Becpowell's travel blogs:
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I'm not leaving until I see a turtle!
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Day 111 - More waiting ensued following yesterdays fiasco - until 6am, where we queued some more to verify our tickets and after waiting some more, we finally boarded the katamaran. It's also raining outside by the way. Just what you want when you arrive at a tropical island, and in addition, by now, the only people who surround me are Brits! Because of the shitty weather the crossing to Ko Tao was the longest 1 hour 45 minutes of my life! Exacerbated by my lack of sleep, the sea was extremely choppy and I was forced outside to the back balcony where I clung to the bannister and focussed on the horizon whilst all around me were throwing up into the sea! I probably would have felt better if I let myself be sick, but instead made it to Ko Tao feeling pretty beaten up!
After a nightmare journey and a sleepless night, all I wanted was bed - however most of the guesthouses on the island require you to sign up with them for a diving course, and the accommodation is included in most packages anyway, so finding a place solo would have been foolish. Instead Nathan and I looked for a suitable Open Water course. Easy Divers were the first to give their pitch, which came in the form of a cockney called Chris, with the gift of the gab and hence after deciding to catch a taxi to Sairee Beach to compare with a few other companies, it did indeed seem the best. I also bumped into Martin from Sapa who was working in a dive shop, which was very odd! Our guesthouse was called Beach Club on Mae Haad Bay (not the nicest Bay as houses all the taxi-boats, but nice and close to Mae Haad Town and the pier for diving), which has the benefit of being quieter than Sairee beach, which is what I was after during a diving course... lots of rest.
I had a quick nap (best sleep I have ever had) and then made it to the Dive Shop - a quick walk along the beach -before 4pm for the start of our course. Here they drove us to the other guesthouse, which also has a classroom for our theory sections. There were 9 of us on the course: myself, Nathan, Tom and Hazel from Cornwall and 5 Irish lads! We watched an induction video which was laughable it was so corny, and Joe, our instructor left us to it and went home, leaving us with homework questions to do by tommorrow! That's when I realised this is a proper course and may require me to apply myself!
My room is a little shack on the beach front, with a building site behind and a fair amount of insects and mosquitos inside! An early night was iminent and fell asleep with the sound of the waves outside, ahhh!
Day 112 - Woke Nathan up in the morning (he has no clock!) and walked to the classroom for our morning theory class. I started to feel a bit overwhelmed as Joe went through a large amount of information regarding diving, and was hoping that it was one of those things you're better off learning as you do it. Midday we went to the dive shop to get our kit and by 12:30 we were on the boat and split into two groups... the Irish lads in one, and in mine was myself, Nathan, Tom and Hazel, all from Britain, Chris (from Britain), an honorary member for the day called Dan, who's British also, and also an Advanced Diver Trainee - Charlie... from Britain!
We set up our own equipment and as we went through checks I was getting a little nervous! We entered the water using the 'Giant Leap' method, with the help of the boats lacky... a cocky thai man called Sam who wears shades and calls everyone baby! We swam to the beach to do our first skills in shallow water, and I first started breathing through my regulator I struggles with the feeling and really did think "I'm not going to like this"! But Chris was very good at making you feel comfortable and safe and after a little while I was more comfortable. After doing some skills, like clearing your mask etc, Chris put his hand up for a high five and I missed (things look very different underwater) causing me to crack up in giggles underwater - bubbles were coming out at all angles, which only made me laugh more - it was quite a surreal thing laughing underwater!
We went on a little dive back to the boat, which was a perk of Easy Divers since they seemed the only company that offer this pre-dive to our Open Water Dive Number 1, and it was so good! Once was horizontal and watching the fish, I found the breathing much easier and absolutely loved it. This gave me much more confidence when it came to the next dive, and I couldn't wait to get back in - quite a turnaround from the start of the session! Just as we were setting off, Tom signalled to Chris he was low on air... right down to 50 bar which is usually when you go back up. It turns out he had quite a serious leak on his gauge and so the two of them proceeded to swap tanks and equipment so Chris had the dodgy one! I was quite impressed on his first dive to even notice he was out of air, let alone to swap all his gear!
For the second dive we entered the water via 'The Mexican' method (because of how they die in films!) - falling backwards with the aid of Sam doing karate kicks in your face. This dive was great as it was the first proper one we had done, but the visibility was quite poor because of the rainy weather and choppy sea. Nonethless we saw lots of amazing fish before ascending and coming back to base.
In the evening I went in search of some thai food (yes I had to hunt for it.. in Thailand) and found an empty roadside vendor and had some really good seafood tomyam soup, whilst thinking about my day! Excellent!
