25/10/11
Travel day, again! We don't seem to be in one place for very long, even if it was three full days. This time we were taking the catamaran to Koh Phenang, only a 20 min ride from Samui and even smaller still. We decided to go with Lompraya (Lompraya.com) as we could get a discount for future trips, something which had not escaped my attention when booking this leg of the journey.
On arrival we found a taxi to our destination, Sunset Cove, booked due to the huge off season discount and quite frankly, the name alone. I can honestly say there was only 6 other people in the whole complex and after posing for photos on palm trees and rocks we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon snorkelling and chilling on the beach, since there was ample room. After a couple of hours and an aborted game with the bat and ball ( long story, but it involved more running after the ball than hitting it!) we moved up to the pool area just as the sun was starting to fall and did some lengths. After a shower we came back down to the bar just as the sun was setting and the back drops were stunning. Palm trees, small boats, rocks you name the picture postcard and we probably either found it or made it, a huge red ball of fire setting behind a flat calm sea, the best view so far on this trip!
26/10/11
I'm slowly getting used to these early alarm calls so I was already awake when the wakeup call came. Back on the lompraya the journey to Koh Tao should take us an hour from Koh Phenang and this being the early boat it was a lot quieter than usual so that means plenty of seats for us. Now the downside to the early mornings, storms! During the southern monsoon, it rains like rods and the lightning and thunder is deafening and today was no different, visibility was so bad you couldn't see the islands we were cruising past and I was standing out on deck to try and get some pictures.
The roads of Koh Tao were like rivers and up to my ankles as we lifted our bags into the waiting tuk tuk and I'm starting to rethink this idea of diving in weather like this, I mean who wants to get wet for no reason?
We will be diving with Big Blue Diving (www.bigbluediving.com) which, if you believe the hype, is the premier dive centre in Thailand and the welcome we got was warm and typically British. My west country accent is attacked along with the living outside of London, but I give as good as I get and this sets the tone for the next few days, it also gives the instructors a little insight to what kind of person you are. Our instructor is to be Simon, an 11yr veteran of Koh Tao and Big Blue and an instructor of instructors, so if anyone can get me to float it will probably be him. After a quick hello, we are asked if we want to start that evening, the only answer to that is a massive yes, this is a top 10 tick in my must do list, now what do we do for the next 5 hours?
The answer to that was walk around the town, which is literally one main road with three streets off this. It's full of bars and cafe, with the occasional clothes shop thrown in. You of course get a dive shop every 10 steps looking for your business because this is the only reason you would come to Koh Tao, On the plus side to this is the prices! Due to the completion in such a small area the prices are the cheapest in the world ( so I'm told) but don't let this fool you into thinking the quality suffers for this, it doesn't! Sure you'll find some centres will be better than others, but none of them can afford negative publicity from bad dives or lax standards or they will be out of business by the end of the week.
Now it's choices time, do we dive with PADI or SSI? What's the difference? Well nothing in the price 9000 Baht each, nothing in who you can dive with later in life, a licence is a licence, although it is worth noting that Australia has almost completely abandoned PADI for SSI. The main difference, and probably the one which sways the most people, PADI charge you for the books, which adds on another 800 Baht to the price and you then have to carry them around with you for the remainder of your travels. The easiest example is coke and pepsi, same same, but different!
We went SSI (www.divessi.com) as did the rest of the group and after filling out the paperwork and receiving our loan books( SSI loan the books, probably hoping you'll buy later, which as it happens I will) we settled in to watch a few video's, in my case closely, as homework had already been set on the subjects contained within. The group was a very mixed bunch and we all hit it off immediately, Oscar and Madde were from Sweden, Eric from the USA, Mark from Holland and of course Becky. Those that know me will tell you I love a challenge and love to be challenged, I've not found my " limit" yet, not found that out of my skin, shit scared part I'm looking for, this is, I think is a good and bad thing (ask Bex about skiing with me!) and in Eric I found a partner in crime. Eric was from San Francisco, 6'4" and built like a, well you know what. Apart from his shaved head his most striking feature was an eyepatch over his right eye, this, of course was the first topic of conversation in the bar after the videos, and to be fair to him he happily answered the questions. Now I'd like to say there was a fantastic story behind it, but I can't. Whilst snapping wood in Sweden to make a fire a splinter got stuck in his eye, causing permanent damage, poor bloke, but it didn't stop him doing anything, ex navy he was travelling for a bit before joining CSI in California. Oscar was another big lad coming in at 6'4" as well, but unlike Eric, Oscar was a cross between Russell Brand and Jack Sparrow but also typically laid back and was on a 3 week travelling holiday with his girlfriend, Madde, blond, bubbly and Swedish ( honest, I'm not making them up!) The last guy, Mark was from Holland and one of those people who look older than they are, quiet and quite reserved, I think we almost had him out of his shell by the last day, so there we had it, the next group of Big Blue open water divers, maybe?!
