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Arrived to a very unstable looking, rickety wooden pier that looked like it was gona collapse at any moment. But we make it through, only to be mopped by shouts of 'TAXI TAXI'. Thankfully they are kind enough to tell us we don't need a taxi and pointed us in the direction we needed to go to our hostel, which is a 1minute walk away from the pier. We arrive at the Loft Hostel and are greeted by a very friendly thai man with a strong London accent. He learned to speak English by watching gangster stuff about the London area on YouTube, fair enough. Got paid up and introduced to our room A, which was a six bed dorm. It felt a bit like what I imagine a prison cell to feel like because of the brick walls between beds, but had AC, a curtain for privacy and a shelf so it was fine really. We dumped our stuff, went to find something to eat then went to a walk along Sairee beach. Having thought about trying out diving again, we stopped at a few dives shops along the way before reaching the one I'd read amazing reviews about on tripadvisor: Goodtime adventures. So in I went and got speaking to a couple of the girls that worked there, who seemed lovely and very reassuring, then went to watch one of the other activities they did; trapeze, while having a wee think. (And drink lol) Kenny didn't want to dive so it would be just me. Decided to throw caution into the wind and conquer my fear; booked onto the open water course starting the next day! Had a very nice wee pizza on the way back to the hostel in Coffeeshop by Mania guesthouse, then set about reading the couple of chapters of the SSI handbook. Felt like I was back at school :) (I'm a geek at heart)
Got up early and had a muesli breakfast, and walked 15min to get to Goodtime adventures. Had a coffee to start and got stuck in. Our team was Aaron from California and David from Melbourne, with Dan the instructor from Slovakia. We had a morning of classroom training and an afternoon in shallow sea water learning some diving skills. I found it easy to take the regulator in and out but struggled filling and removing water from the mask.
I tried and cried and tried again and again. With the urge to pee and not being able to do so in my wetsuit, (I just couldn't lol) I took off all the gear, everything went to the toilet and got back in, with a burst of energy and some confidence and I did it. There were some stingers in the water which I didn't like, but they were not as sore as I thought, so I can cope with them :) I was soo proud that got through the day. Kenny met me at end, and took a few pics of me kitted up. A very happy lady today. Kenny spent the day deep sea fishing, unsuccessful tho.
We spent the next morning was spent in classroom, and the afternoon dives to 12m at mango bay and the twins. Did everything perfect, very pleased with myself, loved diving!!! Saw some amazing fish and coral, including a skool of barracuda, amazing!! I even had fish nibble a spot on my face and I didn't freak out or panic. So today was a real accomplishment. But I was exhausted, felt all evening that I was taking extra deep breaths.
The next day got off to a rough start. We were starting earlier than usual which meant my breakfast place wasn't open so I couldn't get my filling 'ready for the day' museli. (I'm a stickler for having a good breakfast to start the day.) So had toast and a coffee but was still exhausted. The first activity was learning how to navigate with the compass watch, which we practiced on the beach and resulted in me standing on a piece of wire and it jabbing into my foot. Another bad omen before I even get into the water. Then we reach a really good dive site, chumpon, but the water is really rough. But I scissor step off the boat, am attempting to clear my mask (as we used baby shampoo to stop it fogging up) when I'm hit by a wave and I'm under. I had my regulator in but it just scared the life out of me. It just took me by surprise and the fact that I had been struggling to swim to the guys in the first place and the thought of what it would be like underneath for the first few metres, just scared me. So we all got back into the speedboat and soared over the very choppy water to another site with much calmer water. Unfortunately I let my crappy morning and exhaustion get to me, even though none it actually involved me diving, and couldn't bring myself to dive that day. Still even as I sat waiting on the three of them finishing their dive, I knew it wouldn't beat me. Kenny on the other hand had a very successful day fishing and caught us a treveli for dinner, which we had cooked at one of the local restaurants. They cooked it with garlic and herbs, and accompanied it with a baked potato and salad, was really good. Although we did have the cats waiting at out feet for scraps. We also met Joanne and Sarah again, which was nice. They had some dinner (had to laugh at Sarah hoaking the tofu outa her Pad Thai) and a few drinks, before having a drink in a bar whilst watching fire dancing.
Having had a good night sleep and lie in, a good breakfast, a coffee, and psyched myself up, I was ready for a good day diving. I just got out there and did it. I got the skills over with in 1st dive so could enjoy the second; I loved it. I overcome my fear and can't wait to dive again :D
Kenny came to meet me once I had finished and we went to see Joanne and Sarah. They had a really nice hotel. We stayed there for a few hours to try and stay out of the rain before we ventured for dinner. With Kenny having to make the 25 min round trip in the rain as he forgot the purse. Made it to the restaurant without any rain, had a good wee evening chatting and wandering if we'd see eachother again on the trip, maybe in Bangkok? Or Cambodia? Lol. Got our final pic together and said our goodbyes, for the walk in the torrential rain back to the hostel. Koh Tao you've been fun, but you definitely know how to rain!
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