ok i have a new rule! everyone has to leave a message of some kind! i don't care if its cool or i hate reading this. i want to hear from YOU!
We arrive the next morning to koh tao, to see our names up on a board to be picked up and brought to our diving resort. Well we saw Patricia and mcdonnell the rest was written all wrong but we figured out it was us. On the truck to the resort we met Patricia and Jessica. they tell us that they are from Bavaria in Germany which we think is very funny since we just met those two guys from Bavaria also. We tell we learned to say once sfey dry soufia! And I think they thought we were a little mad. They were going to be staying at the same place as us but were only going to do a day introduction to diving while aoife and I were doing the course. I have to say aoife was really brave to go for the whole course when she hadn't even tried it before, as I had did it for one day about 3 years ago so I had an idea whether I liked it or not.
When we arrived to carabao dive resort we met Dave who didn't beat around the bush and got us to fill out our diving forms straight away. Of course with me having asthma I was told I had to see the doctor to make sure I could dive. We were giving our books and and instructions for that day. Watch a DVD about diving and do homework on the the chapters 1-3 and I had to see the doctor. after lunch I was wreaked didn't get much sleep the night before on the night bus. We thought the sleeping buses were bad in Vietnam, they were heaven compared to the VIP buses in Thailand. Not very comfortable. So I had to take a quick nap before the DVD started or I was going to fall asleep. Aoife went out and had a look to see what was around the area.
She arrived back to wake me up for the DVD and I felt a little refreshed. The video was quite long and aoife was so funny. She started to dose off while watching it. She could barely keep her eyes open. Luckily there was a power shortage half way through. so aoife went for a power nap for about 10 mins if she was lucky. I think it was just enough to get her through the DVD even if she still had to concentrate really hard in staying awake. I'm not sure if she really heard everything. As soon as the DVD was over, aoife went straight to take a nap I don't think she could stay awake any longer. I took that time to do my homework. Wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. Well it was easy but it took longer than I thought it would, that's it. Getting aoife out of bed was hard work. I still had to go down to the next village to see the doctor. We could have rented a motorbike to bring us down, it would have been cheaper but we hadn't driven one ourselves yet and we didn't want to take the chance of hurting ourselves especially since we had paid for the diving course. So we took a taxi instead but it was so expensive and their excuse was that we were on holiday. What was a few more baht to us. I hate that mentality. It shouldn't matter. But what were we to do! So we paid but we didn't go by taxi anywhere again while we were on the island. So I think they lost out in the end.
Sairee village was quite nice it was similar to where we were staying but it was a little bigger. And at that it wasn't very big. I liked koh tao. It was a real chilled out island and they were into preserving the island which I liked. We didn't see that at any of the other islands. So I went to the doctor, which was abit of a joke really. She asked me what triggers it. When was my last attack and when was the last time I used my inhaler. Then she listened to my chest and said I was fine. It took all of 5 mins and it was a great way of making some quick money. Well since we went so far we decided to eat dinner there and then walked the village which took 10 mins and only cause we walked slow. Ha ha
Well I know I was wreaked so we got our taxi back and went to bed as we were up early to start our course. We were diving tomorrow.
Next morning we awoke to meet our instructor john. We went thorough the first three chapters of the book. With John nearly falling off his chair. He rocked back abit to far in his chair and other than the wall being there he would have falling all the way back. It was quite funny and I think he got abit embarrassed and went red. After the class session we went to get wetsuits and goggles and fins or flippers – that's what aoife was calling them. Johns nose was abit stuffed up and you shouldn't dive with congestion, so he said he didn't think he would be diving with us but Dan another instructor would take us. So off to lunch before we went for our first dive. After lunch we were waiting to go on the boat and to meet our instructor. We met the two German girls. It turned out that they were coming diving with us. Which was really cool. We meet Dan briefly before we were put onto a small boat that was bring us out to the big boat that was anchored out in the bay. So once we were on board and on the way to the dive site, Dan had to go through the basis of diving for the German girls as they had done no class room work because they were just going on a trial dive. So we listened in again while Dan explained it all to them. I think it was really good, hearing it so many times and since I had experienced it before when it came to doing it I wasn't really freaked out. So we had to get our tanks ready ourselves and get everything prepared. So when we arrived to the dive site we suited up and had to jump into the water, after doing our buddy check. Bangkok ladies are really fellows. BC, , air, regulator, . I have to say after jumping in the water at halong bay, jumping off the boat with the gear on was quite easy especially when you know the BC is full of air and your going to float. Aoife was the last one in the water , and she got a little panicky after jumping in and a little confused. I reminded her that she can't go anywhere and that she will float, just take her time. I think aoife overcame a lot of fears she had of the water during that course. Well you had to or you would never finish it. I heard a story about some guy who went to go diving and under the water he panicked because he was afraid of fish! HELLO!
Well we made our way towards shallow ground but it was really hard work. There was a really strong current and we were trying to swim against and it wasn't working. We were kicking really hard and would go forward alittle but if you took a little break you would end up back farther. We ended up swimming diagonally to the side where there wasn't much of a current. Dan was saying he had never experienced a current like that there before. Well it was time for us to go under water. We were to let the air out of our BC jackets so we would sink and we were to sit down on the bottom. It wasn't very far under we could stand back out of the water if we really needed to. It was just to get us used to being under water. When I let the air and I started to sink I could feel my breath coming a little shorter and I could feel abit of panic raise in my tummy. Cause it is a little freaking as you know that you shouldn't be able to breath underwater. But I just slowed my breathing down and took long deep breaths. As I was sitting at the bottom, I was looking around to see how the rest were getting on. Patricia got down easy. But I could see aoife and Jessica struggling abit. I don't know if they got abit panicky but they also were drifting alittle because of the current so Dan had to after them and get them back towards us. Once we were comfortable under the water we then had to preform some tasks. Like taking our regulator out of our mouths and finding it again. And the one I hate the most is taking the mask off and putting it back on and clearing it of water. Between me and aoife, I think we swallowed about a whole pool full of water between all the times we did it. After that we went out into the sea to have a look around. But the current was too strong and I had trouble with my ears. We couldn't neutralize ourselves, so Dan decided to finish the dive and we headed back to the boat.
Back on the boat we had to change tanks and get ready for our next dive. The Germans weren't going down again so they were going to go off snorkeling. When we arrived to the next dive site. We suited up and dived in. it was easier this time. We were using the anchor line to bring us down underwater as it was easier to equalise that way. So I made it all the way down. Which was kinda cool. I think it was like13m underwater. There we did a few more tasks that we needed to learn and then we got to swim around. It was really beautiful but it seemed like it was over really soon. We thought we were only underwater for about 20mins but Dan said we were under for 45mins. Time flies when you having fun. When we arrived back to the resort we had to wash our gear and we found out that Dan was taking over the rest of our course cause john was still stuffed up. So we were free for the rest of the evening other than we had to finish off the last 3 chapters of our homework. So we had a quiet night, studying but we were also tried after the long day. So up early again tomorrow for another day of diving. what a hard life.
