After our long arduous journey by bus and ferry, we finally arrived in Koh Tao. The main reason why we came to the island was to compete our PADI Open Water Diving course. (A Christmas present to Rob from his parents, thanks again!). Rob was really excited to do this, but I was a little nervous at first, something about being underwater for so long seemed very unnatural.
Koh Tao is the second cheapest place to do an Open Water course in the world (second only to Honduras). We chose to go with Scuba Junction, due to good reviews and the fact they limited group size to 4 people. On our first day we met Alex and Simon, a couple who made up our group and our instructor G. After a really boring orientation video we finally got into our wetsuits and into the water.
We completed two dives at a dive site called Japanese Gardens, the first in shallow water where we knelt/hovered on the sea floor and practiced skills. This involved pretending to lose our regulator (the thing you breathe through), taking off your mask and putting it back on again (Rob found this fine as he could open his eyes underwater; I however was scared at the thought of taking the mask off underwater. After doing this a few times I got the hang of it, but still didn't manage to open my eyes); we also practiced hand signals and emergency procedures. It was a little boring but it was a good introduction and made us feel a bit more at ease underwater.
After a short rest and biscuits on the boat, we did our first proper dive, it was amazing. We got to see all kinds of fish, coral and marine life, we got to a depth of 10m and swam around for 45mins. To me being underwater was surprisingly fun and not at all scary, I felt quite free and relaxed. Its hard to describe the feeling, but it's something I would recommend.
The next day we watched a few more unbelievably boring videos and did some mini tests on what we have done so far, before doing 2 more dives in the afternoon. It was a similar set up to the first day with our first dive being in shallow water practicing more skills this time such as buoyancy skills (controlling our position in the water through breathing only) and recapping our first day skills. Then before our second dive we had to do a 200 metre swim and tread water for 10 minutes, I was really nervous about doing this but it turned out to be pretty easy.
On our last day we did 2 dives in the morning and then an exam in the afternoon. The two dives in the morning were the best so far. In the first dive the water wasn't as calm and a bit choppy which meant the visibility (or viz as the pros call it) was very poor, we could barely see a metre in front of us but we still felt very comfortable and at ease so it gave us confidence that we could actually dive. We moved to a different location and the second was better, the water was so much clearer and we got to a maximum depth of 18metres (the max allowed for our level).
The exam consisted of 50 multiple choice questions from what we learned from the videos and the dives. Yet to get a question wrong in the mini tests Rob was hoping to get 100%. However he got a bit too big for his fins and got one question wrong (ha ha) and scored 98% (Rob: which was top of the class), anyone who knows Rob, will know that he was still disappointed in not getting 100%.
We enjoyed our diving so much and it was so addictive that we decided to do two Adventure dives. This will contribute to our Advanced Open Water Certification, which we are planning on completing in the future. We chose to do a Deep dive (meaning we could dive to 30metres) and a Wreck dive (On the HTMS Sattakut, an artificial wreck). These were are best dives yet, we got to see a lot more marine live and was a different experience diving on a wreck. We got to swim through the cabin and around the guns at the bow and stern.
Apart from diving we didn't do much in Ko Tao except lie on the beach, watch a beautiful sunset or two and watch a fire show.
On the next leg of the trip we went to Railay via a night in Krabi. We didn't spend very long in Railay but we made the most of the short time we had. We climbed up to the top of the viewpoint, it was a similar experience to the one in Koh Rong in that it was a steep climb up a rocky, slippery surface with ropes hung down to help us get up.
There was also a route to a hidden lagoon, but it looked too dangerous, you almost had to abseil to get down and we had no idea how we'd get back up (Rob's excuse was that he was worried for my safety but I think he was just as scared). In the evening we got to watch another beautiful sunset - I think we are getting a bit spoilt by these.
You're lucky that you can see these as an hour before both our camera batteries died on us, thankfully whilst Rob lay in the sun, I ran back to our room to charge them for a few precious minutes... Leanne to the rescue!
From Railay we went to Koh Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee), which is a beautiful island and is where the film 'The Beach' was filmed. As a result of this the island is very busy and touristy. We went to Long beach on the first day, it was not that close to the main hub and we had to get a longtail boat there, as a result it was quieter. In the evening we went to the main beach which at night has lots of lively beach bars, all of which seemed to have a fire show starting at exactly 9pm. It was quite cool seeing the beach lit up with a row of fire throwers.
We also went on a day trip around the surrounding islands. First stop: Bamboo Island.
As you can tell, this place is paradise. Beautiful turquoise waters, clear blue sky and white sandy (almost empty) beaches, what more could you ask for? Afterwards we went to Monkey Beach, which is another great beach that was only accessible by boat. It was a narrow beach surrounded by a jungle with cheeky monkeys that were waiting to steal tourists' food and drink. It was a bit sad to see the monkeys depending on the tourism especially when they were downing cans of Fanta.
