We went under the water and after a few minutes I thought god I really need to get some air! Even though I was breathing air in the water, it's just a really strange feeling and doesn't seem right!

So I came up for some fresh air and got a bit upset about it all and no one could understand as I dived fine in Vietnam without any knowledge of skills or what to do in a emergency! I think that was because I had no time to think about what I was doing and literally got thrown in at the deep end.

So we went back down and I managed to do all the skills and I was fine doing them but the next day I knew we would have to do them for real 10 meters down at the bottom of the sea!

We were up bright an early at 7 to get some breakfast and catch the boat to the first dive area known as white rocks. Again I got myself worked up about it before we went in but once we got in the water and went down it didn't feel too bad although I didn't see much as the visibility wasn't great and I was too busy concentrating on how to breathe without panicking! A funny thing happened on our first dive, when we first got to the bottom the instructor told me to deflate my bcd to control the buoyancy I was trying to do it when all of a sudden I found myself near the surface of the water, I couldn't understand why until the instructor said I must have been pressing both the inflate and deflate at the same time which is why I ended up going to the top! After sorting out the problem Ady had also come to the surface as he was my "dive buddy" to see if I was okay. So we all went back down together but Ady's ears started hurting so he ascended a bit to try and equalize the pressure in his ears but when he looked back down he couldn't see us so he kept swimming until he thought he had found us but when h looked properly and the divers it wasn't us! He ended up having to go to the surface again until the instructor came back up to take us back down!! He must have been thinking what have I got here with these two!

We had a 30 min break then went to the second dive site called the twins. At this dive site we had to do some skills before we could go for a swim around. We descended to the bottom which was 12 meters deep then we had to take our mask off put it on our arm for a minute then put it back on and empty it so we could see again! It was awful but I managed to do it alright. Then we had to take out our regulator throw it behind us find it and put it back in our mouth! So you can imagine how nervous I was about doing that, trying to breath with no air! Again I did it without a hitch but really I just wanted to have a swim around and see some fish I mean that's the reason you dive anyway isn't it!

On the way to the surface we had one last skill to do which was called C.E.S.A which basically means a controlled emergency swimming ascent for when you have run out of air completely. You have to look up, deflate your BCD and paddle upwards whilst blowing one long breath out. Easier said than done! I tried to do it the first time and just ran out of breath on the way up so I had to stop under water go back down and try again. The second time the same thing happened but I somehow managed to sniff up water which made me choke a bit, which made me panic but the instructor was like NO stay down in the water and calm down get your breathing back to normal and try again. So the third time I managed to do it although I think I might have took a sneaky breath in near the top, then at the surface you have to manually inflate your BCD. When I got to the top I tried to inflate my BCD but the waves were quite strong and I ended up nearly drowning trying to inflate the BCD! I got really upset about it all and was a blubbering wreck bobbing up and down in the water, I felt so stupid!

So after an eventful day we finally got back and had an early night as we were all knackered after all the drama of the day and had another day of diving in front of us!

The next day I felt a lot better about doing the diving as I had already done the harder skills the previous day! We went to a dive site called the southwest pinnacle which is like a small mountain under water. Another dive master came with us for the day whose job it is to video different groups for the day underwater and sells the DVD to you afterwards. The visibility was excellent here and we ventured down to18 meters! As we were being filmed we had to again take our masks off wear sunglasses and take out our regulator and do a little dance for the camera!

The second dive again was really good and I finally started to enjoy diving and take in the scenery underwater. We saw so many fish including trigger fish, angel fish, butterfly fish, blue spotted stingray and banner fish. When we got back we were told we had all passed the course and now qualified to dive anywhere in the world. That night we went to the hotel bar where they played us the video from the day. It was a really funny video especially when you see me with my bad compass skills! We ended up having to buy the video as it was so good!

We stayed another 4 nights when we finished the course as the hotel gave us a great discount and as we loved the island so much we thought we may as well stay for bit longer and do some snorkelling and sunbathing! We hired out a local long boat for the day with Sam and Vicky and got took to some great snorkelling places and a bay called mango bay were we had lunch and swam in the crystal clear water! We also went to shark bay were we got to see some black and white tip sharks swimming right underneath us a bit scary but amazing to see. Ady's feet were killing him after the diving as the flippers had rubbed both big toes raw so we had to bandage them up so he couldn't swim or hardly walk properly!

When our 4 nights were up we finally decided to leave this gorgeous island and say our final goodbyes to Vicky and Sam who were off to India and had been travelling with us since the start of Cambodia.

We then set off on the journey from hell to Malaysia!