We arrived in Koh Tao after an overnight bus journey and ferry. Sounds pretty simple... we were lead to believe it would only be one bus for the duration of the trip. Nope. Not one, but three! We got off the final bus at about 06:30.
We arrived in Koh Tao in the early morning incredibly tired, but were persuaded by a tout on the boat to go and check out one of the diving schools on the island. Once we arrived we were sat down and given a cup of coffee. Before we knew it we had signed up for a course to get our PADI openwater diving licence!
The next few days went really quickly. Breathing underwater for the first time is such a peculiar feeling. Every part of your body is telling you that what you're doing is completely unnatural and that you should NOT be doing it. I panicked the first time I went under and had to come up again to the surface, ripping all the equipment off my face and gasping for air! Completely silly because the gear that you're wearing provides you with more than enough to breath on. It took me about 15 minutes of breathing underwater to start to feel a little comfortable. Reena at one point panicked and jumped to the surface. I saw my instructor signal to me to stay down, which I did... and I started to look all around. It was then that I noticed all the little fish swimming everywhere! One even stopped infront of my mask and pood - ha! After learning various skills like what to do when your mask comes off, or if your regulator (breathing equipment) falls out, we were ready to go on our first dive. In all we went on four dives at various sites around the island, down to a depth of 18m. We saw some amazing coral, and lots of colourful fish. My favourite at the moment is the butterfly fish. They mate for life so you can see them swimming around in pairs. When you see one on its own, its very sad because it means its partner has died :(
There was also the trigger fish... While happily swimming along the bottom, I passed this rock on my right. As I looked up I saw my instructor spin around in front of me and signal that a trigger fish was nearby. He then suddenly pushed me to the left. As I looked right this big fat black fish with sharp scary looking teeth was looking right at him. About a second later it darted straight for him headbutting my instructors fins! Apparently they're very territorial fish and will very easily become angry and attack. They swim at you, headbutting you while biting. These fish eat coral... they have really sharp teeth. When we surfaced my instructor told me that the trigger fish was looking at me when it started to get angry, which is why he shoved me out of the way! For some reason our instructor enjoyed provoking these fish. He's really proud of all the trigger fish bite marks in his fins! I reckon he knew the fish would be there!
Well after our four dives and an exam, I passed! I have my openwater licence now, and have now signed up for the advanced course... which we start tomorrow.
Koh Tao is a really chilled island. All the people we spoke to who'd been to the islands always quoted Koh Tao as their favourite. We can see why. Its smaller, cuter and less touristy than the other islands. Although, if we weren't diving I'm sure I'd get pretty bored here quickly. Not very much to do other than sit on a beach and eat!
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