We sailed around the islands on our way to Maya bay 'The Beach'. It was a bit smaller that I thought it would be, but it was still breathtaking. The limestone cliffs stretched out and cacooned the beach into a little bay. Due to its role in the film, it was the most popular destination and was by far the busiest. We were expecting this so didn't mind it too much, but it would have been cool to see it without the crowds (not sure if that will ever happen).
On our final morning we woke up early and walked to another viewpoint, this time it wasn't a dangerous ascent just a long and steep one, thankfully we didn't do in the heat of the day but it was still surprisingly hot at 8am.
The view was incredible, you could see most of the main island, and the one you can just see in the background on the left is the smaller island where Maya bay is.
The strip you can see in the middle that links the two sides was completely devastated in the 2004 Tsunami, one man we spoke to said only 1 building survived. When you are there it is hard to imagine such destruction and it must have been terrifying to have been there when it happened with a huge wall of water surging towards you.
Our next port of call was Koh Lanta, a lot bigger than the islands and therefore felt a lot quieter and peaceful as everything was more spread out. We stayed on Klong Khong beach which was around halfway down the west coast of the island. Due to our location we got to see more wonderous sunsets (you are probably sick of seeing and hearing about these but we promise this is the last sunset photo of this blog)
Someone didn't seem to be enjoying the sunset as much as us however...
We did another tour of the islands around Koh Lanta, we visited Koh Mook, Koh Cherk, Koh Kradan and Koh Ngai. In Koh Mook we went to the Emerald Cave. The boat stopped next to what seemed just a sheer cliff but we got in the water and there was a small passage that you could swim through, it was completely surrounded above and at the sides by the rocks, and twisted its way through for around 80m. Apart from the light of a few torches it was pitch black. I was quite scared, good job I had my life jacket on. Inside there is a small beach and the sea water surrounded by 360 degrees of tall cliffs that are peppered with trees.
The small black cave behind Leanne's head is the entrance to the tunnel.
We snorkelled at Koh Cherk and Koh Ngai although it was a waste of time at Koh Ngai, you couldn't see your hand in the water nevermind any fish. We stopped at Koh Kradan to have lunch on the beach and got to explore it a little.
On our final day in Koh Lanta we went to Kantiang Bay which is in 'The Times' top 10 beaches of 2009. There is an amazing 5 Star resort on the beach and we managed to sneak on to their sun loungers for about an hour before we were politely asked to leave. It was the best hour of the day!
At this point we were going to talk about Koh Lipe but Leanne's memory card isn't working, it says something about needing to be formatted but then if we click format it says it will delete all the images. Koh Lipe was so beautiful that we don't want to write about it without any photos to do it justice. If anyone has any ideas on how we can get the photos off the card it would be much appreciated.
We are currently in Malaysia and leave for Singapore tomorrow which is our last stop before Australia. Hopefully we get the memory card fixed before our next blog, bonus points to anyone who helps us get it fixed.
Koh Tao is the second cheapest place to do an Open Water course in the world (second only to Honduras). We chose to go with Scuba Junction, due to good reviews and the fact they limited group size to 4 people. On our first day we met Alex and Simon, a couple who made up our group and our instructor G. After a really boring orientation video we finally got into our wetsuits and into the water.
 |
| In our wetsuits... |
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| ...and into the water! |
We completed two dives at a dive site called Japanese Gardens, the first in shallow water where we knelt/hovered on the sea floor and practiced skills. This involved pretending to lose our regulator (the thing you breathe through), taking off your mask and putting it back on again (Rob found this fine as he could open his eyes underwater; I however was scared at the thought of taking the mask off underwater. After doing this a few times I got the hang of it, but still didn't manage to open my eyes); we also practiced hand signals and emergency procedures. It was a little boring but it was a good introduction and made us feel a bit more at ease underwater.
 |
| At the bottom |
The next day we watched a few more unbelievably boring videos and did some mini tests on what we have done so far, before doing 2 more dives in the afternoon. It was a similar set up to the first day with our first dive being in shallow water practicing more skills this time such as buoyancy skills (controlling our position in the water through breathing only) and recapping our first day skills. Then before our second dive we had to do a 200 metre swim and tread water for 10 minutes, I was really nervous about doing this but it turned out to be pretty easy.
On our last day we did 2 dives in the morning and then an exam in the afternoon. The two dives in the morning were the best so far. In the first dive the water wasn't as calm and a bit choppy which meant the visibility (or viz as the pros call it) was very poor, we could barely see a metre in front of us but we still felt very comfortable and at ease so it gave us confidence that we could actually dive. We moved to a different location and the second was better, the water was so much clearer and we got to a maximum depth of 18metres (the max allowed for our level).
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| Blue Spotted Ray - Can you 'spot' it? |
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| "Get out of the way Rob this is MY photo" |
We enjoyed our diving so much and it was so addictive that we decided to do two Adventure dives. This will contribute to our Advanced Open Water Certification, which we are planning on completing in the future. We chose to do a Deep dive (meaning we could dive to 30metres) and a Wreck dive (On the HTMS Sattakut, an artificial wreck). These were are best dives yet, we got to see a lot more marine live and was a different experience diving on a wreck. We got to swim through the cabin and around the guns at the bow and stern.
