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Ko Tao 23rd Oct - Sat 28th Oct 2006
Beat the boys hands down! They thought they did good by going elsewhere to buy their tickets to Ko Tao from Ko Pha-Ngan. We said our goodbyes as they left to catch their bargain 400Baht fast boat from town. When we met them at the port, we realised their fast boat was the same as the 300Baht 'slow boat' that we had paid for and been chauffeur driven from our hostel.
On the boat we perfected our bartering skills by letting two agents from different diving schools fight over getting us the cheapest price for somewhere to stay - Ban's diving won us over with free accomodation and cheap PADI course. So later that day, it was back to the classroom for Cathryn and Jen to learn how to dive. What a shock to the system having to use our brains for the first time in weeks. After dinner, we had to return to our scummy, drain-smelling, worm-infested room to do our homework - thank god it was free!
Next day was diving lessons in the morning followed by putting the theory into practice in the pool later that day. We were the dunces of the group and needed some extra tuition as we nearly drowned in the pool. But a lovely german couple (Kristina and Thomas) found us endearing all the same as we were the only people still smiling throughout. We finished an our later than the other group, but at the end of the day we were able to remove our masks under water and had survived. Had to leave dinner early that night as Rebecca was unconscious on the table after taking an antihistamine for her nat/flea bites.
Wednesday started with our first dive in the sea - perfect timing for monsoon rain and 'mild' underwater currents. Cathryn's first experience 12metres under the sea was to choke on sea water and to quickly learn how to regain composure under water without shooting to the surface for her breath and giving herself the bends. Throughtout our first dive the whole group had a 'minor' problem with buoyancy in that we were all acting like helium balloons shooting to the surface. The dive ended sooner than expected as the dive master ran out of air just trying to keep us at the bottom of the ocean. Dive number two was much more productive and we were now half way qualified. Returned to dry land to find Rebecca finally conscious again, but still a little spaced out. Returned to the classroom that afternoon to sit our final exam for diving - we hoped we had left exams behind us, but thankfully there were no rules against confering for this one! Had an amazing dinner with our diving instructor Steef, our dive master Chad and the other instructor Rich. Followed by our first night at Lotus Bar.
Thursday was our final day at dive school. But first we had to conquer the cockroaches in our room - Rebecca sat on the bed in her sleeping bag, Cathryn tried to work out a plan. But super-human bug-catcher Jen seized the moment with the bin and kicked it out the door. That afternoon Cathryn and Jen were to be filmed diving to 18metres whilst Rebecca sunbathed on the boat. Fun for Cathryn and Jen, but Rebecca got greener and greener with seasickness. Met a new diving master called Loic who perfected our piss-poor buddy check technique. Found Nemo underwater and posed in seventies style shades at the bottom of the sea for the camera. We passed as open water divers!!
That night we met the whole diving group and instructors for dinner before the shameful event of watching ourselves diving on the big screen of our bar. Without the supervision of sea-sick Rebecca, Jen and Cathryn got very drunk that night having had to abstain from drinking all week in aid of diving. In our drunkeness we discussed in depth with Loic the English traits of everyone watching Coronation Street at 7.30 and hanging Christmas cards on pieces of string. On the way to the party Cathryn and Jen were overly fascinated by the mating calls of the local frogs.
Friday was spent recovering with our hangovers by the pool and being on constant cockroach watch - would there be a return of Chas and Dave? Another unsupervised drunken night followed, all the more fun drinking buckets in the monsoon rain. Not the best idea when we had to get up the next day for our trip to Bangkok.
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