Finally made it to one of Thailand’s exotic islands; Koh Tao, where the sea is crystal clear and the sunsets are colorful.
So what do you do on a tropical island? Drinking cocktails and swimming in the warm water for one, but this island is infamous for its diving opportunities.
Back in 2006 I received my PADI certification but haven’t been diving since. Luckily the diving schools have a refreshing course where an instructor goes over all the basics with you. Especially prepping the equipment is something that needed a reminder.
The day before the class you get homework with a list of questions you need to fill in. Proud of myself that I answered them all correctly and even figured out the diving table on my own. Guess I was the straight A student of my small refreshing class. That sure made me confident for the 2 fun dives in the afternoon.
After a quick lunch you get on a boat to go to 2 different dive sites. The first was Chumphon Pinnacle with its lovely underwater life. Seeing beautiful fish from Finding Nemo and having a skool of barracudas swim around you is just amazing. The second dive was to Red Rock which had pretty coral to swim along.
After this experience I wondered why I haven’t been diving in the past 8 years. One was being a bit frightened for not being able to swim directly to the surface. The other reason was that I thought I needed a diving buddy to do so. But you just team up with another solo traveler, here my buddy was a nice American girl who also was backpacking.
So yeah, diving is something I’ll definitely will do again during this trip, especially if it will be this cheap:
- Refreshing course 1.500 THB (€34)
- 2 fun dives on a boat 1.800 THB (€40)
And if you’re new into diving:
- a one day tryout is 2.000 THB (€45)
- getting PADI certified in 3 days is 9.800 THB (€220)
