Ko Toa

Ko Toa is a really small island north of Ko Pangan. From Samui we paid 500 Baht each and caught a high speed catamarang to Ko Toa via Pangan which took about 1 and a half hours, pretty quick considering it takes about 40 mins to get to Samui from Pangan on a normal ferry. Both of us were absolutely delighted to leave Samui and we had been hearing pretty good things about Ko Toa so things were looking up.

I was still a bit under the weather on arrival and hadn't touched a drink in a few days and to be honest I was, and still am, pretty bored of getting wrecked all of the time. So I had been thinking about signing up for a 4 day scuba diving course as a few people that we've met are divers and recommended I give it a try. On arrival at Mae Haad pier, I walked into Easy Divers and sat down with Gannon, an american instructor who talked us through the pricung structure and what the PADI Open Water course entails. It costs about 150 GBP for a 4 day couse, 6 dives and 4 nights accomodation which is pretty cheap for the course and it's supposed to be cheaper than most places in the world.

The accomodation we're staying in is easily the most rustic we've had. A small bugalow with double bed, dodgy bathroom in the middle of a small jungle. Fortunately we upgraded to air con and we're the first hut on the resort so we're doing well escaping contact with all of the critters. A couple of Australian lads we met were staying a bit further up the resort and had been eaten alive by mosquitos, had rats eating in their bungalow and had the pleasure of living with a couple of resident spiders.... so I think we're doing ok with a few mozzies, ants and roaches.

So, I had ahead of me two 8.30am starts in the classroom follwed by a 7.30am start for the last day of diving. All of the academic stuff is a load of bollocks. We've watched too many videos of amercianised bull shit it was starting to get tiresome. Fortunately, Gannon is a quality instructor and talked through the techincal stuff in baby talk and we all started to get our heads round it. There were 5 of us in the class, myself, Craig from the Isle of Man, Lyle from Sydney and Sally and Leanne from the UK. It was a pretty good group to be fair and we worked well as a team.

On the first day the plan was to take a boat ride to one of the small bays on the south side of Ko Toa. Kev joined us to go snorkling, he didn't sign up for the course as he's tried it before and suffered from claustrophobia. After getting geared up, we had to jump in the water and swim to the shallows, keeping afloat while we waited for everyone else. We had to breathe through our regulators on the way to the shore to practise. For the first 5 minutes I thought that there would be no way that I could do it, I found it really difficult to breathe out through the regulator. Moreover, we had to take our masks off and breathe through the regulator and I could help but try to breathe through my nose so I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to do it.

After that, we had to go down about 2m in the shallows and do a few excercises. I was starting to get the hang of it a bit by then so I was gaining confidence and starting to enjoy it. We took a swim underwater back to the boat for about 10 mins for a bit of a fun dive before getting back on the boat. After a shaky start I was really starting to enjoy it. We had another dive later that day and since then I've had 4 proper dives in total with 2 fun dives. I've seen about 4 or 5 different sites, loads of lushreefs and beautiful fish, a 3 clown fish (nemos), 2 sting rays and a sea snake. I passed the exam so now I'm certified as an PADI Open Water diver which means I can dive to 18m anywhere in the world with no professional assistance. I enjoyed it that much I'm starting a 2 day advanced course tomorrow which will enable me to dive to 30m and go on night dives. There's no classroom bollocks, it's just 5 dives in 2 days, can't wait ;0)

I've had a day off from diving today so went out for a few beers with Kev last night, didn't have a late one though. Today, we've caught a bit of sun and grabbed a bite to eat, but the hightlight was a 1 hour Muay Thai Boxing training session at the local ring with some local trainers. Fuck me those guys worked us hard, ended up dripping in sweat hardly able to stand up. I have a grading in Muay Thai so it was coming back to me a bit with the roundhouse kicks; we've both signed up for another 3 sessions so looking forward to them.

Ko Toa is beautiful. It's a proper diving resort so there aren't many dick heads and it's not overly commercial. Given that the diving's awesome and we're both into Thai Boxing I reckon we might be staying here for a few more days.