We have made it off the rock and now sit waiting for the night train in Chumphon. Sad few days in Koh Tao after the tragic events on Sairee Beach. A shocking and surreal thing to be happening as we depart...hopefully the police will get to the bottom of things soon. So the journey to our new life begins here with a cold Leo and free wifi. We had a really nice send off last night with friends who are like family, and obviously I was emotional saying goodbye th...

The blog is back! Exciting times here in Koh Tao. After an incredible 9 months working at Asia Divers the time has come for me to move on to a new adventure. I have been lucky enough to find a new job in The Turks & Caicos and will be moving there in November with Pablo :) Happy days indeed! After a quick pit stop in Spain I'll be popping back to Manchester to catch up with family and friends before heading out to the Caribbean. Last few days at Asia Dive...

Day 2 of the mock went really well! We had classroom and pool presentations...and everyone on the course passed :) happy days! Of course we had to mark the occasion so a few drinks in Buddha view bar followed by a few more drinks in Chalok did the trick. Fortunately we had a day off before the real exam started today and we managed to squeeze in a fun dive to try out our new Nitrox training ad also relax a little bit. Today the IE (instructor exam) started fo...

Day 11; our Mock exam where we run through the whole schedule under exam conditions. Nerves pretty frayed the night before but after some more physics/physiology and equipment revision I felt ok going into the exam in the morning. All went well and I passed each section :) The afternoon was spent on the boat presenting skills in the open water. We were given a choice of which skills to practice and encouraged to choose the hardest ones so that any mistakes are ...

Day 9 (after our day off) was the hardest so far. I was disappointed with my scores on the practice exam and let myself down on physics...just when I thought I had cracked it! We also had more difficult presentations to do in the Open a Water as part of the rescue course. Tying knots, and controlling moving exercises is tricky!! I started to feel the pressure, especially with Beki back in UK now....but after chatting to the instructors, some TLC from the guys a...