Bangkok-Koh Tao

So ok, it has been a while yes and i was actually half way through this one when the comp crashed on me so now i will try again. We are now in Koh Tao, having just finished our diving courses and now will be leaving for Koh Phagnan tomorrow to find a nice beach to chill at before it's back to Bangkok for our flight to Delhi on the 25th.
So we arrrived in Bangkok and just enjoyed the easiness of thailand. Got our haircuts and such to get ready for the beach, spent a lot of time on the internet, did some shopping and some tourist watching that is probably some of the best anywhere. There are many internet places here but they are all very expensive, way too expensive. I mean more expenisve than in the middle of nowhere Burma, how is that possible? Anyways, we caught a night bus to Chumphon and from there the boat took us to Koh Tao. Not much to say about the trip, just that it was awesome. I mean actual aricon, lots of room, doesn't break down, just great stuff really.
Anyways we arrive in Koh Tao and get right into the course. They get us into the classroom for some crappy instructional vids (i think that almost all instructional vids are bad, the whole making learning fun so hard) followed by some "quizzes". The next day we got into the pool after some more vids for our first breaths underwater. I think it came a lot easier than i thought it would that's for sure. The next morning we took our "final exam" and then headed on the boat inthe afternoon for our first 2 real dives. We had to do some skills as in taking the mask on and off, practising sharing air and such but other than that we just cruised around. Now i don't know if it's my male instinct but i think that one reason that i have enjoyed this diving this is that the whole idea of it is to cruise slow and check stuff out. That's all i really need to enjoy myself. Plus the stuff that we check out is pretty cool and such that we don't get to see very often but still, i like the whole chill vibe of it.
Well the next day we woke up early to hit the boat at 7:15am for the last 2 of our dives. And of course the video had to come along because they gotta get the whole package for ya. (Didn't get it, the video was really cool but for $80, i think that i can spend my money better).

I don't know how to describe the diving much but it's a really good sensation. And which each dive it gets better because you learn to control yourself so much more to just float around. And of course i would like to take pics but don't have any of those. We had thought of getting a disposable but it wasn't guarenteed, especially if we went down to 18m or even 30m. Wel after passing the first course we decided that we liked it so much that we wanted to do the advanced too. After that we can go pretty much anywhere and do almost anything, including our own dives and dives at night as well as certified to 30m. So we took one day off, which was spent sleeping and reading and beaching and we were right back into the boat. The first day we did 3 dives, the first one being a naturalist cruise. The next we attempeted to navigate with our compasses. Now this proved to be more difficult than you think. Firstly, there are currents everywhere that try to take you off course. And then on top of that you measure distance by the number of kicks you do. So as you can see, it is for sure no accurate science. But we tried. After those two dives, we went ashore to get some water and food and were right back on for our night dive. Now that was really cool. It was cool for one because you couldn't look everywhere, only really where your flashlight was pointed so you tended to notice the little things that you don't see during the day. And plus the fact that is was dark with phosfluorescence, it just made for a very interesting atmosphere. We returned tired and hungry and after dinner i decided to make a phone call to my bank to inquire why my card wasn't working. I soon found out that someone in the lower mainland has been using my identity somehow and has drained my account over the past few months with transactions throughout the lower mainland. Kinda shitty but i hope the fact that i have been away the whole time will make the insurance process a lot easier. But it will take a while. Some people are just so mean.

Anyways, the next day which is today was another early wake up call and we loaded up the boat for our last 2 dives. The first one we went down to 30m. At this depth, you can have symptoms of nitrogen narcosis which is pretty much drunken elation and the reason that many people do really deep dives and never come back. Just because they are having such a good time and forget everything else. Well we didn't get anything like that but it was a little different down ther with a heavily clouded thermocline. One last dive of cruising around checking out the fish which inclueded some very feisty rightfully named Trigger fish. These fish are quite territorial and can take a pretty good chunk out of you. We also saw another cute family of Thailand style Nemos as well.

Well that's all for now, we really haven't been up to too much other than that. We didn't see sharks or turtles or anything like that but i have found a something new that i enjoy quite a bit that's for sure. And I am very glad to have done it now as I can do more diving around the world wherever i go next, whenever that is. I hope all is well where ever you are in the world and send me some emails with updates.