BECOMING AN ADVANCED SCUBA DIVER, KOH TAO
Since my 2011 visit to Australia, I’ve heard great things about Thailand, especially Koh Tao. I’m glad to finally be here. Dusty booked me for my advanced diving certification. Since it had been over 6 months since my last dive, I needed a refresher. I’m glad I did it because I hadn’t dived since 2011.
Nangyuan Island, swimming with Whale Sharks
The refresher course is in the resort’s swimming pool, which is full of people learning to dive before going into the open sea. My instructor looked ridiculous in his full scuba gear but chose to wear the smallest pair of speedos instead of a wetsuit.
THE WHALE SHARK JUST SWAM STRAIGHT THROUGH US
SHIPWRECK DIVE
Next morning, I spent doing paperwork for my advanced diving certification, then we took the boat for a few dives. The first dive was a deep shipwreck, so we went straight in. Unfortunately, the current made the visibility poor. I have a few more dives tomorrow, including a night dive, which I’m looking forward to. Dusty just finished his, and he has been trying to freak me out. Mike ruined it for him by saying they held hands when they first went down.
THE WHALE SHARK
Before our night dive we had 2 more dives during the day to complete. The first was a normal, follow the dive master, stay together check all the apparatus and return to the surface. During the dive we heard a flurry of knocking sounds, usually to alert other divers there was something of interest.
Our Dive Master was soon on the case and within seconds we were met with a huge Whale Shark. To get an idea of how rare this is in Thailand the other dive master had over 100 dives and never seen one, I was on my 7th!
DIVING ALONE
The next dive had to be planned and co-ordinated by yourself and your dive partner. There were only a few Dive-masters on-board and not enough for each pair so fortunately for myself and John we were the ones selected to go on our own. There were too many arseholes on the boat that considered themselves good divers and all seemed a bit gutted not to be the ones going down alone so as you could guess I was looking smug.
Using a small board and pencil you were required to draw the route using an image supplied by the dive team. Once under water you had to try and determine where you are on the hand drawn map and then to navigate your way to the extraction point. A challenging task but enjoyable task.
THE NIGHT DIVE
The night dive was interesting, we had torches which were obviously essential but then we were all asked to turn them off once we reached the bottom. The feeling was incredible, we could see nothing, not even your hand in front of you only the little bits of plankton which glow in the dark were visible.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I can’t complain about the experience and have really been spoilt with coming across a Whale Shark, something so rare. There is really nothing quite like scuba diving and it remains as one of the best activities I’ve ever done!
NEXT UP
Heading out for the pub crawl tonight, known as the biggest in South East Asia, looking forward to it. Click here to read it.
SAFE TRAVELS, DS x
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This post is part of The South East Asia Series, for the next article click here.
