Thailand, Part II

February 1-18

dara / Jim & I decided to end our three months in Southeast Asia on the beaches of Koh Tao, Thailand. Koh Tao is this fabulous island with clear blue waters, nice sandy beaches, great snorkeling, and even better scuba diving. Snorkeling and scuba diving are the main attraction for visitors. It is also a cheap place to learn how to dive.

I have been wanting to get certified to scuba dive for awhile. Since Jim is already certified for the Open Water course, it would be more fun to dive together. :) While I was taking the Open Water course for four days, Jim relaxed in his hammock on our patio, and he spent some time reading in the seaside restaurant. He also enjoyed a couple of fun dives.

After finishing the Open Water scuba course, I did splurge on a spa day for a little rest and relaxation. The spa was situated in the hills overlooking Shark Bay on Koh Tao. The rooms were surrounded by these beautiful gardens and views of the bay. I enjoyed an herbal steam bath, an aloe vera wrap, a facial massage and a thai massage. It was a little over three hours of heaven! It was the perfect place to relax after four days of studying and diving.

Jim & I then decided to join the Advanced Open Water class together. The course focused on five different skills (night dive, peak performance bouyancy, navigation, naturalist and deep dive). It was alot of fun overall, and not quite as much classwork as the first course.

The deep dive (30 meters/90 feet) was my favorite dive. We went to Chumpon Pinnacle which were these cool rock formations underwater that were shaped like mountain peaks. There were lots of coral and sea life living on these formations. It was also one of our best dives for visibity. We could see for miles, or so it seemed.

As part of the class, our instructor Andrew took down an egg to show the pressure underwater. We broke open the egg and hit the yolk back and forth, similar to a ping pong ball. The bat fish love eating the eggs though, and a black bat fish ate the egg as soon as he could catch it.

More fun though, Jim participated in the Guiness Book of World Records for the Most People Scuba Diving Simultaneously. The new record is over 750 divers. Rover the Bear was there with him. The record was 570 divers in South Africa. Unfortunately for me, I was dealing with a little bit of food poisoning, and I missed out on the fun. I have a t-shirt though. :)

Scuba is pretty cool. There are lots of fabulous fish (barracuda, parrot fish, bat fish, banner fish, blue spotted sting rays, white-eyed moray eels and more)! We did between 9 and 11 dives in our final week, and we were pretty exhausted overall. Definitely worth it though!