So I have to sit in Chumphon for 2 hours, trying to keep myself awake. There are some other people here as well, but with it being so early there is not too much talking going on. Eventually the van arrives and we pile on, then make a few other stops, picking up people as we go, until the van is nearly at breaking point. My legs are being crushed against my bag and the whole affair is entirely unpleasant. We get to the pier and the sun has come up. We head to the boat, all our rucksacks are being stored in a cage at the back, with the utmost care, as you can imagine. I head straight in to the AC room and get a seat before everyone else knows what is happening. Later on a guy comes in and says that the AC room is an extra 30bht, I'm too tired to argue and so just pay him and then back to sleep.
-----
We arrive at Koh Tao and the bags are delicately chucked on to the pier for us to pick up once we get off the boat. I walk along a rickety old pier with hundreds of other white people and when we get to the end there are many Thai people with boards with various hotels and dive companies written on them. I find mine, Buddha View and wait to the side until everyone is off the boat. Then we get in to the back of a pick up and head to the hotel. When we get there we are checked in and given our reading material and a brief outline for the rest of the day before I am shown to my room. A basic room with a fan and bathroom, a manual flush, and a little balcony which will be good as I have a lot of washing to do. You have to pay for the wifi separately so I head back down the road to a cafe that I saw on the way in and get something to eat and use the free wifi.
-----
We have the first of our DVD sessions at 4.30, just some of the theory behind diving. We have to answer knowledge reviews at the end of each of the 5 chapters and hand them in before we leave. Our instructor is called Marcos and so he explains the plan and then leaves us to watch the first two chapters. I take the opportunity to fill in the knowledge reviews while the DVD is on, as all the answers are in it. I am the only native English speaker in our group of about 18, there are Germans, Austrians, Czechs, Danes and French Canadians. Some with a better grasp of English than others. I am finding the DVD fairly boring and technical so I can only imagine how the others are finding it. After the DVD we are free to go and will meet back tomorrow morning for some more theory.
-----
Lily is on the island, the girl I met in Siem Reap and so I meet her for dinner. Quite the walk, it takes me about 45mins to walk down to the pier where I meet her and then we go for some food. She has already completed her course and said it was great. It was good to catch up and after dinner I am pretty tired so I embark on my 45min trek back to the hotel and get to bed.