Day 113 - Woke up with hundreds of bed bugs on my lower legs and feet - Ewww! Had our morning theory class again and at the end had our final exam (seems so soon!) which we did together and was pretty easy. I found myself quite in my element with the dive chart and realised just how much I love those kind of mathematical problems!
We went to Mango Beach for our afternoon dive, again practising skills in the shallow water - it took me a while to get used to the breathing once again. One skill was to take off our weight belts and put them back on, and Charlie had equipped me with the longest belt on the boat.. I had so much trouble getting it back on and Chris had to hold me down as I started tipping over! On the dive back to the boat we saw some incredible fish, including a huge ball of fish, which was absolutely amazing! I did get very irritated though as we were following Chris, but all the others kept bumping into me and getting in my way etc... it's hard enough breathing underwater and stopping yourself careering off into the coral, let alone dealing with your dive group landing on your head, and Chris decided I should dive at the front with him to avoid this. We did some more skills on the surface, including a CESA ascent, which is when you simulate running out of air and swim to the surface going 'ahhhh'!
After a break and some biscuits, we went in for another dive - this time 'James Bond' style - a half somersault forwards. Being at the front with Chris as my buddy was ace as you see all the fish as soon as he does and before they swim away! Just two more dives tommorrow morning and we're qualified! On the boat back, I was telling Chris how I had to hunt for thai food the night before and then he asked me if I wanted to get some food with him later, and not knowing if he meant a date, or how to say no, I just said "ok"! Before we went, Nathan called me out of the bungalow to say that if had a problem with him to say it to his face! I don't know where it came from but I assured him that I would have no problem saying it to his face, but actually had no idea what he was talking about!
Chris picked me up on his off-road motorbike with enormously fat wheels and took me south to Shark Island. I was glad to see a bit more of Ko Tao and get out of Mae Haad. We went to a lovely restaurant which was really chilled, with a veranda looking out onto the gorgeous view of the bay. Chris ordered for us chicken massaman and steamed snapper with lemon and chilli (which was bloody spicy) - having a bit of problem ordering in thai as most of the staff were in fact Burmese strangely enough! The food was really good and it was a nice evening.. Now to tackle the bed bugs - it's not easy fighting something you can't see!
Day 114 - Final day of our Open Water course, meeting at the dive shop at 7:20am. As far as I could tell I had no more bites on me from my bed friends but having so many already, it's hard to tell! Today we had a chirpy American videographer following us around and putting the camera in our faces, which to me adds to the stress, being completely camera shy!
The first dive we went down to 18 metres - our maximum depth - and it was really awesome, seeing all sorts of fish including a blue ringed stingray and masisve grouper fish! I had trouble descending though in the choppy water, and kept floating back to the surface as everyone else dropped down. Chris had to come back up and pull me down with him! We played 'Name that Tune' where Chris would hum a tune and I would try and guess it. However, sound underwater is particuarly distorted, plus he was singing a song I'd never heard of (why he didn't go for a song everyone knows, I don't know!). At the end of the dive, both groups congregated midway down the buoyline to do a skill, just as two more groups were trying to come down it.. it was underwater chaos!
The second dive was a site with about a 50% chance of seeing a turtle and I told Chris that I did not want to leave without seeing one! First, both groups knealt on the sand to do some skills for the camera, including all of us hovering in the Buddha position, blowing air rings (something I was particularly useless at) and then some compass work which was extremely messy! We dived around and saw a puffa fish - wow! I then kicked Chris in the face with my fins and almost knocked his mask off! When Tom was low on air, Chris signalled to ascent and having not seen a turtle I crossed my arms and had a silent, underwater protest, which remarkably he understood perfectly, and responded by grabbing my BCD and pulling me up with him!
We were back on land by midday and Chris took me for lunch at a yummy thai stall with a really sweet lady running it! I spent the afternoon mostly on my veranda as I felt very odd from the dive - like I was swaing with the boat - and wanted to recover before celebrating tonight! I also managed to change rooms despite the receptionist trying to tell me they were mosquito bites! There was no way of debating, they just weren't!
At 5:30pm we went to the shop to do the paperwork and recieve our licenses and then moved on to the Irish Bar round the corner where those who owed beers for being caught with their goggles ont heir foreheads settled up and we watched the dive video. We stayed there a while, both the English and Irish and towards the end of the night, those that were left, myself, Nathan, Chris and two Irish Neil and Turk went to another swanky bar - they were excellent company and certainly knew how to celebrate!
Where I stayed:
Beach Club
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| 2. | I'm not leaving until I see a turtle! - Ko Tao, Thailand Jun 17, 2008 |
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