Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So, Ko Tao! This was by far my favourite out of the islands id visited on the east and probably the one i had been looking forward to the most as here i would do my DIVING! soon after arriving i got news that in a drunken accident chick had fallen off a table and cut his leg. This unfortunately meant that he couldn't do diving and would therefore not be heading to Ko Tao as intended (no point). I therefore enrolled into the PADI open water course which is the most popular PADI course which teaches you the fundamentals of sea diving and then you get to do 4 or in my case 5 dives around Ko Tao. The first couple of days of lessons were really boring because all i was doing was sitting in a classroom learning to dive. As it was important however i muscled through and after passing the exam we were allowed to do our diving. The company i was at ( New World ) was probably the most expensive on the island but it was also regarded as the best. New World also were the only company to leave at 6am which although sounds stupidly early i was so thankful when heading back i saw about 35 boats all heading to the dive sites which we had just had to ourselves.
Diving was amazing! it really was just like i had hoped in a sense that there were amazing corals and thousands of all different types of fish and other marine life. The highlight though had to be swimming with the sharks. Unfortunately at PADI open water level we weren't allowed to go to the sea bed because it was considered 'too deep' and therefore had to witness them from above :(. On a separate dive i had an extremely close call with a stray motor boat nearly taking out one of our group members if it had not been for the quick actions of our diving instructor- a great story but too long to put on this blog so if anyone wants it let me know and i can email you it.
After completing the Open Water Course it took about 2 minutes for me to decide that i wanted to take my diving further and enrolled for the advanced diver course. This course involved 5 more dives which included stuff like underwater navigation, basic first aid, night diving and a deep sea dive (three guesses where i wanted to do my deep sea dive!!). The next morning we went back to Champon Bay at 6am where the sharks hung out. Diving straight to the bottom we were surrounded by 2 metre sharks with one actually swimming straight infront of me within a metre. Granted these weren't great whites or anything but they still looked like mean b******s! Another advantage with going with new world was that when the other boats turned up the sharks would leave due to the amount of divers present. Night diving was also an awesome experiance because the coral look so much different and more colourful with your torch at night. Navigation i was considered exceptional until i couldn't find the boat...buts that was ok cos it had moved. No pictures again im affraid but i did folk out alot of cash for this awesome dvd we had made of us diving for the day, its class! i'll send it home as soon as i can.
I said my goodbyes to New World and Kho Tao on the 14th. My diving had to come to a stop as my ankle had swallen up (not healed properly from feb) which was probably a blessing cos id spent so much on diving- dont regret it though cos its better than spending it on drink. Next stop was Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia which again i would have loved to spend more time there but we fly to aus on the 20th and ive got a problem with my plane ticket (got soaked in a storm and is bearly readable) so i need to get down to singapore to sort it out.
- comments