#jdworldtour: Independence and Underwater

After my mates all left for back home I was pretty depressed - no idea when I am going to see them again.
The best way that I could think of to combat that problem was to go on a new adventure, on my own, to Koh Tao.

Now if you ask anyone that has ever travelled alone they will tell you that you are never really alone.

I had lunch with Fitzey at our usual for the last time. It was kinda cute - the guy the served us almost every day saw that we had our big packs with us and asked where we were headed and said goodbye and wished us well. The benefit of repeat customers I suppose!

I told Fitzey I wanted to do my own thing for a little while and head up to Koh Tao to check out diving. He was fine with it so within half an hour I had booked a hostel, taxi to the pier and a ferry up to Koh Tao.

I arrived mid afternoon to the hostel, had a shower, some food and sat outside for a little while. Before too long I noticed two girls walk in - a couple German girls that Chris and Fitzey had met at the Full Moon Party a few nights earlier whom I met through them. Like I said, never alone.

I spent the night with them, a Canadian dude they knew, a Scottish guy and a few others I'm not sure on the nationality of.

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The next day I was tossing up whether or not to hire a scooter and check out more of the island. The dive shop I had been recommended to go to was about 2.5km from my hostel and the heat was a bit of a killer.

I did some research and decided against it, so I walked.

I got to Mojo Divers and booked my course that day - 9000 baht with four nights accommodation. The course consisted of a couple hours of instructional videos, a confined water dive in ~2m water, more videos and an exam, finishing off with two dives on the third day and two more dives on the final day.

I borrowed a snorkel from the hostel and swam around Sairee Beach - the most popular beach on Koh Tao.

I sat on the beach, read my book and worked on my tan for a little before heading back to the hostel and getting ready for that night's diving course.

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The next morning I had to get up bright an early for a 9am start to go over the coursework for the diving (we had homework.. and here I thought I was on holiday), followed by the confined water skills tests.

The coursework was easy; read a book and do a reading comprehension style questionnaire.

At midday we headed out to the boat, had our briefing and set up our own gear under supervision of our instructor. Mojo run maximum four people to an instructor so it was very hands on and easy to learn the skills.

Dive equipment is all pretty well refined these days and everything plugs in and tightens where it is meant to go without any difficulty at all.

We suited up, swam out to the dive site and began the skills test.

After submerging for the first time, my mask started filling up with water - before I had learnt the mask clearing skills. I managed to breath water in through my nose and freaked out, ripping my mask off, spitting my regulator (breather) out and surfacing - probably the worst possible things I could have done.

I managed to regain my composure and finish the rest of the skills without too much difficulty at all - it helped that the instructor lent me his mask which didnt leak as badly as the shop one I had to begin with!

The skills consisted of;

regulator recovery - taking the breather out underwater, clearing it and continue breathing

mask clearing - taking off your mask underwater, putting back on and blowing out through your nose to clear it

out of air - turning off the tank and breathing from a buddy's regulator (each suit has two regs)

buoyancy control - learning how to float with the buoyancy vest

BCV removal - taking off the buoyancy compensator vest (BCV) underwater and on the surface

weight belt removal - taking off and replacing the weight belt underwater and on the surface

and a few other less interesting things.

Above is the dive site, taken from the boat.

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The next morning I had an even earlier start - 8am. This day started off with more instructional videos - yay.

This was followed up with the exam. 50 multiple choice questions. The instructor said "we promote teamwork here at Mojo's .. but dont cheat ... but you can talk", and left the room. After comparing answers everyone scored very highly, only one or two wrong. Easy stuff.

Then it was on to the dive. We returned to the same dive site as the previous day but this time actually ventured out into the depths.

The first dive was somewhat scary. The four of us with the instructor descended along a rope from a buoy to a depth of around 10m. I had a lot of trouble trying to equalise my ears and had a bit of pain, but once reaching the bottom it seemed to subside... or I got used to it, not sure which.

Unfortunately they don't allow the use of GoPro camera's or similar on the Open Water course due to the fact that people may not concentrate on diving and instead chase fish. Very disappointing.

It was great fun trying to swim around underwater, playing with buoyancy in the vest and swimming. I didnt really see all that much as I was more concentrating on swimming and breathing that anything else.

When it was time to surface my instructor pointed out that I had a blood nose - I was concerned. He said it was nothing to worry about and that it happens with new divers and may have been a result of my resurfacing too quickly.

Time really flies when you are under water. When we got back to the boat the instructor asked how long he thought we were under - I was thinking it was only 10-15 minutes. 27 minutes. Crazy.

The next dive of the day was a lot more fun. We descended again down a rope to 12 meters and saw a tonne of fish. I had problems with my ears once more but tried to forget about it and enjoy the dive. It really is a very peaceful activity; its relatively effortless as all you have to do is gently kick and the weight belt and buoyancy vest take care of the rest.

Once more, when I surfaced, I had a blood nose. Now I was starting to grow concerned. I later read that it is caused by insufficient equalising while diving - something I had a lot of trouble doing.

For the rest of the day I had a "water in the ear" feeling and couldnt hear well out of my right ear in particular. I have had problems with ear wax in the past so thought that it might have been that blocking my ear canal. I bought some ear drops to try to clear it up.

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The next morning I woke up at 5:45am ready for my 6am morning dive. My ears were not much better than they were previously. I explained my situation to the guys at the dive shop and they said that I couldnt dive until my ears were sorted.

I saw a doctor and was prescribed anti-inflammatory pills to fix the problem.

===

Today I had to decided to hire a scooter from my hostel. 200 baht (~$8) per day, it seemed like a good way to see the island.

Paul, a pom from my hostel, said he'd tag along with me to check out a couple view points around the island. I decided to go for a quick ride to get used to the scooter before taking a pillion - my first time riding one after all.

I rode up the hill from my hostel which quickly turned into a dirt road and I dropped it coming around a corner at a relatively low speed on a dirt road - great. Prior to hiring, all of the existing damage was pointed out to me and I was shown the cost's associated with damage. I scraped up one of the mirrors pretty bad but the rest was all where existing damage had occurred - we will see how much I have to pay when I return it...

After getting more used to the scooter, Paul jumped on and we headed up - the same hill - to the Mango Viewpoint.

The road was rather treacherous - dirt with a tonne of pot holes everywhere, but I made it up without stacking it (again). At the top I noticed all the other scooters that were up there had nobbly tires and mine had slicks, probably explains my difficulty!

We then cruised back down the hill - very slowly - and headed to the south of the island to Freedom Beach. The road here was much easier, paved most of the way with only a few potholes to negotiate.