After sleeping through the entire boat journey we finally arrived at Koh
Tao, the last of the trio of islands off the South East coast of Thailand. We
got a ride on the back of a pickup truck and dragged ourselves to the hostel to
check in and get some much needed sleep.
We awoke hours later and began piecing together our memories of the night
before. Marc was keen to find out about
the diving courses on Koh Tao, so headed off to speak to someone at the Diving
School connected to the hostel, Davey Jones Locker.
It turns out Koh Tao is one of the cheapest and coolest places to learn to
dive, costing about £180 for a three and a half day course, including 4 dives
and a PADI certificate at the end of it. He began the course straight away and
had to sit through two hours of theory DVD's, only to be interrupted by a power cut half way through and sat in a dark room, by himself, for about 20
minutes.
The next morning he finished off the theory and sat an exam in a bar and
then spent the afternoon learning skills in the pool with the diving gear on.
Meanwhile, the other three bummed around the island, sitting on beaches
drinking ice tea and the occasional Chang.
Marc did his first two 12 metre dives off the coast of Koh Nang Yuan at
sites called Twin Peaks and Japanese Garden. He struggled to equalise from the
pressure on the second one, which resulted in him spending the next week or so
temporarily deaf in one ear and annoying everyone by saying "whaaat?"
all of the time.
In the evening Marc met up with the rest of us and we convinced him
to go on a pub crawl around the island, despite his promise that he wouldn't
dive hungover!
The pub crawl was organised by three young'uns, which we all thought had
one of the best jobs going. After a cheeky bucket we headed to the first stop: a
pool party. If you went in the pool you got free shots, but we chickened out
and stayed dry.
The next stop was a lady-boy cabaret show. We were all amazed at how little
they looked like blokes. Pretty sure one of them was out of the Pussy Cat
Dolls. When we arrived we decided it was a good idea to sit at the front to get
a good view, but then some guy told Gareth that there might require some male
audience 'participation' so, being the gentlemen that we are, we hid behind
Amy. It was lucky we did as one guy in the audience got pulled up, blindfolded,
partially stripped and had a lapdance by a man-woman.
Staying loyal to his pledge that he wouldn't get drunk and dive the next
day hungover, Marc headed back to the
hostel. Good boy. The rest of us headed to the next bar, where there was a live
band and everybody danced on tables, then on to the final stop on the pub
crawl, which was a beach party with fire shows.
Marc did his final two dives at 18 meters at White Rock and a shipwreck
near the previous sites, trying to hide any signs of the pub crawl. He had to
perform all of the skills he learnt in the pool (such as removing your mask,
air supply and tank) underwater, which was a bit daunting! Having successfully
done all of these, he became a qualified PADI open water diver. It was one of
the most awesome things he's done and he would recommend anyone give it a go, particularly in Koh Tao.
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| Marc celebrating his PADI power |
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