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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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So, the reason I came to Ko Tao instead of going to Ko Samui was that I felt I should really be doing something other than just lazying around doing nothing and I knew that at Ko Tao I wanted to learn how to dive as it is supposed to be the place to do it in Thailand as the water is very clear and the prices are very cheap. I had done some research on the internet for a dive shop as there are about 40 to choose from and found a good candidate. However, I still decided to check out a larger dive shop where they gave me a two minute spiel about the open water PADI course and then went on to help the next person. Hmmm, with that much attention, I wasn't sure I wanted them to teach me how to dive! At Scuba Junction the guy, who turned out to be the owner, took the time to talk to me which made me feel much more comfortable as I was a little nervous about doing the course. I had considered doing a discovery dive, which is where they teach you just a few skills before doing a dive, but I felt I wanted to know as much as possible before getting in the water. I signed up for my course which was to start the next day and would last four days in total.
The first afternoon, we watched two sections of instruction on DVD, then had homework to do. I was so diligent in reading the first chapter word for word, but by the time I had finished the practice questions, I opted to just skim the second chapter just to get the homework done as I was starving! I knew we would be going over everything the next day anyhow. The second day, which was my first full day, we had instruction in the morning, starting at 8:30 and only time to wolf down a quick lunch before heading out on our first trip into the ocean. There were only three of us in our class, they only take a maximum of 4 which is much smaller that some of the other places, Neils, who was from the Netherlands, Claus, who was from Germany and myself. Our instructor had packed our bags for us and with a few other groups, we piled into a long tail boat that took us to the main boat, the Manta Ray.
We were shown how to put all our equipment together and then the first challenge was to get into the wet suit - man those things are hard to put on, you look so great jumping around trying to get it above the hips (I did figure out a better way the second time around!). Once on, the wet suit is not very forgiving at all, thankfully you pile on the gear on top of it. Finally, all
suited up and our buddy check done to make sure that everything was working as expected, the next thing was to jump in. Thankfully, one of the crew was able to hold onto my tank as I managed to get my flippers on, left hand on my weight belt and right hand on my mask and regulator that was in my mouth. I was a little nervous about jumping in, but it turned out to be just fine.
We made our way over to the beach at Japanese Gardens so that we could practice some skills in shallow water, just a few feet above our heads. Of course, everything is done in meters, which I guess is good because I usually had no clue how far that really was! All I knew what that we were going to be licensed to go 18 meters/66 feet. (Good thing, because I found out that on my allergy medication if I were to go below that depth, I might get narcosis, which isn't in itself harmful, it just makes your judgement impaired, but it can be dangerous when the person does something silly like give their regulator to the fish to use, instead of yourself, that becomes a problem!) The one thing I was concerned about was being able to clear my mask, but it turned out to be quite easy. The only annoyance was that my eyes would sting for about a minute or two afterwards due to the salt water. The bigger thing to remember is to take deep long breaths and to NEVER hold your breath as you can do serious damage if you do. You would think that breathing would be an easy thing to remember to do, but it is quite different under water than on land. I would get distracted by whether to blow out my nose or my mouth! Halfway through the skills, I was thinking, what am I doing? Am I nuts? We aren't supposed to breathe under water. But as I spent more time under the water, I felt much more comfortable.
With our first set of skills completed, we headed back to the boat to go to the second site, White Rock. Our instructor told us that we had all done really well and felt that we could do the dive and of course we all agreed, eager to get really into the water. As we went down holding onto a line, I was surprised at how calm I was and that I was able to equalize. I had concerns about it given that I get quite congested from my allergies. Anyhow, Claus had a bit of trouble, so we had to head back up to the surface. He agreed to go back down again. Now, the second time, I wasn't so calm and started to hyperventilate for a bit, but I managed to take deep breaths and continue on. Well, once we made it down to where we were supposed to be, that first dive was a complete mess. Here I was concerned about my "buddy", Claus who was all over the place, thinking, man if he has problems, how the hell do I help him? Along with that, I was thinking about my breathing, making sure I didn't hit the coral (which I did once that reopened the big wound on my bad knee), making sure I knew where my instructor was, had cleaner fish trying to clean my knee (feels like they are nipping at you) that was now bleeding, going up, going down (we hadn't learnt our buoyancy skills yet, that would have helped!) - sheesh this was no fun at all! We finally went up, not really seeing anything at all, except for the one fish that came right up to my mask to check me out. Happy to back on the boat and finally on land, I had serious doubts about continuing on. This should be fun, not traumatizing!!
After talking to my instructor and a few people, I was assured that the next day would be much better. Knowing myself, I wasn't about to quit, I had to see what all the hoopla around diving was about. Day three, up early again, I knew as soon as I saw Claus that he was going to quit. This as it turns out, caused quite the hullabaloo at the shop. So much so that our instructor had to leave for about 40 minutes. She felt personally responsible because it turns out that the place we went for our first dive wasn't really suited for beginners as she should have either kept us out of the water or insisted on going to another dive site. I guess from talking to her that although she has freelanced for a couple of years at Ko Tao, she had just joined Scuba Junction and didn't feel comfortable yet speaking up. As for Claus, it turns out despite having a horrible first dive, had quite a bit of personal issues going on at home so he felt he couldn't really focus on the skills. Probably best for everyone.
A little concerned about the mental state of my instructor after all the goings on with Claus quitting and that she seemed in general not quite with it on land (seems like she has quite a bit going on with her), she was thankfully very put together underwater and that is really where it counts. So for the third day, we went back to Japanese Gardens and did more skills, this time focusing on buoyancy (wish they had taught us all our skills before doing any dives). This made our second real dive at Twins, much more enjoyable. Now I was getting to see what all this was about.
Our last day, we had our final exam (yeah, I passed!) and two final dives that were mostly just doing new skills and rehashing older skills we had learnt at Mango Bay. It was funny because Neils and I had to do a compass navigation skill where he led us out and then I had to lead us back, only using the compass. When it got to be my turn, I wanted a few minutes to get oriented but Neils started fussing around with my compass eager for me to get on my way. Since you can't talk under water, I had to wait to chide him until we got back. The instructor looked at us amused, saying that this happens all the time between guys and girls. Unfortunately, on our last official dive, Neils had a heck of his time with not only his mask filling up, but one he borrowed from another instructor which meant we had to come back up once after going down. This meant that we got no time to do any diving, only skills.
Tired from long days, almost 11 hours each day, I knew I needed a day off, but without seeing too many fish and plantlife, what to do next?
previous travel blog entry
jmo says:
Congratulations on passing your dive test! Hmm...who's living the more interesting life right now? Jen's diving off the coast of Thailand, and I'm sitting on the couch waiting for the cable TV repairperson. I think Jen wins!