27/10/11
Like good students we all had our homework done by breakfast, not that Simon checked. The plan today was to watch the last three videos, have some lunch then finally get in the water in the afternoon ( not fair, I want to go now!) so for now we were fitted our with our equipment. My surf wetsuit is a large and fits quite well, so naturally we assumed that a large would be fine........ It hung off me like your dads suit did at your first interview, have I really lost that much bulk? So medium it is then, but I only have to wear it for today after that I can wear what I like, Phew!
Fins were the same story, size 10 for my left foot and a 9.5 for my right, I got some very strange looks when I handed back 3 fins each day! Once all the kinks were ironed out we loaded up the boat and set off for our first dive, Japanese Gardens.
Now I don't normally get seasick, but but by the time we reached the Gardens I was feeling a bit green. My excuse is doing drills on the boat, we learnt how to set up the gear, break it down and set it up again with lots of bending over and looking at the waves. I refused to be sick, so shorty on we were told to jump in for our swim test! Our what? Nobody said anything about a swim test. Simon kindly informed us that it was two laps of the boat, so in I dived and began to breast stroke around the boat. It's at this point that I have another confession, during my last triathlon I completed the swim leg of 450 meters using the largest combination of swimming strokes ever, at one point doggy paddle even came out and that was in a current-less fresh water lake, so by the time I reached the other side I was breathing out of my backside. The second lap was thankfully called off due to the strong current trying to push us under the hull, so Simon opted for 10 minutes of floating. The purpose of this, apparently is so he can gauge how many weights we should each have, personally I think it was to laugh at the skinny bloke with two lead elephants tied to his feet but maybe I'm taking it too personally.
Finally we geared up, did the buddy checks and entered the water. We swam on the surface to the beach where we practiced drills, for example taking your Mask off underwater, replacing it and clearing it or practicing buocy. We were there for almost 3 hours, some people struggled others got it quickly, I suppose it all boils down to your nature and confidence but by the time it came to our first swim of distance we were all pretty much in the same place. For my whole swim back I was either 3 meters above or 3 below everyone else depending on my breathing, I loved every second but it showed I had a long way to go yet. Back on the boat Simon asked about my hobbies as he was a little confused to why I was so up and down, more so than the others. We quickly established all my muscle is in my legs, hence why I sink like a stone but I have lungs size of barrage balloons, hence why I shoot up on a full inhale. Well, it must be boring being normal!
Gear stowed and back on dry land we were set our home work and sent on our way with one question on my mind, when will the ground stop moving?
I was still asking as I closed my eyes to sleep. Tomorrow I feel, will be a very long day!
28/10/11
Why is everything still moving? I struggle down to breakfast and have something light which settles the stomach a little bit more and slowly, one by one the others come and join us, some feeling better than others. Right on time Simon joins us and we start going through dive tables and reviewing yesterday's dive, then he springs the surprise on us.
We are to sit the exam this morning before our two dives in the afternoon, bugger!
I am someone who "passes" exams, never brilliant but rarely below the Mark, Bex is the brains in this relationship but she was looking just as worried, no one had done any study, in fact Eric hadn't even finished the homework from the night before, this was going to be very interesting!
100% are you sure? I have just scored my first full marks in anything ever! Becky came in with a very good 88% and the rest of the group all scored between 80 and 95 and for the first time in my life I'm thanking the fact I'm an audio & visual learner. That over with we are told to be at the dock for 1230, so once again we had a couple of hours to kill in town, I have to admit I did walk away gloating a little bit.
Now how in the hell did the LCD screen crack on the iPad? This is the question I'm asking myself over a drink. It's inside a protective case, not been removed and as far as I know, not dropped, but there it was, almost exactly in the middle, a crack slowly making its way across the screen. I think I'm going to cry.....
Back to the diving and two new sites for us today and hopefully down to 18 metres as well, so first on the list was Three Rocks and a decent down the buoy line. I'm first in line and I'm slowly making my way down to the bottom, quite happy in my own little world when I hear the ting ting of Simons tank, I turn around and see everyone else was back up at the surface, bugger! so back up I go to find out that someone had an issue and had surfaced and since we all have to stick together, here in was bobbing around a rope again. To make matters worse for me, because I had already descended to the bottom with no issues in was now at the back of the line, but at least today I was in my rashie and shorts so I was not boiling in the 29c water, I don't get that in Croyde Bay!
We never made it to three rocks, after the delay and some drills we turned back and climbed back on the boat to make our way to the final dive of the day Chumphon Pinnacle. I was not feeling as green today, but as we approached the site it started to get a bit choppy and I just wanted to get under the water and away from the waves to give my swaying head a break, not good! We geared up and jumped in finally getting down to 18 meters and actually making it to the site and back, back on the boat I was already feeling a lot happier knowing I'd passed already, as long as I made the dive tomorrow morning!
Back dry land everyone was now swaying and not looking forward to the 6am wake up for our last dive.
