Thailand: SCUBA in Koh Tao

I spent four days on Koh Tao doing a PADI diving course and here's how it went. 

Last I left off, I was leaving Bangkok. To make it to Koh Tao, I left at 10pm on an overnight bus to a pier down on the east coast south of Bangkok. We arrived at around 4:30am and had to wait until 7 or so to get on the boat. The benefit of this was that I got to watch the sun rise over the bay.

The boat took a couple of hours to get to the island. The ride was not fun, to be honest. I was absolutely exhausted and plus nearly half the people on the boat threw up at some point during the journey. To be fair, the water was pretty choppy. I get pretty nauseous at the thought of throwing up, so I just had to blast my music and look at the water for the whole ride.

I arrived on the island, and a car from the dive school picked me up and took me over. I checked into the school and got a room at a guesthouse nearby and everything was set!

I rested for a bit, then went out to explore, but it was 2pm and it was far too sunny and hot to walk around. I waited an hour and went back out to explore a bit of the island. 

I found the beach, where I went just about every evening to watch the sun set.

This is the street where the dive school and my guesthouse were.

In the late afternoon, we watched the video and went through worksheets on the basics of diving - terminology and the basics behind how it works. Afterwards, I went back to the spot I found to watch the sun set.

I found a nice little open air restaurant for dinner and I ordered squid red curry, which was probably one of the best curries I had in Thailand.

The next day, we spent the morning in the classroom going through our textbook and some practice quizzes. I actually got a bit nervous right before I came to the island, because I started to worry about things that can go wrong when you're diving, but I felt much better after going through the theory stuff. I understood a lot more about the gear and how diving works.

That afternoon, we headed out on the boat for our first dive!

We started with a swim test. I only had two classmates, and one of them failed at this point. He couldn't do the rest of the course, because of course he couldn't swim!

After that, we went into very shallow water - about 2 meters - and did some skills with our masks and regulators. We became more familiar with hand signals and how to give oxygen to our buddies. I was definitely feeling a lot better about my worries by this point and was very excited to dive.

After doing all the skills, we headed down to a nearby dive site. For the duration of the dive, I was overcome by two main feelings. The first was that I was focusing on was breathing and not over-exerting myself. The other, which was far more overwhelming, was my surroundings. I was surrounded by fish, colorful anemones, and coral. It was one of the quietest places I have ever been, but also a different kind of quiet. All you can hear is your own breathing and the occasional distant sound of a boat engine. 

Diving immediately proved to be a meditative experience for me. I had to both control any anxiety I had about not being able to breathe or to be at the correct depth, and I had to take in the amazing view that surrounded me, completely undistracted by noise, other people, technology, etc. I was immediately in love with that experience. 

In the evening I just ate dinner and went to bed. I was so tired at the end of each day, there wasn't much else to do.

The second full day of the course was pretty similar. We met at 8 or 9 in the morning to go over the rest of the theory and take our final exams. In the afternoon we went diving. 

That evening, I went back to the beach. This time I arrived earlier, so I had time to walk along the beach.

I found a nice place to sit down farther down the beach, and I watched the fiery sunset with the taxi boats decorating the shore.

On the last day, we woke up extra early for our sunrise dive. We were on the boat before sunrise, and were in the water, just as there was enough light to see underwater.

This was our last dive and after this we got our official certifications and everything. I had a bit of an emotional moment after the course ended. I have wanted to get my diving certification for a while now. I never really had a clear vision for when I would have the opportunity to do it. When I decided to come to China for a year as part of my degree, I thought I might be able to come to Thailand to do a diving course, because Thailand is a cheap country and the diving courses here are much cheaper than they would be in North America or Europe. I honestly can't believe I ended up being able to go. 

I don't have a bucket list, but there are a few dreams, goals, and things I want to do or accomplish. They spin around in my head all the time. And since I'm only 20 years old, I've pushed most of these things aside as things I can do 'in the future,' after I graduate from university, after I find a career, etc. But I have already gotten the opportunity to do some of these things. I haven't really worked out how to process some of these things, to be honest. The only conclusion I have come to is that I am endlessly grateful for the opportunities I have been provided and for my circumstances. It's the combination of support from my parents, merit scholarships I have applied for, the decision to study Chinese and move to another continent, and the irrepressible drive I have to make plans and to travel.

After I checked out of my guesthouse, I had a few hours to kill before I needed to get to the boat. I decided to go back to my little beach. One last view of the boats, beach, and mountains before I headed back to the big city.

This was my last view of the little island. I hope to be back on one of Thailand's little islands again. They're so lovely. It's a completely different environment and pace of life to anywhere I've ever been. It's the closest I've ever gotten to a real beach holiday. It was so nice to be in the environment, but have activities planned. 

I left Koh Tao and took a 2 hour boat to the pier. Then I waited a bit before getting on the 5pm-1am bus back to Bangkok. I arrived completely out of it from being woken up in the middle of the night. 

I went to the hostel I had stayed at in Bangkok before, where I had arranged for a taxi to pick me up at 3am. I spent the next couple of hours mooching on their wifi and trying to stay awake. I got to the airport in no time (there was no traffic at 3am, what a surprise!). I had to still stay awake and check into my flight, find breakfast, and get on the plane at about 6am. By the time I got on the plane, I was ready to pass out. I still had two flights to get back to China. By this point I was ready to go back to a country where I spoke the language, but I was a bit more reluctant to leave the perfect weather.