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Monday 1st December 2008 - PADI Open water Course
Today we arrived in Koh Tao to do our Padi Open Water scuba diving course. The boat trip to get to the Island was horrific!! We got on the fastest, most choppiest boat ride ever- Bearing in mind I dont think Chris realised how sea sick he was!! Practically the whole boat was throwing up - there was about 10 assistants on the boat giving out sickbags and tissues, collecting the bags - it was pretty discusting - but in hindsight a real good service haha. Whilst Chris and the rest of the boat were feeling rough, I and about 5 others were loving the waves!!
Anyway, once we arrived in Koh Tao there were many touts waiting for us to ude their dive schools.. so after speaking to a few, as well as researching them, we decided to go with 'Bans'. On arrival into Bans dive resort and spa we were really impressed and happy with it - for the hotel and surroundings if nothing else!! The hotel was really nice, with 2 pools to learn the dives in, and was situated on the beach, amongst many other little restaurants and little boutiques - it was perfect!!
As the dive course started at 5 oclock we spend the first half of the day shopping and looking around the complex. At 5, Chris and I walked up to the classroom to meet our class and instructor. The class was quite small, consisting of 9 of us - with quite a good mix of nationalities and ages which was nice. Our instructor Santi left quite the first impression on us all - he was really friendly, funny and extremely rude! He had been a dive instructor for years and was confident in what he does - which I was grateful for as I was really nervous about diving for the first time. The first lesson was basically an introductory lesson to diving, watching a video and getting to know our dive group.. So after the lesson we all met up for dinner, and really got to know the group - we really all got on well, there was never a quiet moment which was so good!
The next morning we were up and ready for 9am to begin a lesson in the classroom. We all arrived on time- except for Santi, fashionably late at 9.30! The lessons were really chilled out, Santi made things fun, however I think alot of the girls were abit freaked out at how vulger he could be!! We got introduced to the Dive Masters and they sat in our lesson.. We got taught how to set up out equipment and got sized up for our wetsuits, flippers and dive masks. We later got taken to one of the Bans pools to learn the basic breathing and equalising techniques; with sunbathers all around the pool we felt like goldfish on show!!Here, we learnt how to empty our masks underwater, how to adjust your boyancy and how to communicate under water ready for our first dive.
The lesson was really fun, we were happy to find that breathing underwater isnt as hard as we thaught - however the whole fish and sealife in the sea was still at the back of my mind!!!
The next morning was really exciting.. Our FIRST dive!! Up and ready for 7, we all headed to the equiptment room to pack our dive bags, and headed onto the speedboat to the dive boat..It was a big boat with many other groups on, and the dive masters also. We arrived at 'Twins Rock' to do our training dive at 12 metres. Equiptment ready we headed up to the top deck for a quick run through of what we are to do underwater. Finally time to hit the water... holding mask and BCD in one hand, weight belt in the other - one foot forward.. I was so excited!!!
Santi, Noon (another young instructor) and the Dive Masters took us slowly down using the reference line, giving us ime to get used to the water and equalising. Chris had problems with his ears to start with, but apparently this is quite common for first time divers! He squeezed too hard trying to equalise and had a nose bleed!
During this 40 minute divewe got the hand of boyancy control and the basics of diving, whilst Santi took us round the reefs showing us all the different corals and fish. Surprisingly my fears of seacreatures went whilst underwater, and my concentration went on looking whats around me - it's like a total different world underwater!
We moved on to 'White Rock', for our second and last dive of the day, where we dived again at 12 metres. Here we concentrated on skills such as filling up our masks underwater and emptying it and boyancy control - as well as a tour around the reefs!
The morning went really quickly and before we knew it we was in the classroom again doing a few mock exam questions. After much rest and relaxation in the afternoon we all decided that since it was our last night together we would go somewhere special to eat. After walking round for a while we came across a fabulous restaurant with a VIP type curtained off area to sit in - quite the treat for us budget travellers!!
The next and last day of our Open water PADI course was a busy day, with an early start to fit in our dives and exam. We headed out to White Rock again on the dive boat - only this time we were filmed the whole journey!!! Since it was our final day on the course everyone was buzzing with excitement - it was such a good atmosphere! I think however that the camera lady was more excited that we were! She never sat still, jumping about saying "Yey.. your nearly qualified divers!!" So funny!
This time we all did front flips whilst jumping into the water.. which was rather daunting considering we had an air tank on our back and flipper on!! We went under water 18 metres (The maximum we could go with a PADI open water certification, which felt really deep!! This dive, we all did skills individually underwater in a big circle, as well as playing games. We spun in loops and took off our masks underwater and put sunglasses on for the camera.. During the break inbetween dives we were allowed to jump off the top deck into the water. Everyone got in a line to jump whilst being filmed - however somehow the deck looked huge when it came to jumping - so I didnt jump in time.. it took me about 5 minutes to take the plunge, when I eventually did jump I came out of the water to give a huge cheer- I didnt know I was being filmed the whole time, haha..great!
