Koh Tao - Part 2

Sorry the blog posts dried up a little bit - this was partly from a hectic schedule and partly from not wanting to spend much time on the computers while they were charging so much for the (crappy) internet. We're staying at a place with free internet at the moment (Wahey) so a few updates will follow - as well as loads of pictures, all will be on Maddy's stream though, we're sharing a camera at the moment so the new photos will alternate between mine and hers.


So, I completed my Open Water Diving certification. The diving was incredible, probably my highlight of travelling so far. I did four dives altogether as part of the course, the first one was okay, just to ease us in it was at a pretty easy spot but there wasn't so much to see there, a place called Mango Bay. That said it was still a really good experience, but it had nothing on White Rock which is where we did the next two dives. So many fish of all different kinds of shapes and sizes - I have no idea what most of them are called. I found a couple of Nemo fish there though, and we saw a Blue Spotted Stingray too. The diving itself I found okay, if you keep calm there isn't alot that can really go wrong under the water. On the first dive in the sea, as soon as we got to the bottom I needed to change my mask which was a little unnerving, and on the third dive my air tank fell off my back too - but both were pretty easily rectified, was smooth sailing apart from that. As soon as we finished the course I was really tempted to do the Advanced Open Water course too, but having already spent more time and money on Koh Tao than we had planned I decided against it - I can definitely see myself coming back to Thailand with the intention of doing more courses and dives in the future though, was lots of fun.

This was the whole of my group and the instructor on the right

Koh Tao itself was beautiful too, after the first night we were both a little unconvinced but by the end of the four nights neither of us really wanted to leave. For me it had about the perfect balance of being laid-back but not too quiet - if you wanted to party you could, but there were plenty of places to just have a couple of quiet drinks and listen to some live music or watch some fire dancers. The food was really great too, loads of places had fresh fish barbecues - we had some Barracuda steaks which were incredible, definitely a highlight for me!

Sunset on Koh Tao

One of the many fire dancers

I finished my first book on Koh Tao too which was called An Evil Cradling by Brain Keenan. It's about a lecturer who was kidnapped and held prisoner for four and a half years in Beirut in 1986. Was pretty dark but a really good read. It finishes pretty abruptly after he is released, I felt it would have probably benefited from a little bit of reflection towards the end. Big thanks to my friend Toby who bought me the book as a going away present.

Been listening to a fair bit of James Blake lately, his self titled album hasn't long been out and is well worth checking out. He's another good example of someone who is pushing the boundaries of electronic music and trying some really cool stuff.