Sunshine Adventures: Almost Didn't Make It Home

After just one day on Ko Tao, Michelle and I thought about canceling our flights and staying there for the next several months. I mean take a look at the picture above, this was taken while sitting at the cafe just across from my room. I woke up, relaxed, and fell asleep to this view, listening to the waves.

Pier to the Catamaran - the wood was a

little damp from the humidity in the air

Getting to Ko Tao was a bit of a trip. We took the overnight train from Bangkok to Chumphon then a ferry to Ko Tao. The train was definitely an experience. It is a nine hour train ride on a 2nd class sleeper with fan. It didn't get as hot as I expected, but the A/C car on the way back was much better. Unlike the trains in Europe, there aren't individual rooms. Each car is a single room, the beds are along each side of the car. Before the beds are pulled down for the night, the lower bed are two chairs facing each other and the upper bed is pinned against the side. For your luggage this means either sleeping with it on your bed (not much room for a person and a large backpack) or locking it to the shelves in the middle aisle.

Once we arrived in Chumphon we then got on an almost two hour catamaran ride to Mae Haad pier on Ko Tao. Upon arriving on Ko Tao we were picked up by a taxi from our resort and brought to the dive shop to immediately get down to planning our dives.

That's right, I am officially SCUBA certified. It is incredible! I took an elearning course through PADI so I wouldn't have to sit in a classroom on the island and could get right in the water. The first day there I went out on the boat while Michelle did two dives. I was so jealous of everyone on the boat diving while I just sat on top, but it was gorgeous on the water. The water is as blue as any picture you've seen, clear down to 30 meters some days, and looking back at the island it is amazing. It's not what I think of as a typical flat reef island because not too far from the beaches it goes up to about 1000 feet in the center of the island. This is what gave Ko Tao it's name - Turtle Island, the "mountains" appear like the back of a turtle and the shape of the island loosely resembles a turtle.

Thankfully on day two on the island I got in the water. Over the next three days I went on six open water dives in the Gulf of Thailand. Even on my last day on the island I was considering postponing my train and flight so I could get a few more dives in because it was so amazing - also I am now three dives short of my Advanced Open Water. However, I did make sure to get my Deep Dive certification, diving up to 30 meters/100 feet. Since that is generally the limit for recreational diving I wanted to make sure I didn't limit myself to certain dive sites because of depth (Open Water only allows you to dive to 18 meters/60 feet). My instructor Lee kept telling me that the first 10 meters are the toughest to equalize your ears, then after that it's easier. I didn't believe him until I went on the deep dive, but it's true. I didn't have any more difficulty equalizing at 25 meters on my deep dive then I did at 12 meters on my first dive. Pressure is weird.

It is a odd combination of feelings of freedom and claustrophobia when diving. There is so much open space around you in the water, at the same time you feel contained by the regulator you're breathing through. Once I got over the awkwardness of the regulator, I could finally starting looking at all the marine life around me. The number one rule of scuba diving is never hold your breath, but looking at all the different fish and coral around me, it is hard to remember that. I was amazed at how many fish were still there despite how much diving is done. Below are images of some of the marine life I saw on my dives, I wish I had my own underwater camera (although these are probably better than anything I could take). They are from my dive shop, Simple Life Divers, and BottomCamera.com. I definitely had the diving bug now, I am trying to figure out when I can get to Catalina or somewhere else to dive again.