Ao Chalok Ban Kao

We were excited to go back to Koh Tao and the lovely viewpoint hotel.
Having almost fully recovered from our cold we were excited to get back into the water.
Charly enjoyed the remaining two dives so much more, as now equalizing was the easiest part. Diving is really meditative as there is no sounds, and everything is done calmly and slowly - not even talking about the beautiful scenery. We were really lucky and actually saw some spotted rays.
We were actually sad to be down with our course so we took the opportunity to do some extra dives towards our advanced course.
It was a full day of diving as we went back to the shop in the evening for a special night dive. It seems a bit daunting to jump into pitch black water, but it was really worth it too see many different types of fish. You have flash lights so all the colours like red pop a lot more and ones focus window is so much smaller that you are really in the moment. Fun fact: When divers hit their 100th dive it’s tradition to do a naked dive. For obvious reasons it’s popular to do it during a night dive, so there were a couple naked people swimming past 😂 We still have a long way to go.
The next morning we did our favourite dive, the deep dive down to 30m to the wreck of HTMS Sattakut a world war 2 ship. When you first start diving even 18m seems deep but, as you get more comfortable 30 m isn’t too different. The visibility was amazing and it’s beautiful to see what fish and plants have made it their habitat over time. After that we did a fun dive which is where we got all the footage from that we put in our first diving post. But, you almost wouldn’t have gotten to see any of it as the loop ripped off just as Jeroen was about to exit. Our great diving instructor did a search and rescue and actually recovered it from 23 meters. 🙏🏻

We were on the fence whether we should stay on Koh Tao as we loved it so much, or should do a road trip in the Phuket region or should go to Koh Phi Phi island. In the end we decided to fly to Phuket. Right choice? Well you shall see….

The Koh Samui airport was a highlight, and if you ever have the chance to fly from there: Do it. It truly is the most beautiful airport, and feels more like a mini resort. We had the best time waiting for our small plane to Phuket.Meer informatie