Certified Scuba Diver

Well the pub crawl was good fun.

For 400 baht you get a free bucket, a pub crawl singlet, and a few free shots at the different bars you go to.

I lined up and paid, received my token for the free bucket and was told to see the next guy for the singlet. I put the drink token in my pocket automatically. The next guy then handed me a singlet and another drink token - score!

I was very much out of my comfort zone attending such an event completely on my own. I managed to start talking to a few Germans that were in the line behind me and spent most of the night hanging out with them - and getting free drinks along the way!

One of the stops along the way was a Ladyboy Caberet show - again, only in Thailand.

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The next day I had to check out of my hostel that was provided for the diving and into another one nearby, a place called Spicytao. At 200 baht per night it was pretty cheap - and the facilities reflected this.

The hostel was spread out of a large area, almost in a jungle, with individual little buildings as dorms. No air con (only fans), no hot water, toilets that had to be flushed manually via bucket..

The hostel had a good atmosphere though; that night when I checked in they had an all you can eat barbecue dinner which was attended by the 35+ people from the hostel. The majority of people then followed this up with a lot more drinking, dancing and hooking up. I had to dive at 6am the next morning so opted to have a quieter night and found some more tame poms to chat with.

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The next morning I woke up at 5:30am to get to the dive shop by 6. A quick stop by 7-Eleven for a ham, egg and cheese toasty (the best thing ever in Thailand, and also the only thing open at this time) and I was at the shop - first person there.

Mojo like to do early dives because the waters are more calm and you can see more - before the rest of the dive shops get out. We should have been the first boat to arrive but had to wait for the second instructor to join us ... he never showed. Apparently a bunch from the dive shop had drinks the night before and one of the instructors must have slept through his alarm! Great.

We got out to the dive site - Chunpon Pinnacle at about 7:15am, second boat there. Chunpon was in the middle of the ocean, just a big underwater rock formation off the island.

The third and fourth dives were so much better for me. Now that my ears had cleared up and I could properly equalise I really enjoyed the dive so much more - and no blood nose on resurfacing!

We had a few more skills to practise - taking off the mask at 18m and clearing being one of them.

I got back to the mainland around 10:45am, just over an hour before the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix was due to start!

I sat down at Choppers - the Australian pub next door to the dive shop - and watched the race. I sipped on my Chang beer and ate Green Curry. Love it.

I ended up almost falling asleep during the race - waking up early is a killer! Plus the damn Mercedes were dominating and it didnt look like young Ricciardo was going to get up to a decent position so I left to go sleep at the hostel.

I had a nap and woke up to a cat sitting on my bed right next to me, staring at me. It then laid down next to me and made itself at home ... no worries mate!

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I decided that I needed to do a fun dive the next day and finally get some underwater GoPro footage, and I'm glad I did. With every dive it just gets more and more fun. You're more relaxed, free to go explore more and you can really take it all in better.

Once certified you can go out on "fun dives" which, in Koh Tao, are only 800 baht each (~$32aud). You are taken out with a Dive Master, which is one certification level down from Dive Instructor, the first level in which you can earn money as a diver.

There were only three of us on the dive, we got dropped off on the way to the sites that the other open water trainees were diving at. Myself, the dive master, Will, and a DMT (dive master trainee), Jake.

One of the coolest things at the first dive site, Red Rock, was the swim through. You have to literally swim through an underwater cave. It was a good test of buoyancy control and a fun exercise to do. I made it through without too much difficulty!

The second dive at Noname Pinnacle was amazing; saw some incredible stuff - see below!

Blue Spotted Stingray by Jason Dunsford.

School of Chevron Barracuda by Jason Dunsford.

I also managed to pick up how to blow bubble rings without too much difficulty, super cool!

Bubble Rings by Jason Dunsford.

That night I had a night boat to Bangkok to catch. I rocked up really late on the boat (a few minutes before it was meant to leave) and instead of sleeping on the top deck with all the foreigners had to sleep on the bottom deck with all the Thais and the engine noise .. great!

Lucky I had headphones and could fall asleep listening to music. Shitty accommodation and amenities are character building - at leas that's what I tell myself!

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Unfortunately its not all fun and games while traveling. I have managed to pick up about six different infected wounds on both of my legs, from both mozzie bites and just cuts from thongs/shoes/fins rubbing on stuff.

Today I had to go to the Bangkok hopsital to get it checked out and have been given a course of antibiotics and antibiotic cream to apply twice daily to clear it up. In the mean time my ankles are swollen and it hurts to walk, good times!

Tomorrow morning I jump on a bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia. A twelve hour bus ride to look forward to..

I will miss Thailand, but luckily I will be back after Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos in that order. Havent hit up northern Thailand yet so it will happen!

I'm also feeling like I have to go back to Koh Tao to complete the advanced diving course - a further 8000 baht gets you certified to 30m and you get to do a night dive! Koh Tao is the cheapest place in the world for diving certifications so why not?!