Koh Tao - Scuba and Snorkelling

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We travelled to Koh tao with a rather rough crossing on the ferry... several silly people were seasick UPWIND and when we noticed small splatters of vomit appearing all over ourselves we, and the rest of the boat ended up trying to hide on one side of a now very unbalanced ferry. One poor guy got some in his mouth, and then he joined the sicky club too. A most disgusting journey all in all...

Having been touted by Asia Divers on the way over, by a crazy Thai lady called Joyce and a mad Irish salesman named Tom, we got a free taxi back to their resort. We couldn't dive for a few days due to Nicks new tattoo, but they offered us accommodation elsewhere until we could. Their offerings were poor and overpriced, so we hiked off and found lovely beach huts for well under a fiver a night. We spent a couple of days snorkelling and lazing about, and then did a big game fishing trip for a day. It was a bit of a con as we went fishing with some actual fishermen doing their days work, but I caught a 9lb Barracuda which I was very proud of. A Swede got an absolutely massive thing, still unidentified. Frost managed to get 4 and a half fish, as one of his catch was nabbed by another barracuda on the way up! Nick got a lot of snapper and had a good haul at the end of the day.

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We then started our PADI openwater course. Lots of theory to begin with, and a few tests, followed by practice in the shallow sea, as the pool was out of action. Our group of 5 dropped to just Nick, Frost and I as people had hypocondriac decompression sickness (the bends from 5m is quite unlikely) and ears that wouldnt equalise. We spent 4 days doing 2 dives a day, to a max depth of 18m. We all enjoyed it so much we will go and get the advanced qualification for sure. Visibility in Koh Tao is poorest in Nov, and best in Jan so we may even may find time on our way to Indonesia. Despite poor visability, we were very lucky, and did several amazing dives, including one to a tuk-tuk wreck. We also went far out to sea to the Chumpon pinacle where there is an abundance of sharks at 30m, we could see one or two swimming below us but you had to squint a bit, with visability at about 6m max. Also caught sight of several trigger fish, shoals of barracudas, clown and angel fish, nemos and a blue spotted sting ray. They unfortunately like nibbing our injuries, and nick tattoo is missing a few chunks...

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Due to our visas running out on us, we are back in Bangkok doing embassy duties now, but leaving for Kanchanaburi tommorow. The 14 hours bus and ferry journey here yesterday had a 2 hour breakdown delay, so off to Chinatown this evening to look at the weaponry again and relax. fi x