The last dive was again at White Rock. Here, Santi calculated whether we could ascend from 8 metres with just 1 breathe making an "aah" sound. After a bodged up attempt Chris and I finally got it. The camera filmed us going through a small hole in the coral - however I managed to get my air tank stuck, so Chris helped me through and whilst doing this he sliced his finger open, ouch!! The dive was really fun, we saw a blue spotted stingray, nemo fish, moray-eels and so many other really big fish.
Once we got cleaned up after the dives it was time to do our exam.. and surprise surprise we all passed! We were so pleased to have the certificate! That evening we had a few drinks, watched thje DVD of the dive- but because it was so expensive Chris and I didnt bother buying it. We all had a meal together with the instructors and the dive masters and went to a cabaret show afterwards. It was really funny but so so tacky!! Later we went and watched a fire show on the beach - kids as young as 10.. they were amazing, and so confident!
Since Chris and I had signed up for yet another course, it wasnt long before we had to say our goodbyes as we were to be up early in the morning...
In the morning we headed up to the classroom to meet our advanced group.. To our surprise there was only one guy there!! 'Mike' - probably the tallest guy I have EVER seen!!!Stood in between Mike and Chris you can imagine how tiny I felt!!haha. Anyway, after watching the advanced diver video and doing some classroom excersises we had a short break before heading straight out to our 30 metre dive at Chumphon Pinnacle. The dive itself felt so so much deeper than we had dived before.. at 30 metres the fish are so much bigger, and looking up from at the bottom of the ocean you just cannot tell where the top of the water is! Its pretty amazing! Noon, our dive instructor, took us down the water this time.. This dive felt more like a fun dive rather than learning as we had already gotton our open water certificate- this dive was more about controlling our boyancy so deep down, and controlling our breathing..
The second dive of the day was againat Chumphon Pinnacle at 16 metres. Here, we calculated our cick cycles using 30 metre rope underwater. We basically counted how many kicks it took to get from one end of the rope to another.. this was so that we could calculate our navigation correctly... which you will later read - it did not work!!
Our final dive of the day was our night dive at White Rock - one of the main highlights of doing the advanced course. At 6.20pm we dived down to 16 metres, cautiously looking down as we descended.. I was particularly nervous as I wasnt sure what to expect. In the video that we watched earlier today it explained that the larger animals, such as rays and sharks, come out at night.. so all I seemed to focus on for the first ten minutes was the fact that I may see a shark.. which is a combination between fear and excitement for me!!!During this dive we triued out our navigation skills using the compass, obviously as it was dark! Basically.. Chris and I were meant to do ten Kicks in a particular direction and come back again. Only Chris set his compass wrong.. and because I was too busy looking around me with my torch we both went off track!!! We ended up so far from where out instructor was..Chris and I looked at eachother with our torches, and signalled to ascend to the surface!! We got to the surface to find we were about 500 yards from the boat.. Its was quite scary.. but pretty funny in hindsight!! We basically tryed to float on our backs back to the boat (which was far away!!) flashing our torches!! Our instructor eventually saw us as he came to the surface lookingfor us.. asked us if we were OK.. then we went back down together to explore the reefs!! What a night hey! The coral underwater was really beautiful.. the torches shone onto the reefs showing their natural colours which you cannot see usually in the daylight!! We did an excercise where you turned off your torches, and your eyes seem to adjust to the light so that you can see.. just as they would in the dark on land.. it was quite amazing. There was illuminus coral all around the sea, what a sight..
The next day, after another morning lesson we headed out to do our multilevel dive. We basically went to a maximum of 24 metres in 3 stages, and then as usual have a dive around the coral seeing the many fish around. Our last dive of the day, and of the advanced course was pretty exciting. It was the 'Naturalist' dive.. we were given a slate each with the navigation route drawn on.. and another sheet with all the different types of fish that we had to tick off once we had seen.. So Chris, Mike and I went down the water, alone.. using the reference line and reefs and our source for navigation. It was really wierd to be let out under the water alone, with no-one but us guiding the way. Here, we noticed so so many fish: Humbug Damsel, Moray eels, moon wrasse, squirral fish, clamfish, batfish,blue spotted coral trout, blue spotted stingray, porcupine fish, sea cucumbers and even a banded seasnake (apparantly the most poisenous snake, ever!-eek!!)The dive, unlike the night dives polava, went well!! And we are officially qualified Advanced divers-- yey!!
To celebrate, that night Santi and Noon took us all out on their motorbikes.. It was really nice as Santi chose the place, which was an all you can eat restaurant, and was the best ever!!! You literally cook your own food on coal stoves. There was so many meats, veg and prawns!! The restaurant had a 'you leave any.. you pay double' policy- we were sure that would not effect us!!! Later on in the night, Santi and Noon had a soup making competition.. not on purpose but it ended up that way!!haha! Both soups were pretty delicious, with veg cooking in water, and all the meat on the stove of which juices were trickling into the veg to make soup!!mmm!! We drank a few beers and had a really good chat - great to get to know Santi quite personally. It was so nice that, at the end of the night, Santi went up to pay for us all - it meant alot as we knew he wouldnt do this for anyone.. we grew close to him over the 5 days spent with him - and we're really happy we had such a fun and genuinely nice tutor!
Next stop to finally meet Jez and Wilba.. yipee!!! xxx
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