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We flew from Phnom Penh into Thailand to get a 30 day visa, rather than travelling over land and only getting 15 days. After arriving in Bangkok for the second time, we just stayed in a little but expensive guesthouse fairly close to the Khao San Road, we were literally just here as a stopover because Bangkok is the gateway to the islands.
We had a day to kill so decided to see the Grand Palace because we didnt see it the first time, but was much more difficult than you think, every Thai person we passed on our way didnt want us to visit it for some reason. We eventually made it, it was spectacular but not that enjoyable because it was far too hot and there were too many ignorant tourists roaming around. After that we decided to do a bit of shopping, knowing that Bangkok was the cheapest place and we knew that we could give some bits to my parents to take home :) After shopping we were casually strolling up the Khao san rd just killing time before our bus to Ko Tao, when we actually physically bumbed into Birdie and Danielle, we had just enough time for a drink with them before our bus. They were heading south too, but going Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Ko Tao and we were going the opposite way so arranged to meet in Koh Phangan in few days.
KO TAO... eventually!
We got here much later than we were advised by the tour operator because instead of being dropped at the port closest to Ko Tao, our bus decided to drive a good few hours past it and drop us at the port closest Koh Samui. On well, at least we made it in the end!
On the boat ride over we got talking to a few dive companies, we had the idea of doing at least one dive each, so were thankful for the information! Apparently this is the worst time of year to dive because the visability is so bad, but never mind, im sure it'll be be better than English waters :) One of the guys from a dive company we were talking to said that we could get a free ride into the backpacker area if we just had a look at his dive resort, so, thinking of our budget we agreed! When we got there we loved it instantly, and when we found out that if we signed up to do our advanced open water course we could have free accommodation we were even more delighted!! With only the evening to spare we had a walk along the beach and a read of our diving textbook before chilling out, and preparing for the start of the course early the next morning! I was really nervous, as i ALWAYS am before a dive, but because we done our open water 2 years ago and only had 1 dive since, I was even more nervous. The course was pretty casual - had a chat in the classroom about what we were going to do on the course and the 5 dives, then away we went!!
The first dive was exciting it was a deep dive - diving to 30m, the deepest a diver can safely go!! It was amazing we saw lots of underwater life including coming face-to-face with bull sharks!
The second dive was our navigational dive, another compulsory part of the course. We had to compentently navigate using our compasses and maps provided... easy peasy! :-)
The third dive of the first day was the night dive :-S Already pretty tired from the days earlier dives we headed back out to sea once the sun had set and got geared up. It was completely different, as you would expect. Plus we got to turn off all our torches and swim in the dark which was quite eary, but it allowed us to see all the tiny plankton light up with florecent light, it was like a little underwater disco!!
That night we were pretty knackered so just chilled out.
The following day we had a bit of a lie in because we'd done so much the previous day, today was more relaxed we only had to do 2 dives and both we were really looking forward to because they seemed so much more fun! (the photography dive and the naturalist dive) Plus were didnt have any theory to do, we just had a chat in the classroom about how to get the best photos using our underwater cameras, (which we had to rent for 40 quid, sooooo annoying considering we have one but its broken!!) and what we marine life we should expect to see at each dive site.
As we stopped at our first site, got all our kit on, ready to get in, when we saw our German friend and his buddy, who was actually a dive master, struggling to get to the bouy (the rope to guide you down to the dive site) because the current was so strong. They were swimming as fast as they could and were just not moving anywhere. Luckaliy this all happened before we got in the water so we didn't have to experience it because the captain of the boat decided the current was too strong and that we'r all going to a different site! Thank god for that!
When we eventually got into the water it was amazing, were loved having the camera, so glad we rented it in the end, took us a few shots to actually get decent photos but was well worth it in the end. The freedom of diving on our own was pretty cool too, no instructor telling us which way to go etc.
We were able to have the camera for our final dive aswell which was great, the two dives, although they were classed as 1 photography dive and 1 nautralist dive were both kind of similar and linked in with each other. We took full advantage of them, trying to identofy each species of fish we saw and then trying to catch it in a photo!
We were so tired after our last dive, but felt a sense of achievement so decided to go for a celebratory dinner and drinks with the rest of the guys on our course.
We decided to stay for just one more day to have a chilled day, so we spent half of it by the Ban's resorts beautiful swimming pool and the rest on the beach.
Koh Tao has been one of our favourite places so far, we definetly recommend it everyone, especially if you dive or want to learn to dive!
On to Krabi from here, not quite sure if we want to leave but have to at some point!!
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