Just dive it! (Koh Tao)

Hi All! It's been a while since I have been able to post, or spend any time on the computer.

We left our hostel on Friday evening and headed up to Kho San Road to spend some time before our bus departed. 

After spending nearly 10 hours on a "VIP" double decker bus, we then boarded a high speed catamaran, and set off for Koh Tao.
We arrived in Koh Tao last week Saturday to do part one of our dive/trekking package. Koh Tao is down south on the peninsula, off shore a ways and it is one of the smaller islands here. It is known for its diving, and it is THE place to go diving. My friend Ryan and I were both "open water" scuba certified before arriving here, and so we came with the intention of doing our "advanced open water" certification. Advanced certification entails doing 1. a dive up to 30 meters (98 feet!) 2. a night dive (scary!) and then 3 other dives including a navigation dive, a naturalist dive (identifying different creatures) and a buoyancy performance dive (which I needed very much!). We got settled in Saturday, and started our diving on Sunday morning. When you go out diving here, everyone/all different levels go out together on the same boat and you do two dives, at two different dive sites. The first dive was our "deep" dive. 100 feet, that's right! It was AMAZING! We got down to 30 meters and started swimming around. We saw a giant grouper and a million billion other fish, including barracuda, angel fish, all kinds of corals and invertebrates, and so so many things that I cannot even remember. The deep dive was one of my favorites. The diving is incredible here!

We completed 5 dives over the course of two days. I loved the entire process of diving, from descending the line, to coming up the line, passing your fins up to the boat, and getting out of the water. I am deeply considering continuing my dive training.
In addition to diving, Koh Tao was a lot of fun, and a terrific change away from Bangkok. We rode all over the island on mopeds and had a terrific time all around. 

 This was the view off of our second bungalow. It was so quiet and peaceful, you felt so happy to just enjoy the atmosphere.

This photo was at our new favorite place, Bubaloo's, which let you just relax, day or night, and view the stars, or the many fire dances they have going on each evening.
For our last day on Koh Tao, we took a snorkeling tour around the island, stopping at various locations for some time to snorkel. My favorite was "Shark Bay", where I had the pleasure of seeing a black tip reef shark swimming under us! It was actually not scary at all, like I might have imagined it to be. One thing in particular that has completely dissolved since I began scuba diving is my fear of the ocean, its depths, and its inhabitants. Sure, some of them can kill you, but diving has given me a bigger respect and appreciation for all things aquatic! 

After reluctantly leaving Koh Tao, we boarded another ferry boat and headed back toward the main island, then preparing to board a sleeper train for the long haul back to Bangkok.

 Here you see my tiny sleeper tomb, which allowed me a real night of sleep on a transportation vehicle! Much better than the VIP bus, no thank you, not for 10-12 hours!


We arrived in Bangkok this morning and are now back at Lub d hostel, doing errands and well, cutting hair again! It is becoming a tradition to give me a haircut each time we come to Bangkok. Luckily, we will be gone for a little while, or I may end up bald soon!

So, now that I have sort of reconnected with my blogging, and have for the most part caught up with it, I will head out to Chiang Mai tomorrow night on yet another sleeper train. In Chiang Mai, we will go up to Pai, and go trekking in the jungle, bamboo river raft riding, white water rafting, elephant riding, and who knows what else! We will stay in Chiang Mai a while and then head over to Laos most likely, for a border run, and also to continue on our journey. 
Until my next post!
xoxo