Sorry for the halt in blogs...Rachel Marie Wain and Michael Graham Humphreys are responsible for coming out to meet us and having too much fun to even think about the blog!
While we were waiting for our boat to Tao, we got chatting to a guy about Crystal dive resort. We could get a good deal as well as 2 rooms on the same site at the beach we wanted. once we arrived (Rach and Sar had survived the boat trip!...thanks to those wristbands!!haha) we were escorted to Crystal. It turns out there were no spare rooms on Sairee beach so we had to spend a night at mae haad and then move to Sairee the next day. We werent very happy about this as the only reason we picked Crystal was because the guy on the boat had guarenteed us a room. They decided to tell us once we had paid for our diving so we had to stay with them.
The beach itself wasnt too bad, it was just on the boat port, and not where we wanted to be. We had already had a poop morning with the passports so we werent in the best mood. Mike especially wasnt, after waiting all morning to get the passports and then to arrive on Tao and hear the bad news!! We made it clear that if we couldn't get a room at Sairee beach then we wanted a refund...we werent asking anymore, we were telling them!! haha...I think this got through to them and by the end of the day they were promising us rooms. We had even gone to Sairee Beach that evening, to eat at Sairee cottages...sooooo goood!! and stopped off at the Crystal resort on the beach to make sure we would get first pickings by speaking to their manager!...All seems a little extreme looking back, but we got what we wanted in the end!! hahaha!
The next morning we were ready at 10am to check out, and we had 2 rooms confirmed at Sairee beach :) WOOHOOO!!! we got some breakfast and then got a free taxi to the other resort. The rooms were bungalows which was good, but still no Rainbow on Pha-Ngan!! they would do, for free...Me and Sar had to get a taxi (free again) back to the other Crystal as that was where all the diving happened. Yep every day I had to get a taxi there and a taxi back in the evening...a bit tedious but we were on the good beach!!
We got some bad news when we arrived, all psyched up and excited to be doing our diving, only for Sar to be told she wasn't allowed. She admitted she had fainted in the past 6months and their medical guy said she wouldn't be able to dive for atleast 5 years!!haha! So Sar got another free taxi back to meet Mike and Rach on the beach.
That put a downer on the day and I really didn't want to be there. I wasn't allowed a refund as there was no medical complications so if I backed out to do it elsewhere with Sar, I would be throwing my money away, whereas Sar got a full refund so could look elsewhere on Sairee beach. It didn't help that the rest of the afternoon I was stuck in a classroom surrounded by french people watching videos and answering questions about what we had just watched (yep exactly like being at school again! not good!...6months of no work or anything so this came as a BIG shock!)....the other 3 had it easy just sunbathing on the beach....and to rub it in, when I got back at 6, I got a little message in the door saying they were having cocktails on the beach!! a hard day for them aswell hey!!..I joined for a beer.
We had an amazing evening, me and Mike went onto another bar to watch the grand prix and have a few changs while the girls got ready. We ate at the usual, Sairee cottages and got there in happy hour, ordering beer and kebabs. The girls went crazy and had a whole Snapper to share and 2 of the biggest prawns they could find!...So GOOD!!!
The next day I went off at 8 o clock to my class!! today we got split up into our groups of 6 and spent the day with our instructor. In my group were 2 guys from Birmingham, Matt and Tom, 2 french guys, Gary and Mikael and a girl Inbal from Israel. Our instructor was from New Zealand and his very original nickname was Kiwi..what a guy! He seemed a bit of a headcase, telling us how he fights with triggerfish by kicking them in the head and is MAD about sharks, which I guess is good for an instructor. So enthusiastic....at 8am I wasn't feeling the enthusiasm and as we were still doing theory all morning I wasn't going to! All afternoon we got the gear on and hit the swimming pool....at first I didn't like it, the beathing underwater was SO loud and I didn't feel comfortable, but it was ok! once we had done skills (such as taking your mask off underwater and putting it back on, breathing without your air supply etc) I was loving it! I left with some enthusiasm at last!! I couldn't wait to get in the ocean the next day...although my diving partner was Gary, a french guy...and a hero!! haha purely because he was either always lost in translation or didn't listen! He never quite knew what we were doing and I knew if I needed his help in the ocean I was screwed!
I came home really excited but didn't want to rub it in to Sar how much she was missing out so I said it was alright, told her about my day and then asked how hers was, on the beach all day!...Sar pulls out her PADI book and it turns out she went and got on a course at Sairee Cottages with 1 on 1 tuition!! I couldn't believe it! great news!! we were both finally doing what we had come to Tao to do, just unfortunatley not together!! Mike and Rach moved to Sairee Cottages as we no longer had 2 free rooms, and they were loving it aswell so everyone was happy....another great meal and evening followed.
The next day me and Sar both went diving into the ocean to do our dives, I did my first 2 dives, Sar did her 'confined water session' which was basically a dive and another dive. Rach and Mike also were off to snorkel around the island including shark bay. By the end of the day we were all on a high! The diving was AMAZING. As soon as we finished a dive I just wanted to get back in and explore to find different fish. The coral was so colourful and there were soooo many fish, 1 minute I would find myself in the middle of a school of fish!. Kiwi pointed out a triggerfish but luckily it wasn't mad so no fights were needed. Also we saw a spotted stingray which was awesome!
We did some skills 1 at a time, such as switching to our alternate reg, and breathing underwater etc.Just after we had got in from our 2nd dive, an instructor said there was a turtle and if you want to jump in and see it do so. We all jumped in but missed it by a minute!...DAM!! When we all got back, I headed to Sarie beach to find Sar and the others to hear about their day. Everyone had had an amazing day, Sar couldn't wait to get back in a dive the following day. Rach was adamant she wasn't going to eat and was going to be sick after the boat back!...2 hours later we did go for tea, and Rach had the biggest meal in the world!!haha
Our last day diving was cool, the first dive, Gary went off and we couldn't find him for a while! he was at the surface waiting!hah...the 2nd we had a videographer following us for the last dive, which caught us jumping in backwards etc. It also caught us doing forward roles and backwards roles underwater! this was all well and good until I attempted a backwards role and faceplanted the coral!...looked around and the camera was next to me! sweet!! After the 2 dives, we were officially qualified open water divers!! what a feeling!! I just wanted to go back and do it all again. I met the others and Sar felt the same, she wanted to dive again especially after seeing a turtle and swimming with nemo, How amazing! i was sooo jealous but hopfully in Bali we would see some more!! So we managed to set up 2 more dives for the morning before we got our boat to Samui. This way we could dive together, be buddies!!haha...That night me and mike went back to Crystal to watch the video of my group diving, and had a few drinks. By the time it was all over, we got back a bit later than expected, around 9. We picked the girls up and met the others from my group at a bar for a quick drink. Up at 5.30 the next morning a bit worse for wear, we got on the boat for 6.15 to go and do our 30m dive!! The deep water dive!...where we would see real fish!...It was amazing, we were on the seabed at 28m! it was so cool to look up and just see blue!...fish swimming above you!..The best feeling in the world, better than a skydive, paragliding or anything I've ever done. Swimming around and we saw a few box fish, stingrays, unicornfish, batfish, oh and just the 400lb grouper fish! he was HUGE!!! his mouth must have been atleast a metre wide!! awesome! before we knew it, it was over and we had our 2nd dive, at 16m which was a lot of fun, before heading back and catching the boat to Samui.
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