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So, after a rocky catamaran trip across the gulf of Thailand, we arrived on Koh Tao last Wednesday. It's a small island which will be our home for the next couple of months!
The island is beautiful, it's the standard 'tropical paradise' with palm trees, white sandy beaches and a turquoise sea. Everyone is really friendly, and we're already part of a community as the bay/town we're staying in is full of divers and dive schools. We haven't explored much yet, but once we get the next couple of dive courses out of the way we will take a look around. It only takes a day to see the whole island!
We're staying in quite basic accommodation at the moment while we settle in, but in the next couple of days we will be looking at apartments to rent so we have a more permanent home.
We did our first dive on Friday (albeit in a swimming pool!) and as we sit here on Monday, we are now qualified scuba divers (woohoo!)! We've done 5 dives (in the sea) over the past few days, and we completed our 'Open Water' exam a couple of hours ago. Andy got 96% (2 questions wrong) and Nikki did even BETTER by only getting 1 question wrong, meaning a pass rate of 98%! And this is someone who thought she wouldn't be able to dive after experiencing the depths of the hotel pool! Not bad eh?!
So, we're qualified, why are we staying? Well all this first stage means is that we can now go diving on our own should we choose too, however we aren't content with just that! We start our 'Advanced Open Water' course tomorrow, which contains: a deep dive (to 30 meters),a navigation dive (where we are abandoned underwater with a compass and have to find our way back), and 3 dives of our choosing out of a few courses which include a night dive (which we are both doing tomorrow evening), a naturalist dive (learning about the coral, fish, ecosystem etc), underwater photography and so on. We'll let you know what we choose and how we get on in the next blog entry!
After the advanced course we do a 'Rescue Diver' course (that does what it says on the tin!) which means once we pass, we will have the ability and know how to rescue a fellow diver should they be in trouble for one of many reasons. It's a really important course but also one which is the most fun…if you get everything right!
Don't forget if you want to let us know how you're getting on back at home or of any news we might be interested in knowing and you don't want to spend money on a text, you can leave us a message on the message board where we can read it the next time we log on.
Till next time!
- comments
Arvind I've wanted to do scuba diving for a long time. The closest I got to it was a snorkel dive in Kenya a few years ago, even that was amazing. Underwater photography sounds cool... want to see the pics!!
nicky wow the scuba courses sound great! andy you know my experience of scuba diving when we were on holiday in the canaries and i hated it but sounds like your both naturals!! stay safe and love the updates. nothing much to report from here apart from the unusually hot lovely weather but obviously doesnt compare to your paradise island!! xxx
Chris J Jealous! I've wanted to go scuba diving for so long! I just saw Andy's Facebook post about deciding to live on a tropical island for a few month, then i look out the window and see grey clouds and rain! You guys definitely have the right idea! Hope you're both doing good. Looking foward to your next post! xx
Wiggins & Sons Give us an update you big bunty....