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“The biggest question on our everybody's minds was "What about sharks?"” |
One of the things we were looking forward to doing in Thailand was scuba dive. Partly because it was just so damned hot on land and our room didn't have A/C. And because we made our way to one of Thailand's most popular dive spots at Koh Tao island.
We did our dive certifications at home before we left on our year off. On the day of our diving exam we dove in the murky and cold waters of Lake Ontario. We saw a tennis racquet, a shopping cart and an automobile wreck; a veritable underwater junkyard. Not the most inspiring glimpses of marine life.
We hoped that diving in Thailand would be better. And it was. By a whole helluva lot.
We found a dive shop by word of mouth from a traveller that dove with them a few months before. Maybe it's the laid back island vibe but everybody at the dive shop was cool and really easy going. Among the dive staff were two Canadians who shared their horror stories of diving in cold Canadian waters. Small wonder why they've come to the island to work and haven't left.
The water at Koh Tao was unnaturally warm. 29 degrees to be exact. Entering the water was like stepping into a warm, clear, blue bath. On our first dive, we simply descended a little from the surface and were greeted by schools of swimming fish.
It was like swimming in an aquarium. Finding Nemo, who is actually a clownfish, was easy since there were schools of them. As well as huge groupers, angelfish, barracudas and huge colourful sea clams. No tennis racquets anywhere.
By far the scariest was the titan triggerfish. This menacing looking fish is very territorial and known to take nibbles out of diver's fins if you come too close to their nest. We saw a couple swimming about and gladly avoided them.
The biggest question on our everybody's minds was "What about sharks?". Thankfully, there were none of the man eating kind in Koh Tao's waters. The only shark around was the elusive and harmless whale shark. We didn't get to see one.
So for the next week our grueling regime consisted of diving, eating and sleeping. Island life was hard to cope with.
Lenny and Jenn
previous travel blog entry
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