Sunday 26th July 2009

We arrived in Koh Tao at 09.30am and decided to go and check out Ban's diving resort as Suzie wanted to do her PADI diving qualification I wasn't too sure if I wanted to mine as I didn't really like it in Turkey when I tried it there. We arrived at Ban's and we both signed up for our Padi Suzie persuaded me to give it another go because we signed up for our Padi we got free accomadtion the room wasn't great and smelt some what but it was free and appeared clean. Ban's diving resort rooms if you've got money looks lovely but for pesents like us not so good!! After we had checked in we got some lunch and then sunbathed around the swimming pool for the afternoon it was very hot and we had to keep going in the swimming pool to cool down. At 17.30pm we started our PADI with two hours in the classroom watching a video with the basics of diving and then we were giving homework (Not impressed). After we had been to school we had a shower and then went for some dinner we both had BBQ meat skewers which where very good after we did our homework for the next day then went to bed.

Monday 27th July 2009

We started scuba diving school at 09.30am this morning for more classwork with a few multiple choice exams as well which I am pleased to report we did very well at they where very easy though. After lunch it was time to put what we had learnt in the classroom into practice in the swimming pool for 3 hours the first part was setting the equipment up and getting used to breathing underwater we then went through the different skills that we would be using in the sea. We both enjoyed it after we had got used to breathing underwater and it helped me get over my fear of scuba diving and I started to think I might enjoy the course after all. When we had finished we went back and got a shower and went for dinner along the beach we both had BBQ fish which was lovely and did our homework for next day with dinner.

Tuesday 28th July 2009

Today was a early start we had to be ready for 07.45am ready for our first proper dives in the sea this morning. Our first dive was at Mango Bay to 12 metres we both did well with this one and didn't panic too much and we got to see some fantastic coral and some really colourful fish. The second dive site was called Twins we were told this dive site must have been named by an Irish man as there is actually three pinnacles so it should really be called triplets!! The second dive was to 10m and again the underwater world was lovely you always do your deepest dive of the day first. We then went back to Ban's had some lunch then spent the afternoon in the classroom and we did our final exam for the course we had to wait till wednesday to find out if we'd passed. This evening we met the other people that we were at the dive school with we all went for dinner first then for a few drinks we couldn't drink too much though as you shouldn't dive with hangovers so we were a little bit naughty and stayed out till midnight.

Wednesday 29th July 2009

We got a lie in this morning as we didn't have to be at school until 11am we started off in the classroom today marking our exam papers we both passed I got 98% and Suzie got 96% we then filled out our application forms for our dive licences. We had a hour for lunch before meeting up to do our final two dives. The first dive of the day was to 18m at a site called white rock and the second dive of the day was to 16m back at twins the last dive was the better dive today as we didn't have to do any skills and we could just concentrate on looking for different fish we were also being filmed. We both really enjoyed the course and decided we would start our adventure diver qualification on Friday as this enables you to dive to 30m and Koh Tao is one of the cheapest places in the world for diving. After we returned to Ban's we went to get showered as we were meeting up with the two instructors Rich and Ben and the rest of the class for dinner and lots of drinks tonight as we had two celebrations we had all qualified and MY BIRTHDAY!!! We decided to celebrate my birthday tonight due to us starting our adventure diving course on friday. After we had all had dinner we ate at Ban's tonight we all went back to the classroom to watch the video of us all diving it was a good video and very funny in parts nobody bought it though as it was nearly thirty pound which we thought was a bit excessive for a half an hour video. We then all went to a bar called KR bar were the party really kicked in and things got a bit messy for quite a few of us I blame Suzie for the birthday bucket she bought me we have no idea what was in it but it was very strong I was absolutly fine till then I did get a birthday snog though and a good night was had by all.

Thurday 30th July 2009 MY BIRTHDAY!!!

I am ashamed to say I did nothing on my birthday I stayed in the room recovering from the night before and watched a few films. We didn't wake up until very late as we had only gone to bed at about 04.30am. Once Suzie had woken up and got ready she went to the beach for a couple of hours but I couldn't think of anything worst than laying in the sun with a hangover. Tonight we happened to bump into the rest of the class at a resturant so we decided to eat there we both had pizza we then went to Choppers for a few drinks I stuck to Sprite all night couldn't face a drink.

Friday 31st July 2009

Today started back at dive school for our adventure dive course the first part was just filling out paperwork we then had a break before getting on the boat for our three dives of the day. The first dive was the deep dive which was to 30m at the dive site Champorn Pinnacles we were both quite nervous about going this deep but it was absolutly fine and it didn't really feel any different to the other dives we had done. Atfer this dive we went back to the dive site White rock for our navigation dive I was particulary worried about this one I've got no sense of direction on dry land let alone underwater!! The two tasks we had to do were quite simply using our under water compasses which we both did ok with. The third task the instructor left us underwater and went back to the boat we then had to use our under water maps which we had drawn on the boat previously to navigate the dive site whilst checking our under water computers for the time of how long we had been done for as we could only be down for 40 minutes and also how deep we were. We got slightly lost and relised how difficult it is to navigate under water we did come up on the dive sight which we were told some people don't we did have a long swim back to boat though it was good fun anyway. After this dive we went back to the pier for an hour before getting back on the boat for the night dive which was suppose to be back at white rock but due to the sea being very rough the captain wasn't happy to go there much to the disgust of our dive instructor. So we ended up at a site called Japanese Gardens it was quite scary going underwater at night unfortunately due to the site we were at there wasn't many fish to see but there was a new ship wreck there which had only sunk about 7 weeks ago so we got swim in and out of that which was pretty cool. We didn't get back to Ban's until 9pm so by the time we had filled in the rest of our paper work and had a shower it was 10.30pm we struggled a bit to find some food as alot of places had stopped serving we eventually found a Mexican which was very good but a bit too spicy for Suzie's liking. We were meant to be meeting up for the other people we had met but because we were over an hour late turning up due to us being late back they must have thought we weren't coming so they had gone. So we ended up having a few drink in an Irish bar and listening to a live singer who was very good before going to bed.

Saturday 1st August 2009

We had to be checked out of our room before 11am today so after check out we went to buy some new books as we have run out of books to read, got some lunch and then spent the afternoon on the beach. We were picked up at 7pm and taken to the pier ready for our night boat to Koh Phi Phi which departed at 9pm.