We flew down to Ko Samui (about one hour, $125 USD one-way on Bangkok Airways), the closest airport to our destination. The airport on Ko Samui is adorable - like a mini Disneyland. It is 100% open-air. Literally nothing is sealed off indoors, and there are cute trams to take you from deplaning to baggage claim. Of course they are painted with pastel-colored cartoon animals, trees, and butterflies. If only one was allowed to take photos at airports, I would share these gems.
From the airport we caught a taxi-transfer to the Nathorn Pier for the last boat of the day to Ko Tao. Again, there is a bit of a racket going on. The "competing" companies actually just seem to be one company with set prices and identical laminated lists. It was a 30 minute ride from the airport to the pier, and we grabbed some delish dinner (papaya salad and green curry) before our boat left for Ko Tao.
There are three islands in this region - Ko Samui (the largest and the one with the airport), Ko Tao (the smallest, the farthest, and our destination), and Ko Phangan (medium sized island known for full moon parties and craziness). The ferry we took departs from Ko Samui, stops at Ko Phangan, then finally heads to Ko Tao.
Ko Samui, in relation to Thailand:
And the three islands, close up:
It's interesting to see the different characters that board and disembark at the various islands - each one definitely attracts a certain kind of person. Ko Tao is now known to certify 3% of all scuba divers worldwide each year. Considering the island is super tiny, that's pretty incredible. Needless to say, it is dive central. Ko Phangan as I mentioned is all about full moon parties...think buckets of alcohol, neon body paint, and 15,000 of your closest friends dancing on the beach once a month under the - you guessed it - full moon. Ko Samui doesn't seem to have that same singular focus - there is a backpacker's beach to the north, the main touristy area on the east, and quieter beaches to the south and west for those looking to relax a bit more.
Ferry ride to Ko Tao:
Back to Ko Tao. Our ferry was a bit delayed and we ended up arriving in Ko Tao after sunset. The dive shop we had signed up with had sent a taxi to pick us up, and we found him after wading through the crowd of others holding up signs for their various resorts and haggling for business. A couple things to clarify - the dive shop was more of a dive everything-you-could-want-in-one-shop. They had two locations on the beach, maybe 10 minutes walk from each other. They taught every level of scuba certification (including underwater photography, how to become an instructor, reef cleanup, technical diving, etc.), had hundreds of rooms either on site or booked through partner guesthouses, restaurants, a bar, classrooms for instruction, etc. And when I say they sent a taxi to pick us up, it was (like in Ko Samet), a pickup truck with two benches in the back. We climbed up and held on tight for the bumpy 20 minute ride up the coast to our guesthouse.
Our room was decent - fan, air-con, bathroom with shower, and a small porch - and all for $30 a night. There were some options (had we booked further in advance and wanted to share a crowded dorm room and bunk beds) that were only $8 a night! In the morning we went to check-in at the dive shop and got signed up to start classes that evening. We had the day to ourselves and set out exploring the beautiful island.
View from our room:
Bananas!
There was a main road, but most of the island was little pedestrian walkways like this:
Classes in the evening and following day were great. Our group consisted of two instructors to teach us five students - myself, Husband, Michelle & Cedric (a couple from the Netherlands who had been traveling for a month), and Shay, another girl from the Netherlands who was traveling for 3 months. Shay had tried scuba earlier in her trip and it had gone pretty poorly and she quit. She was heading home soon and determined to give it another go. In the classes, we learned about tides, equipment, atmospheric pressure, nitrogen narcosis, safety checks, buddy signals, underwater life, how to achieve neutral buoyancy, and so on. We spent about four hours in the pool one afternoon, and after assembling and safety checking our own equipment, we went through numerous techniques underwater - flood your mask and clear it, what to do if you lose your regulator underwater, two different types of emergency ascents, how to share air with your buddy underwater if they run out, and more.
After we cleaned our equipment and put it away for the night, I felt ready. We had the next day off for Christmas, and would resume diving on the 26th. Christmas morning we Skyped with our families back home and got to catch up and send holiday love - where would we be without Skype?
The water was amazingly calm Christmas morning - here's some photos from our breakfast spot:
We caught a pickup taxi after breakfast and headed to another side of the island. We had spent so much time in the concentrated area near our guesthouse/diving classes, and wanted to get out a bit. The driver recommended Shark Bay as a quiet area - perfect. We got dropped off at the top of a steep driveway (that had yet to be constructed...it was really just a hill with bags of concrete sitting nearby), and told to go down the slope to find the beach. The driver gave us his card and said to call when we wanted to come back in the afternoon. Hmm. We ambled down the slope and found a path which led us down to the water. There was a resort right next to the beach, and we claimed a shaded beach couch (it is as awesome as it sounds). Christmas day was smoothie-drinking, book-reading, and life-talking good times.
