Hello again! I know its been a while but its hard to get Internet access when you're stranded on desert islands! Anyway since we last 'blogged' we have done quite a bit- we are already in Malaysia but we have got some catching up to do- so here goes!

We left Kao Pha Ngan for Koh Tao- a smaller island just north. The plan was to do a bit of snorkling and head south- but things never go to plan! On the boat over we were speaking to people selling diving courses and we decided we might as well give it a go! Its really cheap to learn to dive here and the waters were so clear as well- we thought we should make the most of everything! So we signed up for a four day Open Water PADI course whcih involved:

Day 1- stuck in the classroom learning the theory- quite boring but i suppose its important if you want to do it safely!

Day2- we passed our written exam (woo hoo!) and headed for the swimming pool to put everything inot practice. There were five in the group but one girl decided that it wasnt for her so we were down to four! We practised all the skills like what to do if (heaven forbid) you run out of air or you lose your regulator. All pretty easy cos if anything goes wrong you can swim a meter to the surface! We both seemed fairly confident though and it helped that the other people in our group were as well. Its strange getting used to the apparatus and the feeling but we enjoyed it loads and were looking forward to doing it for real in the sea the next day!

Day 3- We had the morning off and then headed out on the boat after lunch- the sun was shining (for now!) and the visibility in the water was excellent. We went down to about 12 metres on our first dive and managed to see some amazing fish and coral. We also practised some skills again- this time without the safety of beingso close to the surface- anyway we all managed to come up in one piece and had a really good time. We also managed to go for another dive about an hour later which was really good- although by then the weather had started to turn! By the time we were heading back the waves had picked up and the (tiny) boat was being bashed all over the place. Luckily we didnt have too far to go and we were soon back on dry land although maria was swaying for the next 24 hours!

Day4- the last day we were had to do a deep dive to 18 metres and another fun dive. What they didint tell us when we signed up was that we had to get up at 6.30 ready to leave at 7.00!! Oh well! Even the instructor was late! Good job the weather had got a bit better! It was worth it though and we had the whole morning filmed so we could watch it later. We all sat in the bar and watched us swim about like idiots under the water! The 2 of us held hands while we were diving so we couldnt lose eachother...however on the video they made a big deal out of it and cut the footage of us with 2 fish that were swimming along together! We all watched the video in the evening at the bar and everyone was gong "aww how sweet" it was so embarrassing! We both really enjoyed learning to dive and we hope that we can use it when we are in oz eventhough its going to be way more expensive!

anyway if this sounds like we didnt have anytime to go out and have some fun- wrong! We managed to meet some nice people- the guys on our course as well as a few more- and we went into town a few nights and had a few buckets- muchos fun! We watched a lady boy cabaret which was hilarious! Maria took some pics and she'll upload them soon.

Anyway it was soon time to leave koh tao and head onwards on our journey. I think we both really liked koh tao - it was small but very chilled out. they also had some of the greatest pizzas we have ever tasted at 'Farangos'. I even had the left overs for breakfast when we went for the morning dive! ;)

Blog ya later!