Changwat Surat Thani

Arriving to Koh tao after a sleepless night bus and ferry I immediately signed myself up to do the PADI Open Water Diving course which I had been recommended by so many people. Koh Tao is the cheapest place in the world to go this, the island itself having over 100 diving schools. I went with Ban's diving school, the biggest one in the world for diving. The first day consisted of theory and in the afternoon training to use all our equipment in the pool. Despite being quite tricky to get the hang of and taking on a lot of information at one time, it made me extremely excited for the next day when we would do it or at sea. The next morning was our first two dives. I was extremely nervous for the first dive, having only had 4 hours in a pool the day before and now doing it for real. These two dives we only went to depths of around 8 metres and was a way of easing us into things. The coral at the second site, called the Japanese Gardens were stunning and the tome really flies when you're under the water, being so absorbed in what you see. It really is a completely different world, beautiful nevertheless. The third day consisted of two more dives, the last ones before we got our certification. Both of these were amazing, seeing an array of colourful fish as well as coral.
By midday we all had our certifications and I can certainly see why people get stuck on Koh Tao diving and never want to leave, it truly is an incredible experience.

After the exhaustion of the 3 days of diving, the afternoon was spent by the diving resort infinity pool and soaking up the last sun of the day. The pool overlooked the jungle like landscape of Koh Tao and was a lovely backdrop. In the evening, the whole diving group, including our instructor enjoyed a dinner together and then went out for a fun evening of drinking, having not been able to do so during the diving process.

Having loved it so much 2 days later me and two Irish girls from my diving group did a night dive. Our instructor claims it was his first night dive that convinced him he wanted to be an instructor, therefore I thought it was something I had to do. We all headed out at sunset and it was a surreal experience. Being quite daunting not being able to see further than your torch, I still got to witness a sting ray, sleeping turtle and squids. For a period of time we all turned off our torches and then were able to see all the luminous plankton around us, it looked as though we were swimming in glitter, truly magical.

I feel very lucky I was able to do such an amazing experience and I loved my group, spending a lot of my time outside of diving with them as well, all being very good company. Needless to say it was sad to say goodbye to them as well as my instructor Atip who couldn't have been a better teacher.Read more