Apart from diving we didn't do much in Ko Tao except lie on the beach, watch a beautiful sunset or two and watch a fire show.
On the next leg of the trip we went to Railay via a night in Krabi. We didn't spend very long in Railay but we made the most of the short time we had. We climbed up to the top of the viewpoint, it was a similar experience to the one in Koh Rong in that it was a steep climb up a rocky, slippery surface with ropes hung down to help us get up.
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| I think you can see that the climb was worth it |
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| Despite it looking like we are superimposed, we assure you we were there. |
There was also a route to a hidden lagoon, but it looked too dangerous, you almost had to abseil to get down and we had no idea how we'd get back up (Rob's excuse was that he was worried for my safety but I think he was just as scared). In the evening we got to watch another beautiful sunset - I think we are getting a bit spoilt by these.
You're lucky that you can see these as an hour before both our camera batteries died on us, thankfully whilst Rob lay in the sun, I ran back to our room to charge them for a few precious minutes... Leanne to the rescue!
From Railay we went to Koh Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee), which is a beautiful island and is where the film 'The Beach' was filmed. As a result of this the island is very busy and touristy. We went to Long beach on the first day, it was not that close to the main hub and we had to get a longtail boat there, as a result it was quieter. In the evening we went to the main beach which at night has lots of lively beach bars, all of which seemed to have a fire show starting at exactly 9pm. It was quite cool seeing the beach lit up with a row of fire throwers.
We also went on a day trip around the surrounding islands. First stop: Bamboo Island.
As you can tell, this place is paradise. Beautiful turquoise waters, clear blue sky and white sandy (almost empty) beaches, what more could you ask for? Afterwards we went to Monkey Beach, which is another great beach that was only accessible by boat. It was a narrow beach surrounded by a jungle with cheeky monkeys that were waiting to steal tourists' food and drink. It was a bit sad to see the monkeys depending on the tourism especially when they were downing cans of Fanta.
We sailed around the islands on our way to Maya bay 'The Beach'. It was a bit smaller that I thought it would be, but it was still breathtaking. The limestone cliffs stretched out and cacooned the beach into a little bay. Due to its role in the film, it was the most popular destination and was by far the busiest. We were expecting this so didn't mind it too much, but it would have been cool to see it without the crowds (not sure if that will ever happen).
On our final morning we woke up early and walked to another viewpoint, this time it wasn't a dangerous ascent just a long and steep one, thankfully we didn't do in the heat of the day but it was still surprisingly hot at 8am.
 |
| WOW |
The strip you can see in the middle that links the two sides was completely devastated in the 2004 Tsunami, one man we spoke to said only 1 building survived. When you are there it is hard to imagine such destruction and it must have been terrifying to have been there when it happened with a huge wall of water surging towards you.
Our next port of call was Koh Lanta, a lot bigger than the islands and therefore felt a lot quieter and peaceful as everything was more spread out. We stayed on Klong Khong beach which was around halfway down the west coast of the island. Due to our location we got to see more wonderous sunsets (you are probably sick of seeing and hearing about these but we promise this is the last sunset photo of this blog)
Someone didn't seem to be enjoying the sunset as much as us however...
We did another tour of the islands around Koh Lanta, we visited Koh Mook, Koh Cherk, Koh Kradan and Koh Ngai. In Koh Mook we went to the Emerald Cave. The boat stopped next to what seemed just a sheer cliff but we got in the water and there was a small passage that you could swim through, it was completely surrounded above and at the sides by the rocks, and twisted its way through for around 80m. Apart from the light of a few torches it was pitch black. I was quite scared, good job I had my life jacket on. Inside there is a small beach and the sea water surrounded by 360 degrees of tall cliffs that are peppered with trees.
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| Looking Good |
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| A view out of the top of the enclosure |
We snorkelled at Koh Cherk and Koh Ngai although it was a waste of time at Koh Ngai, you couldn't see your hand in the water nevermind any fish. We stopped at Koh Kradan to have lunch on the beach and got to explore it a little.
On our final day in Koh Lanta we went to Kantiang Bay which is in 'The Times' top 10 beaches of 2009. There is an amazing 5 Star resort on the beach and we managed to sneak on to their sun loungers for about an hour before we were politely asked to leave. It was the best hour of the day!
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| We want to go back! |
We are currently in Malaysia and leave for Singapore tomorrow which is our last stop before Australia. Hopefully we get the memory card fixed before our next blog, bonus points to anyone who helps us get it fixed.
Wow this blog has definitely made me want to go travelling after uni, the photos look amazing and the diving looks like lots of fun! Pleased you's are still having fun, enjoy Singapore and Australia!
ReplyDeleteLove Holly xxx
how amazing, can't believe you've been having so much fun day in day out since the end of november
ReplyDeletehope singapore is just as good!
miss you xxxx
Cant believe i just stumbled across this looking at pics about koh lanta, great blog, cool to hear bout it all first hand from some homes whos bean there and has a fun way of describing it! :o)
ReplyDelete