Deep Blue Koh Tao

Koh Tao is one of the most famous islands in Thailand for a very specific reason: its diving schools. For some reason a lot of diving schools operate in this relatively small island, and competition leads to lower prices and (typically) free accommodation: the ideal situation if you want to learn how to dive.

We had actually already tried diving a few years back, and didn't like it very much. No, wait, we didn't like it at all. We decided that we had had enough of it, and classified diving under the label "activities we won't try again". It took a few conversations with friends (the Israeli couple that we met in Japan) to convince us to give it another try. They even recommended to go to Koh Tao to learn and do the Open Water Diver course, the basic certification for recreational divers. A couple of months later and we were ready to get into the water again.

We got in touch with a school before arriving, so when the boat docked at the island we ignored taxis and hostel owners and went directly to "Impian divers", the diving centre of our choice. After a short introduction of the three days course program, they gave us a stack of documents to sign, in order to check our health conditions and release the school from most liabilities. Of course thanks to my recently broken wrist I won a (paid) trip to a local doctor in charge of verifying my health condition and vouching for me. With the doctor's blessing I rejoined K at the diving centre and planned the activities for the next day. They even gave us a book to study and prepare ourselves for a couple of tests.

With the rest of the day free we decided to wander around the main village of the island and its beach. It's a beautiful but very touristy area, with restaurants, guesthouses and diving schools packed one after the other over a two km long street. There are more secluded beaches and jungle stretches on the island, but you need either a motorbike or a day-trek to visit them. We postponed such activities to after the course, and took it easy the first day. Little we knew that we wouldn't see anything else of the island. The following days would be dedicated completely to diving and a little snorkeling.

Sunset from Sairee beach

Things didn't start too well. In order to get a diving certification you must prove that you can swim well enough, which seems reasonable. The problem arises when the swimming test happens in open sea, with strong currents and moderate waves, but more important in the filthiest water you can imagine. Patches of white foam and plastic debris floated all around, forcing us to swim on a zig-zag pattern looking for parts of "clear" water. At one point I had to move and let pass a very big yellow plastic bag that was joyously sailing towards unknown adventures. Nevertheless we passed the test and went back on board to wear the scuba diving gear.

At this point my stomach expressed its disappointment with the condition of the sea, and decided to remind me of what I had for lunch about half an hour before. I would be reminded a few more times during the day... K looked pale and yellowy too, but at least she was able to keep her lunch in.

The first part of the first dive was pretty bad too. Currents, poor visibility and a few problems with the exercises made for a bad first impression... again. We were actually discussing whether to call it off and leave the course completely. Fortunately the second dive was much nicer. At a few meters depth the visibility improved a lot and we could enjoy the views of the underwater world. Back on the boat we resumed the previous conversation and decided to complete the whole class. To make it a better experience I promised myself to skip lunch and take sea-sickness pills every day.

Our instructor, Raf

The program of the second day was similar. Theory classes in the morning, to test what we had studied the day before, and a couple of dives in the afternoon. We had quite some fun while learning to control our own buoyancy (fancy word to say if you sink or float in the water) and some of the exercises under water were fun too. When we got back to the school we chose to take the theory test immediately and leave only the final dives for the third day.

A little check of each other's gear...

...and into the water

The next day we got up early and went diving in the morning. These were the best dives so far, both for the location and the skills involved. We passed under large rocks and through small holes between them, admired large schools of barracudas and other fish, floated over a ship wreck and enjoyed the lack-of-gravity feeling that scuba diving allows. I liked it, K loved it. We are officially divers now! We even booked two more immersions for the next day, to celebrate the newly awarded Open Water certificate. We went snorkeling a little in the afternoon (were we missing the water world already?), and crashed in the bed early after dinner.

No oxygen tank this time

 

Smile for the camera

Testing the underwater performance of our camera

The following day I woke up with a strong and constant vertigo (causes unknown) and skipped the extra dives. K went on by herself and completed the Deep Dive that allows her to dive to 30 metres from now on. Apparently it wasn't as much fun without me, but at least she has some pictures taken underwater.

 

30 metres under

Five days passed already, and we decided that it was time to move on. There was still much to see in Koh Tao but our time in Thailand is limited too. Furthermore I'm pretty sure that, had we stayed longer, we would have just done more immersions instead of visiting the rest of the island. At 6am the next day we got onto the boat for Surat Thani, but the final destination for the day was left open until the very last minute: should we take a bus for the Khao Sok National Park in spite of the bad weather forecast, or head south towards more sunny islands?