Thailand - Koh Tao

This one's a story about how fear won. How sometimes we give up, take a bow and admit that this was not meant to be. Scuba Diving. Koh Tao is one of the world's cheapest and best dive sites. I had been steeling myself for this. Snorkeling had not been that big a scare. It had actually been a lot of fun. Barring the initial few seconds of jitters, I had managed pretty well. Even though I say so myself! So I thought - Hell how big a deal can scuba be! Instead of being on the surface, you got to be a few feet below.

Koh Tao

After a day and a half in Koh Samui, we reached Koh Tao by ferry in the morning. We chose Scuba Junction for our dive instructors. One of the best there and definitely recommended. So, the first hour was spent taking in instructions. Hand gestures for OK, Not good, Move, Stop and so on. Our instructor kept telling us that we got to keep breathing under water. Well if you don't, your lungs might just collapse. :-/ So, that and a whole lot of other instructions later, we went to pick our gear. To find scuba gear for S was a tough one. I think they picked from the kid's section. :P

Scuba Junction

Next we boarded the scuba boat and headed near the dive site for the first practice session. Wore our cool scuba gears, donned the insanely heavy oxygen cylinder and jumped in. The practice round happens in shallow waters. We were taught how to breathe under water, how to clean the eye masks and so on. I remember the instructor was fairly impressed with my skills. :P In my head, I felt like a pro. Just that, the main dive remained. Bleh..piece of cake! So, our first dive was from where we were practicing to the place where the boat was stationed. And then, fear took over. I don't know what it is about being under water, that gets me in a  frenzy. But then, that's how it is. I like land under my feet. Solid good old firm ground. S and I were a tag team, so the poor thing got all messed up with my splashing around.
There was a second dive, which I refused for sanity's sake. S was so bogged down by the weight of the cylinders, she didn't have the heart to put them on again. Which I think was a pretty bad idea. Her inhibitions for all things adventurous and wild are so low, am quite sure she would've loved it. Well, some other time, some other dive site. Panny went for the second dive and came back supremely happy. :) Naren opted out thanks to ear ache. So, that was the story of our scuba diving experience. As far as I am concerned, giving up is not my thing. So, maybe in a later post, you might just read about how I tried again. Whether I was successful or not is immaterial. One's got to keep at it like that Badger video. Have you seen it? Gives quite a sense of continuity this one! :D

Dive Certificates!

 I did get a Beginner's certificate for the dive. Barely a solace for the debacle I was. :) The evening was spent watching the nicest sunset I have ever seen! I don't have any pics around the dive, since we didn't carry any cameras then. But what I do have are the sunset pics at Sairee beach. The sea turned an amazing shade of yellow and orange and purple. We were bone tired and the evening was spent quietly with a bit of inebriation on the rocks. Walked along the beach, watched a spectacular fire show and then sat on the beach for a long time over bits of conversation and comfortable silences.

On the rocks!

Fire show at Sairee

Stunning sunset at Sairee

Many hours were spent here

The next morning was a lazy one which was again spent on one of the beach side places with a book. One last boisterous stop remained for this trip. Koh Phangaan and the Full Moon Party. :)

Morning with the books by the beach

The contact details for Scuba Junction - Scuba Junction
10/4 Moo 1 Koh Tao , Koh Phangan 
koh tao Surat Thani 84280 THAILAND
Tel: 077456164 - 5 
Fax: 077456013
Email: info@scuba-junction.com
Website: http://www.scuba-junction.com
Price: 2000 Bahts for Intro dive and additional 850 Bahts for the second dive.