Cruising with Turtles in Koh Tao!
Trip Start
Feb 24, 2011
1
17
34
Trip End
Ongoing
Koh Tao, Thailand
Saturday, May 21, 2011
James had been trying to decide whether he wanted to complete his open water scuba diving course, so when we stumbled across a resort which offered free accommodation to people who signed up for it, we decided that we may as well stay there so that if we did want to do it, we wouldn't have to pack up and move. We were located right next door to one of the oldest and most well established dive schools on the island, and as soon as we got there people started to tell us what an amazing experience it is to go deep under the sea. I still had huge reservations about the whole idea as I was absolutely terrified of doing something so different, but we decided to have a free trial using all of the breathing apparatus in the pool. To our surprise it wasn't actually that weird being able to breathe under water and my fear reduced a little bit! We decided to spend a few days relaxing before deciding whether we wanted to sign up to the four day course, as James was turning 31 at midnight that night and we thought that things were due to get a little messy!!
Our predictions were right, and despite only going out for a few leisurely drinks to see his birthday in, we were soon at a beach bar drinking 2 for 1 vodka buckets and dancing to a live band. The night got even more crazy when the two Welsh girls we had met in Koh Phangan turned up and insisted on more drinks to celebrate!
The next day was a right off, but two days later after sunning ourselves on the beach we had to decide whether to dive or not to dive! I decided that it was all a little too scary for me, but James decided to take the plunge and sign up. It was only when we reached the door of the school that I had a sudden change of heart and signed up because I thought I would be missing the chance of a life time if I didn't!!
The next four days were extremely busy, as along with learning the skills associated with scuba diving, we also had to learn a hell of a lot of theory and spent forever in the class room and also doing homework in the evening! As you can imagine this was a big shock for our brains which had been pretty much redundant for the last 3 months, and we found ourselves dreaming of all of the information we had learned!
Our first dive was only in the 3m deep swimming pool, but when you are sat on the bottom looking up to the surface it feels extremely weird as your brain is telling you that you really shouldn't be able to breathe under there! As soon as we were under I started to panic, and from that moment on a really nice dive assistant called Päivi became my dive buddy. Päivi, along with our amazing dive instructor Matee who had 25 years diving experience, were great at calming me down, and I was soon doing fine! We both managed to complete all of the required skills you need for when you are under water, such as cleaning our mask, taking your breathing regulator out of your mouth and also swapping air supplies with people in case you run out of oxygen. It seemed we were finally ready to descend up to 18m below the sea....I was still absolutely petrified though and couldn't sleep that night thinking of what lay ahead the next day!
Our first experience diving in the sea was pretty scary but also amazing as we saw some spectacular coral reefs, swam through the biggest shoal of fish ever, and saw some amazing creatures. James and his partner Alfred were like naughty school kids swimming off from the group when something caught their eye, but as always, I was extremely cautious and stayed firmly by Päivi's side as I was so scared of getting lost!
As we completed our second, third and fourth dives we were becoming more and more confident in the water and had dived to 18m deep. We couldn't believe it when we were swimming along with a turtle, but weren't such fans of the Trigger Fish who attack if you accidentally swim into their territory!!! As soon as we had completed our last dive and were officially qualified to dive anywhere in the world, we were already having withdrawal symptoms and decided that we simply had to complete the advanced course!!
The course took 2 days to complete and allowed us to dive up to 30m deep. We learned how to navigate underwater and also use dive computers. We had the most amazing experience ever when we went on a night dive and saw loads of Stingrays and large Barracuda's who swim along with you in order to use the light of your torch to help them hunt! It was pretty weird to see fish having a snooze on the sea bed, but a good chance to sneak up on them and have a good look!
We passed the advanced course without any problems, and were gutted that our time in Koh Tao had to come to an end if we were going to make it over to the islands on the west coast of Thailand before the monsoon season got into full force. We said good bye to all of the good friends we had made from the diving school, and promised we would return in the future to dive with them again!
