Khlong Kloi

Wow! Scuba diving is incredible. I was finally able to get past my anxieties and enjoy the dives. We did two boat dives today with our awesome instructor, David. The first stop was at a giant rock sticking out of the water with a coral reef and incredible marine life surrounding it from about 4 meters down to the sea floor at 19 meters. David held my hand and helped me with the descent but once we got down past 4 or 5 meters, my fears were lifted and I had a blast. Non-certified divers are only supposed to go down to 12 meters but I checked his computer once we got to the floor and we were at 18.6 meters (61 feet!!). We saw so many fish. It is the coolest feeling in the world looking up and seeing literally thousands of fish surrounding you. The coral was incredible - mountains of it surrounding us on every side. We were under for about 40 minutes on the first dive before we had to come up. The ascent was a little scary. Apparently I hadn't been breathing deep enough (I only used half of the air that Tim had used) so I got dizzy on the way up and had a bloody nose once we reached the surface. That was a little unnerving and the dizzy feeling lasted about 20-30 minutes so I was of course nervous again for our second dive. But by the time we got to the next dive site, after some food and water and resting, I was ready to go. The second dive was a shallow reef, which only went about 12 meters deep. The visibility wasn't quite as good but it was still incredible. This dive had the coolest coral I've ever seen and we were able to swim in and out and around it and see lots of awesome fish. We also controlled our breathing a lot better this time and were able to stay under for an hour - Tim breathed slower and used less air and I breathed deeper and used more, which is what David had advised. David also gave us a little more independence on the second dive to swim around and explore. I did much better on the ascent this time and didn't get too dizzy, but I did have another nosebleed at the surface! Overall, it was a huge success. I faced my fears, Tim continued to be comfortable and awesome, and we had so much fun. After the scuba trip, we got lunch and then basically relaxed all afternoon until dinner.

...oh and I also got pooped on by a gecko today.

Heading back to Bangkok tomorrow, then the journey on on Thursday. What an amazing trip!Read more