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Welcome to Ko Tao!

In search of the perfect island experience, Matt and I boarded a ferry from Ko Phi Phi in the Andaman Sea, arrived in Krabi and hopped on a puddle jumper to bring us to Ko Samui, the largest island in the Gulf of Thailand. We had a day or two of rest in Ko Samui before catching another ferry to take us about 65 kilometers north to the smaller island of Ko Tao.

Ko Tao, which literally translates to Turtle Island, is one of Thailand’s top scuba diving locations. Blessed with crystal clear water, numerous coral reefs, and teeming with marine life, Ko Tao not only provides exceptional diving experiences, it is also one of the worlds cheapest and most popular locations to get your open-water diving certificate. It is ranked #2 in the world for issuing PADI certificates - Cairns, Australia is #1.

So, since neither Matt or I are certified we decided this was the place to do it! We arrived at the New Way Diving School around 5pm and were signed up to take a 3 day course beginning the following day within 30 minutes. Although you can’t walk 10 feet without stumbling upon a dive center on the island, we decided to do our course with New Way for two main reasons:

1.) Since there are so many schools and divers, the reefs can get quite crowded, however, New Way is the first boat to arrive at the dive sites in the morning - (we left the dock at 6am)

2.) They offered small group training - however, we were not expecting “small group” to mean Matt and I and an instructor!

Included in the cost of our course (10,000 Baht/$330), we also received free accommodation for 5 nights in a fan room right near the beach. We decided to upgrade to an A/C room as it was extremely hot and the day we got there I had quite a high fever. So all in all, we ended up paying the difference in price which amounted to around $50 for 5 nights.

The next morning, since our course did not begin until the afternoon, we decided to rent a motorbike and go explore the island. For 150 Baht ($5) we were able to rent the bike for 24 hours! We tried to cross the island, however, found that we were not quite experienced to maneuver down the steep, rocky roads which had been further destroyed by heavy rains and mudslides.

We ended up at Shark Bay with picturesque views and crystal clear water. Though the coral reefs were not great, we went snorkeling and even found a crazy bug-eyed looking eel!

Later that evening, we began the book/video material of the PADI course. We covered Chapters 1&2 the first night and 3&4 the following morning. We took a quick break for lunch and headed down to the dock with our instructor Graham, from London to head out for our first underwater experience.

Graham was a friendly Brit, very easy going, goofy and highly advanced Scuba instructor who made the course a breeze. The first day we headed towards a shallow beach and spent the next four hours learning skills...taking our masks off and putting them back on underwater, ascending and descending, removing our BCD vests and putting them back on, sharing our regulators in case one of us ran out of air...all the necessary stuff...

The next morning we finished up the book work, passed our final exam and that afternoon went out for Open Water Dives 1 & 2. For Dive #1 we went to Mango Bay and went to a depth of 11.6 meters (38 ft.). We practiced more skills but also saw some amazing marine life - Yellowtail Barracuda, a seahorse, Parrot fish and a huge ball of Yellowstripe Scad. Our 2nd dive was at Japanese Gardens - again at about 11.5 meters- this time we saw giant clams, a Porcupine Pufferfish and Sixbar Angelfish!

Our final day of the course, we left the dock at 6am to complete our 3rd dive at White Rock. Graham, had asked a videographer to come along to film (we thought) everyone diving from the boat this day. However, he decided to only filmed Matt and I which not only made us feel a bit uncomfortable but also made everyone else on the boat look at us funny..thinking we had hired him. He said we were not obligated to buy the DVD he would be making, but since it was a private video session we ended up giving in, bargaining with him, and now have our first “real” dives on video!

Anyways, Dive #3 was really amazing. We swam through underwater caves and rock formations and saw a Banded Sea Krait - the third most deadly snake in the world according to Graham! We also saw Blue Spotted Stingrays and Bluering Angelfish! We reached a depth of 18 meters (60 feet). Dive # 4 was at Red Rock Drop Off and was also an 18 meter dive. This time we saw a Titan Triggerfish, Hong Kong Butterfly Fish and Nudibranch! When we stepped out of the water we were congratulated as we were now officially PADI certified!

That evening we went and hung out at the Dive School, watched our video, and celebrated our completion of the Scuba course! We also got into a heated debate with our videographer from England(unfortunately he annoyed me so much that I have blocked his name from my memory) about 9/11 and how it was all an inside job by Bush, and how the U.S. was a terrible country...it was as though as soon as we paid him for the video he had made, or the fact that he was a few beers deep...he turned into a total American hater...oh well, he just claimed he was a “free spirit” that hated politics. When we left my blood was boiling!

Having enjoyed our course so much, the next day we decided to go on one final dive...at the South West Pinnacle, one of Ko Tao’s most acclaimed dive sights. The dive was 30 meters (98 feet) and would grant us the ability to do deep water dives without paying to take the course to become Advanced Open Water divers. Despite the difference in depth, the dive did not feel much different, we both felt quite comfortable being underwater at any depth. When we got to the bottom Graham showed us how the pressure at this depth had interesting effects on certain things. He first pulled out a bag of potato chips that now looked like it had been vacuum sealed. Next he pulled out a, “secret object.” It was shrivelled and dark brown in color. Then he took a bite out of it and we discovered it was a tomato. Finally, Graham took out an egg and cracked it. The yolk stayed perfectly intact, and we sat there on the ocean floor 100 feet down and played a game of catch with our egg yolk! There was however a heavy current that was quite difficult to swim against, and the visibility was not great, but we did see a Spanish Mackaral and One Spot Snapper.

That Saturday afternoon we packed our bags...headed down to the ferry terminal...and boarded the ferry to Ko Phangan...physically and mentally preparing to attend one of the world renowned...Full Moon Parties!

Stay thirsty my friends,

Lindsey and Matt