Koh Tao

We arrived in Koh Tao early the next day after an overnight boat. Koh Tao is a popular place to do scuba diving, something which Bastien was keen to do so we spent the first day looking around for a good diving company to do the course with. We found a place called Big Blue Diving which looked lively and right on the beach, had a chat with an instructor about the 3 day open water diving course and at this point I was somehow persuaded to do the course as well, even though I didn't intend to do so as I wasn't a big fan of water, let alone being metres underneath it! So that afternoon we started the theory for the course which continued the following morning. After lunch we headed for the (very cold) pool to learn some skills and get used to the equipment. After an unsuccessful and chilly start I felt like giving up but thankfully our instructor was very patient and helped me until I managed to complete all the necessary skills.

The next morning was some final theory work and a multiple choice test which our group of 6 passed with no problems. After lunch we headed out to sea for the first two proper dives. I was particularly nervous but managed to push myself to get over it and did the first dive to about 8 metres. It was a great experience - so many different types of fish and coral - it's like entering a completely new world! After a short break we headed back down to 12 metres. We all really enjoyed it and couldn't wait for the deeper dives the next day.

We were up for 6:30am on the final day and got straight onto the boat and headed out to the dive site for two 18 metre dives. It was brilliant, even better than the day before. At the end of the final dive we even saw a huge green turtle, apparently the biggest our instructor had ever seen, which was a great way to end. For me anyway - I was very happy with my achievement considering I wasn't a fan of water! Evening time our group met up to celebrate becoming certified divers with a few drinks and a viewing of the dvd of our dive which was a perfect way to end. However, Bastien loved the diving so much that he signed up for the 2 day advanced diving course starting the next day!

The advanced course consisted of another 5 dives, the deepest of which being 30 metres! You also have to master certain skills such as buoyancy control and navigation. Also included was a night dive - apparently you couldn't see much though (unsurprisingly)! The highlight for Bastien was visiting a ship wreck at 25 metres where you could swim through the captain's cabin.

Overall we both really enjoyed the diving experience, it was one of the highlights of the trip. That evening we met up with some of the people from our course again for a final send off as we were heading for Langkawi in Malaysia the following day.