Shark Bay:
The taxi in front of us on the way back:
The taxi behind us - this picture doesn't show how steep it felt...
Really quite a beautiful drive:
Santa delivering ice on Christmas Day:
December 26th came up next. Boxing Day. Or, in our case, Day of Dive 1 & 2! We met up in the morning, practiced our dive table problems a bit more, then took the final exam for the scuba course. We all passed and went over the few answers we missed. Quick lunch, then got our equipment ready in dive bags, and hopped on the longtail boat to shuttle us out to the dive boat. It was a bit chaotic with four dive teams on the dive boat (of 5-6 students and 1-2 instructors each), but they made it work. The bottom deck had circles cut into wood for the air tanks along either side of the boat, with a bench in front to assemble the equipment and strap it all together. There was a box of weights and weight belts in one corner, and two ladders into the water in the back. On the top deck was a shaded bench area for briefings and to hang out between dives. They had coffee, tea, water, biscuits and fruit for surface time, and a dry area up front to keep your personal items. The captain also slept on the boat, so his cabin to the front was understandably off limits.
Dive day:
Longtail boats in the morning:
Out on the water, looking back at Ko Tao:
I was a bit nervous for our first dive on how equalization would work for me. I'd gone diving twice before and did not have the best experience with equalization when I was at 20 feet or lower. Our goal for the course was to make it to 18 meters/60 feet.
The next bit of medical info for my family members who are medical professionals about my past sinus issues...feel free to skip to the next paragraph :)
Before we left Bangkok, I'd contacted a dive doctor to check out my sinuses and see if he had any suggestions or tips for equalizing. The doctor was fantastic - set up an appointment for me less than an hour after I'd called at a hospital not far from where we live. He was a doctor with the Royal Thai Navy in their Underwater Medicine department, went scuba diving himself, and also had trouble equalizing. Perfect! He checked my ear/nose/throat and after listening to my past experiences diving, old history with sinus issues, and how using Afrin when I fly helps tremendously with ear pressure, he recommended I take a nasal spray to help clear my Eustachian Tubes for better ease of equalization. He advised against pseudoephedrine, since it can have too many other side effects and the effect may wear off when I am trying to ascend and cause what's known as a reverse block effect. Just to be safe, he recommended I have my ears tested as well, and sent me over to the ENT department. They did a test called a Tympanomentry, which involved putting a set of industrial looking ear muffs on - the kind I wore in my Dad's workshop when we used the table saw - except one side of the ear muff had a long tube that was inserted into my ear canal. When the technician flipped a switch on the machine it was attached to, it made different pitched noises and sent air into my ear, and measured my eardrum's reaction. Then they switched sides and tested the other ear. Very odd. But I passed! All normal. So I was on my way with Afrin and hope. I told both our dive instructors ALL of this and let them know I was using Afrin and we were set.
The first dive is kind of a blur - we got our equipment set, strapped on our BCDs, and made our way to the back of the boat. We would also be practicing three different kinds of water entry, and the first was a giant stride into the water. Once our group was assembled and bobbing at the back of the boat, Ant (our instructor) had us swim to the front where the descent line was anchored. Husband and I were dive buddies, and Ant had me start descending first (since it was probably going to take me longer than others as I'd be stopping to equalize every half meter or so). Holding onto the rope while descending was really reassuring to know I wasn't going down too fast. Rope in one hand, pinch nose and gently blow out ears. Equalized! Yes! Go down another half meter, repeat. IT WORKED! Oh man I was so happy. We got down to the bottom - maybe 10 meters - and practiced a few techniques, and then Ant led our group in a two-by-two formation around the reef. He checked on our air to make sure we were all doing fine. Michelle responded that she had enough air, but made some odd gesture that looked like she wanted to throw up. Which she did. Underwater. TWICE. Wow. And then remarkably, she calmly put her regulator back in her mouth, cleared it of water, and kept right on going. What a champ. Back up on the surface, she threw up a few more times (it had been really rough water before we started). I thought there was no way she'd go through with the second dive. But what a rockstar, she rested, drank water, and was ready to go for Dive 2.
This entry is long enough so I'll skip through Dives 2-4 and just say we had a really great time, went through all the skills underwater, and were thankful that the water for Dives 3-4 was much calmer. We saw amazing fish, corals, sea cucumbers, nudibranchs, and even a seahorse! I later told Husband that on Dives 3 and 4 - when I was feeling much more at ease with the whole process and able to really look around and enjoy it - I felt like we were in a world that used to be above ground and now was underwater and inhabited by fish. Like exploring a wreck or an underwater Pompeii or something - it was incredible. I'm so excited for our family and friends who dive too - come visit and we're ready to go!
Finishing Dive 4, we got photos taken, got our dive cards, and caught a taxi to the pier for our trip to Ko Samui. Exhausted, happy, and ready to stay above water for a few days.
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