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Hay and I arrived in Koh Tao without Kate and Tan, having sat for 2 ½ hours on the bumpiest catamaran you could ever imagine. We both came very close to throwing up over the side of the boat but managed to avoid getting absolutely soaked like some of the other passengers.Feeling glad that we had made it to the island alive we then set off to find the dive centre that Hay had heard was good - Simple Life divers. They seemed cool and willing to put the 4 of us up in a 3 person room at a good rate so we went with it and signed up to their diving course. We had met a Canadian guy called Marc on the boat over who was traveling alone so we agreed to meet up with him for a few drinks and dinner later that evening. A few drinks predictably turned into quite a heavy night and even though we were aware that we would be starting out diving course the next day we weren't too worried as we imagined it would just be a case of watching a couple of videos and chatting about them with the instructor - we were wrong! The next day, although we didn't start til 12, we turned up at the lesson a little hungover, only to be told that we would be watching 3 45 min videos and would then have to answer 10 questions for each and would have to get at least 8/10 to pass. It was at this point that we both imagined we would never be finishing this diving course; the videos were not only boring but also really scary. They made diving seem impossible, with so much stuff to remember. Luckily our instructor didn't really believe in doing everything by the book so once it came to answering the questions, he pretty much told us the right answer to any we were unsure of!
The girls arrived that day and, having spent the night in Chumphon, were quite relieved to be on he idyllic island of Koh Tao and were ready to start their week of rest and relaxation on the beach. That night we all went out for dinner together and met up with Marc again. Hay and I decided that there was no way we wanted to feel the same for our second day of our diving course and so we were very sensible and headed home after dinner, leaving the others to all head off for a night out. The next day we were relieved at our choice as we had two more videos to watch and a 50 question test to do, before heading out to do our confined water lesson. The videos were pretty boring and scary again and the test was similar t the day before in that our instructor made not so subtle hints when we got a question wrong. The confined water session took place just off the beach; it was good to be practicing skills in the sea rather than just in a pool. It gave us more of an idea of what it would be like to do the real thing. The skills involved simulating various situations that we may find ourselves in under water and learning how to deal with them. They included, flooding and clearing our masks and recovering our regulator (the air source) if it fell out of our mouths - amongst many others. It was fairly hard and although our instructor had told us the whole session should only take about 1 hour as there were only two of us in the group, it ended up taking about 2 ½ hours! That night we knew we'd have to have a quite one again as we would actually be doing our first two dives the next day, sop having had dinner and a couple of drinks watching the fire poi performers on the beach, Hay and I headed back to get an early night - leaving the girls for another night out on the town.
We started our third day of the course at 12 again, we were grateful for the lies in we were being allowed as we had imagined we would be starting early each day. We went out on the boat with a couple of others groups of divers, all at various levels of diving ability. It was good to chat to people and be assured that it was fun and we shouldn't be scared (but we obviously still were!) Before we put our gear on our instructor dropped the bomb that we were gong to have to do a swimming test. Although it sounds ridiculous considering I was in the middle of a diving course, I was probably more worried about this than anything else! I hate swimming in the sea! Hay was confident though and although I got off to a very shaky start of nearly drowning she managed to reassure me around the two laps of boat that we had to do in fairly choppy water. We were then allowed back on the boat to get all our scuba gear on and the swim had definitely knocked my confidence. We were both anxious but keen to get on and do it!
We did our 'giant stride' into the water and made our way over to the buoy line that we would be descending down. My first descent was rubbish! I was having loads of trouble with my ears, so while Hay was able to shoot down I had to go back up to try and equalize - she had to just amuse herself with the little fishes that were swimming around her! After my 20 minute (!) descent we all made it down and had a swim around to get us used to the concept of diving and made sure we were comfortable to go on and do our second dive that would involve dong some of the skills we'd learned the day before. We jumped back on the boat after our first dive and headed over to the new site for our second. This time I was still fairly slow but more determined to do it so I think it took a mere 10 minutes for me to get down! Hay the water baby was again shooting down the rope like a pro! Although we were still getting used to it we both enjoyed the second dive a lot more and arrived back on the island feeling happier about the two dives we would be doing the next day. We were even more sensible that night and as the other two girls were still recovering from the night before we all decided to go to one of the local restaurants that shows a film so people can sit and chill while they eat. Following that we went along to a bar that we knew some of the other divers would be at, had one drink and headed to bed.
Feeling refreshed from a very long nights sleep we all grabbed a big breakfast to fill us up for the day ahead and Hay and I headed off for our final day, to complete our Padi diving course. I was definitely more worried than Hayley this time; I couldn't stand the thought of having such sore ears again! Our first dive was lovely, although the visibility wasn't great. We saw lots of fish (none of which I could actually tell you the name of!) and as I hadn't taken so long to descend we had longer at around 15 meters. Although feeling much happier about the diving itself, Hayley didn't enjoy the boat journey between the two dives at all. The water was really choppy and made her feel really sea sick. However, once we were off the boat and back in the water she was happy again. The dive was great; we were both a lot more confident and were swimming around like pros! We were also being filmed and having photos taken by staff from the dive centre which made the whole experience really chilled and fun. We popped up out of the water and had done it! We both felt really proud!
We had decided in advance that that night we would be celebrating our achievements….so the four of us headed out for a big night out together. It is now Christmas eve and we have spent the day chilling and buying each other secret santa presents! We will update you all on whether or not we like them after Christmas!!
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