Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
And we thought tht Phangan was paradise . . .well Koh Tao is! . . . . and this time above and below the water!
Koh Tao is a tiny island, far less built up that the others and covered in huge palm trees, beautiful rock formations and white sandy beaches. In fact, the scenery is so perfect that it almost seemed staged or landscaped.
One result of being undeveloped is the worst roads we have seen yet. The bumpy dirt tracks around the island mean that "taxi's" are actually big 4-wheel drive pickups where you sit in the back and hold on for life. Our resort was less that 2km from the pier but took a roller coaster ride of more than half an hour to get there!
We also discovered a great way that paradise can be enhanced . . . beach massages . . . mmmm! On a deserted beach with only the waves for background noise . . . heaven!
We stayed on the quietest side of the island here in a big bungalow with a huge balcony overlooking the beach and bay below. The bay is so peaceful that one day we went down to the beach (which is a good hundred metres long) to see only one person on it. What was most amusing about this sight was that he had clearly noticed this himself and was lying in the dead centre of the beach, spread out on his back, in a star shape . . . you could almost hear him going "aaaah", like when you want to spread out and make the most of having a huge bed to yourself!
Koh Tao translates to "turtle island" and is surrounded by off-shore reefs meaning that most people really come here to dive . . . which is exactly what we did!
Although we have dived a few times before we have never been able to drag ourselves off the beach/bar and into the classrooms on our shorters holidays to do our PADI. No excuses here though! Being in the classrooms was strange. Learning the theory and science behind diving was like being back at school - complete with daily tests and homework! Also very like school was the fact that homework was mostly done at the last minute and in the pub! (sadly, no juke box, dart board or pool table in this one though!)
After morning and evening sessions in the classroom the first afternoons were spent in the pool doing all the practical exercises and fun stuff. These all went pretty well. Gemma seemingly born to dive and Graham only trying to drown himself once!
In was on our third day that the final exam (been a while since we did one of those!) was sprung upon us but . . . thankfully we both passed!
This left us needing to complete four open water sea dives to complete the course. This may sound easy but also includes repeating all the pool skills as a proper test. Intentionally losing your regulator, mask, all of your kit, or running out of air seems more daunting (and a little crazy) when you are actually out at sea and 18 metres under!
Thankfully, this all went fine too. The only exercise that either of us struggled to grasp was Graham and with by far the easiest of them all - navigation! Unsurprisingly, Graham proved as useless under water as on land but somehow did enough to blag it (just like Graham too, eh?!). Needless to say that Gemma will be taking the lead if we ever dive alone in future!
With only a final dive to sign off and no more exercises it was all looking like plain sailing, when the Law of the Sod struck. Despite never having had a day off work sick Graham was hit with a bug the night before our final dive. This was, in itself, not a major problem as we rearranged it for the next day (our last one) . . . and then Graham decided, very kindly, to share his bug with Gemma. This certainly served us right for tempting fate - Graham mentioned to his mum only a few days before that neither of us had been ill (unless you count the "dodgy" champagne cocktails that made Gemma "ill" in Shanghai!)
Proving infinitely tougher than Graham, there was however no way that Gemma was going to let this stop us at the last hurdle. Through sheer determination and stubborness (nothing new there either!) Gemma dragged herself onto the early morning boat - not only completing the final dive but an extra advanced one that we had booked for fun! Gemma was sick several times before and after each dive (Bug Rocky Boat = Not a good combination!) but thankfully not during, though we were assured that regulators can cope with vomit!
And so it was no mean feat (on Gem's part) that we successfully passed and were presented with our PADI cards, Graham's by the dive instructor in the dive school, Gemma's by Graham in her sickbed!
Despite the bugs, we loved Koh Tao, are thrilled to have our PADI signed off and it was well worth all the effort . . . which Gemma is sure to agree with . . . tomorrow!
- comments