Taa Toh Dive Resort
Trip Start
Nov 26, 2006
1
26
37
Trip End
Feb 12, 2007
Koh Tao,
Thailand
Friday, January 19, 2007
Did the PADI Open Water Diver course at Taa Toh Dive Resort - the dive instructor there is Nils, a friendly norwegian chap who has been diving for 26 years and instructing for the past 9. Handy having a Norwegian instructor since we understand Norwegian, us being Swedish & all. Actually, he did the course in English, there being 3 yanks and an aussie in our group as well, but Kristina got the course book in Swedish, and it was handy being able to have him clarify some stuff in Scandinavian :) Read the books, watched the videos (with Swedish subtitles no less) and did some 'pool dives' (actually just in shallow water off the beach), as well as our first 4 open water dives.
I loved it from the start (no suprises there really) and can't wait to get back out there
373. Kristina 'tasting' the air
. It's such an amazing new world to explore (as if there isn't enough to see on the surface, but hey), so it's going to be great fun. Haven't used the camera on a dive yet (being in training and trying to remember everything at the same time as working a camera isn't such a great idea), but will before the end of the trip so stand by. Kristina was a little more sceptical about the whole thing. Not sure how it would be going down so deep that you couldn't just safely come back to the top if needed, not sure how it would be with equalising and so on. But she did great. Had the final dive this morning and saw loads of fish and corals and 'stuff' :) It's all good.
We're going to do a couple of fun dives with them before we take our leave. Not really sure what's going to happen from here - we have to leave Thailand before the 6th of Feb (when our non-visas expire), so we'll probably end up doing a visa run somewhere before then. We like Koh Tao though, so we'll probably be here at least a week longer.
It has grown quite a bit since we were here last, and has lost some of it's charm - at least Mae Haad, and Haad Sairee have. We were never down to Chalok Baan Kao last time (where Taa Toh Lagoon is), so we don't know how much it has changed, but for us at least, it has a lot more of the old Koh Tao feeling that we think is missing a bit along Sairee Beach now. Still a really gorgeous little island, in the middle of nowhere, with diving being it's main industry. It's nice here, and it's easy to see why Nils has lived here for the past 10 years and why Brendon & Nicole (the two trainee divemasters who were helping on our course) come here for 2 and a half months every year.
