Open water diving certified!

So as i sit on a porch surrounded by paradise, let's look back at my time in koh tao....

In case you didn't know, koh tao means "turtle island".

I arrived in koh tao on the ferry from the full moon party in koh phangnan. I checked into my room at ban's and spent the rest of the evening sleeping.

Thursday I woke up, and it was time to start my OPEN WATER DIVING CERTIFICATION!!!

I met my instructor, Nat, who was awesome! We crammed 3 days of lessons and diving into 2 days! We did some pool skills, where he was impressed on how quick I picked them up. Then we practiced our bounyancy (sp?) and floated around in a Buddha pose.

After the pool was done, it was time for the school stuff. I learned all the theories, and safety info. I passed the final exam, and so it was time to dive!

Friday morning I woke up (with my pinky toe giving me some pain) and got suited up for the dives. I was to do 3 dives, all before lunch!

So we took the boat out, and I did a 25 min dive, and worked on some stuff I did in the pool. Then we went back to the boat, got a new tank, and went back down again. The water was choppy, so getting was tough. Once we were back in the water, we did some compass work, then spent the rest of the time swimming around. We were at the white rock dive site.

Then it was time to go up again, and we prepared for my last dive at another dive site - red rock. Once at the new site, we got back in and I did some emergency surfacing skills. Then it was playtime again! We went in caves, saw needle-nose fish,  and spent the full 45 min down there.

Then it was back to the surface to practice removing our gear in water...and then.....I WAS DECLARED CERTIFIED!! Wooooo hoooo!!

Back at the dive shop I was shown the video that my friend Steve had made of my diving, and it was awesome! 18minutes of me gearing up, and diving underwater. What a great souveneir!

So now, as I sit on steves porch, I'm relaxing in the hammock and saying goodbye to this little piece of paradise called koh tao.

Back to surat to pack up my apartment, then off to my next stop...

Sawasdee kha,
Apes :)

*I ended up going to the doctor about my pinky toe, and I had an infection. The pulled out my nail, and am taking antibiotics. I should be healed in about a week!