Wanderlust Going forth into the big, wide world and setting it on fire.

I decided I like the train again. Its preferable to riding the bus and ferry for over 10 hours. I've always read that those born with an astrological sign of Cancer usually love the water and at one point in my life, I think this was true. But it changed when my brothers held me under water one too many times. I blame my fear of being under water on them entirely. Anyway, I decided to get over my fear by taking an open water diving course. I know, I got a lot of weird looks from people when I told them this. But, I was hoping against all hope that the comfort level will return automatically...sorta like riding a bike. Of course, we know how well that worked out in Chiang Mai. I thought it was worth a shot and besides I heard diving is a lot of fun. So I got into Koh Tao, first got placed into a dorm with 5 smelly boys, quickly asked to get another room, and was reassigned to a single room where I tried to get some rest before orientation. At around 5 pm, I wandered over the the Big Blue diving restaurant, where I met the 4 other girls who had signed up for diving. There were 3 British girls and one other American girl. Again, this is one of those times when I should have been listening to that little voice inside my head. First, our instructor pushed SSI on us. I know now, I should really have held out for PADI. I heard that SSI is the same and you can dive anywhere in the world, but honestly, it is complete crap. You watch 3 videos, which seemed like nothing more than SSI advertisements. Then we were loaned a crappy little handbook with more references to SSI and given a "fill in the words" homework packet. It was totally lame. Brittany and I worked on our homework together and finished it in a couple of hours. Needless to say, I learned absolutely nothing. The next day, we watched two more videos, with more SSI advertisements, and then had to go out for our first shallow pool skills dive. We learned how to hook up all the equipment, which was cool, got strapped in, and got ready to hit the water. Here is where my initial panic set in...I have the tank and equipment strapped to my back that weighs almost as much as I do, I'm also wearing a weight belt with 5 additional kilos and I'm having to jump into the sea, which wasn't exactly calm. Yeah...I was hyperventilating just a bit. But jumped in I did. We then swam to a supposedly more shallow part of the dive site, but what is shallow to me and what is shallow to someone who is 6'2" is a bit different. I was treading water the entire time, even though I told him I couldn't stand up. He then took us quickly through some of the skills, we had to fill our masks with water, take off our masks, find our regulators if we lost them, share regulators, etc. It took me a good couple of hours to get really comfortable with the whole thing. But by the end, I was able to keep the water out of my mask (it was a crappy mask) and was able to complete all of the skills, including sitting on the bottom floor. Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed it. While the instructor was going through the skills with the other girls, I just sat there watching the fishes go by. It was great. What was not so great was when we got to the surface, it was raining and everyone else who was in the water with us, was gone We were the only ones out there. I think we were probably out there longer than we should have been, because one of the other instructors made a comment about our guy. Also, we were all completely wiped out. The next morning, we started off with theory. Here's what bugged me....this is when our instructor told us things he should have told us the day before. For example, I kept floating to the surface, which he said was a result of me not breathing deeply enough or me taking short shallow breathes. Now, if he had told me that the day before, I would have known to be more mindful of it. Also, during this last day of theory, he talked about all the dangers, such as holding your breath, ascending to quickly, etc. and physical effects it can have on you. Maybe I'm just being an a-hole, but I would have thought that would be important to tell someone BEFORE they get in the water the first time, as opposed to after. On the morning of the 18th, I knew something didn't feel right. Maybe it's because I didn't get enough sleep, or the fact that the sky was completely gray and the waves were crashing hard. But I got my stuff together, got on the boat, got suited up...then the problems began. First, my main regulator wasn't working correctly. My instructor said there is probably a minor leak, but it was ok. Then when I got into the water, my mask completely flooded with water and it was all fogged up. I had to take it off once i got in the water and that was a huge mistake. I was getting tossed all over the place and water kept washing over me. I was drinking it in non stop. I finally got my masked clean and on, then I had to swim over to the boat line. On my way there, I heard hissing, like air was coming out of the top of my tank. My instructor said it was just coming out of the regulator, but really the regulator was in my hand and I know that's not where the sound was coming from. So against my better judgment, I began the descent down the boat line. My instructor said I would feel better once I got under the water. Uh...no, not so much. As I descended, every time I exhaled deeply the air would force my mask up and water would get in, so I could never truly clear my mask. I had a heard time equalizing while holding on to the boat line and visibility was total shit. I couldn't see more than 2 meters in front of me. On top of that, somehow I started drinking in water from the regulator. It was awful. After the second gulp, I said "screw it" and made for a quick ascent. Luckily, I wasn't far enough down for it to be a problem. Once at the surface, my instructor had someone help me back to the boat. I quickly shed the gear, took some Dramamine and laid out on the top deck to wait for my other diving buddies. So that was the end of my diving career in Koh Tao. I decided I'm going to retake the PADI class once I get to Australia, where I think they go a bit slower and are ever so slightly more thorough. :) I spent the rest of the time in Koh Tao hanging out with Brittany and this Irish girl named, Imelda. We rented a long tail boat to take us around the entire island where we got to snorkel in various bays, where we got to swim with the fishies and the barracudas. It was all good. Will just have to find Nemo another day...