After leaving the island paradise of Koh Kood we headed back to Bangkok for a few days – mainly wasted as it turns out with a combination of oversleeping, stomach bugs and general lethargy meaning we didn’t do a few things we’d planned.
We decided to cut our losses and head down to Koh Tao to learn how to Scuba Dive. This was always something on our list for the trip as we’re visiting so many places that have great diving and we wanted to be able to take advantage of it.
We’d spoken to a few of our mates back home who dive regularly and they’d given us a list of things to look for in a Dive School – Koh Tao is pretty much a diving factory with at least 50 schools dedicated to everything from getting students through their basic training to taking them all the way through to Dive Master and Instructor level. We decided to go with Simple Life as they seemed really friendly when we contacted them and answered all the right questions – they even went as far as laying on a typhoon the day we arrived (see the Flickr album)!
We started off with our PADI Open Water course – they have small class sizes at Simple Life and there was only one other person (a French-Canadian from Montreal called Caroline) doing this course with us. The first day is a mix of classroom theory before you get to put the Scuba gear on properly and practice some skills in the shallows. Then over the next two days the fun really starts as you get down to 12 metres and then 18 metres. It was during one of the 18 metre dives over a wreck in the bay that we realised we absolutely loved this and wanted to stick around to do the Advanced course to get certified to dive to 30 metres.
One of the reasons we stuck around was the guys at Simple Life – there was such a laid back extended-family vibe at the school. Our instructor Ricky, was fantastic with us – made you feel at ease immediately and had a bit of a laugh whilst teaching us. He’s from Sheffield but we won’t hold that against him! The rest of the guys there were so helpful – always willing to answer daft rookie questions, play pool, tell us where the good spots on the island were. More importantly, they gave us a bit of an insight on what it’s like to work there – and who knows we may well go back there and do it ourselves at some point in the future.
We planned to stay for 4 days and do our Open Water certification. We ended up staying for 9 days, doing 13 dives whilst completing our Open Water, Advanced Open Water and Nitrox (enriched air) courses. To say we’re now addicted is an understatement. Highlights of the diving included the awesome variety of fish at Chumphon, getting up close and personal with the wreck (a former US Navy ship) and best of all, coming round a rock and being face to face with a massive Green Turtle – it must have been at least 5-6ft across. We didn’t have the Go Pro with us but it’s an image I doubt I’ll ever forget.
So where next? The guy we did our Nitrox course with (Gary) has set us up with dives in Koh Phagnan at Sail Rock and then we’re off to Phuket to pick up a boat for a 6 day “live aboard” on The Junk in the waters around the Similan Islands where we can do up to 19 dives. In between that we’ve just got time for a quick visit to Samui to see an old mate who now lives there.
All this is putting us massively behind schedule on the trip but it’s worth it as we’re enjoying it so much – which is I guess what this trip is all about.
Photos – typhoon, sunsets and scuba diving