As the title suggests, one of the cheapest places in the world if not the cheapest to get scuba diving qualifications is on Koh Tao island in Thailand. But that doesn't mean the quality is less, I survived after all.
Before I went to Koh Tao I was on Koh Samui, an island near Koh Tao and strangely enough, the price for the same course was the same as it would have been in most developed countries, around the equivalent of $400 USD.. I checked cause I was curious to see if it's notorious neighbor island would have any competitive influence on Koh Samui's Scuba prices. Nope, so I took a ferry over to the super touristy Koh Tao.
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| motorbike I rented in Koh Samui |
Then I walked into a place called Phoenix Divers.
The guy behind the counter said that I should choose their company "because we have a pink boat!"
then I thought ... "hmmm, that's actually a really good point" and bought the course.
In case you can't read my shitty blurry picture, the price was 8,500 Baht.
Which is a pretty good deal considering that price included not only the course but also 4 nights accommodation here:
I also found a litter of puppies at the resort. But the mother tried to attack me if I got too close
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| this is too close |
Before the class, I was not afraid of diving. I mean lots of people do it so, I was just excited for it
But on the first day, they showed us an informative educational video about it. I learned a few things about diving which I didn't know before and it sounded absolutely fucking terrifying.
1. You can't go up too fast! I always thought that if I ran out of oxygen or had some type of disastrous equipment error, I could just float up to the top and its no big deal.... WRONG.
Apparently, nitrogen builds up and dissolves into the blood more and more the deeper down we dive, turning from gas to liquid... and going up causes it to turn from liquid back into gas and bubble from the blood. yikes! o.O
and that's why we have to go up slowly or else we'll become a bloody can of soda and die.
2. The deeper you dive the more drunk you become. They said that nitrogen dissolving into blood is thought to be harmless, however, it makes you feel gooood. and that euphoria gets stronger with deeper levels.. My instructor even said that people who dive deep regularly tend to acquire better alcohol tolerance. While this may sound nice, feeling loopy with possible impaired judgment in a deep wet abyss sounds terrifying.
3. You can't take an airplane for 24 hours. This isn't actually so scary because its easily avoidable. Although imagine the awful pain if one were to forgot about this rule. It's unnerving to think that the body is so altered by the dive that taking an airplane for some scientific reason is deadly.
4. You must breathe constantly or it hurts. For some other scientific reason it is required to continuously exhale or inhale. Another student I met at the resort told me that he stopped breathing for a few seconds and found himself in tremendous pain.
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At the end of the video, I was feeling quite dismayed. I had met so many people around the world who love diving and talk about it casually so it seemed up until then like a relatively common normal activity to enjoy. I could hardly believe all the scary shitty shit the video and my instructor was saying.
There was no diving that day though, just educational studying. For the rest of the day I enjoyed exploring the island to the best of my ability with the idea of my future possible demise lingering in my head.
Anyway Koh Tao was small, which I liked because I could walk anywhere. But it was also very touristy.
however, I did try the limbo.
The day came for me to learn diving. The first dive was in the resorts pool... but that was actually a bit scary because during one of the exercises the instructor shuts off our air and we have to grab the emergency backup breather thingy and use it to breathe instead.
we were supposed to do an ocean dive that day but it ended up being postponed and the next day we went diving 3 times.
I asked and I wasn't allowed to film using my GoPro since the dives were part of a class to learn how to dive. However, there was one guy there who was diving with us but wasn't taking the class becasue he already had his diving license and he paid to dive for fun along with his girlfriend who was taking the class.
I asked him if he would take a brief film of me diving. I always find a way to get what I want.
For whatever reason, my right ear took a lot longer to acclimate compared to everyone else during our dives. :/ It eventually did but I wasn't able to descend quite as quickly without pain. Finally my ear adjusted and I tried to catch up.. however, other diving groups were also in the same vicinity as us.. which ended up making me lost because I accidentally started swimming with another group which I thought was Phoenix. Realizing this, I turned the other way and became all alone..One of the core diving safety rules is to never dive alone.
Then the visibility gradually declined and I was surrounded by fish and fog totally lost with water seeping into my mask.. I had no idea where I was swimming to so I decided to ascend..
I probably ascended a bit quicker than I should have but I felt alright. After reaching the surface, I took a few breaths of outside air and then re-descended. My ears acclimated quicker maybe because I hadn't been up very long.
One of the instructors left to search for me in the watery abyss, but he never found me.. I was able to obtain better visibility by going from above to below and found the group as I descended upon them. The instructor seemed impressed that I found them on my own.
1. You can't go up too fast! I always thought that if I ran out of oxygen or had some type of disastrous equipment error, I could just float up to the top and its no big deal.... WRONG.
Apparently, nitrogen builds up and dissolves into the blood more and more the deeper down we dive, turning from gas to liquid... and going up causes it to turn from liquid back into gas and bubble from the blood. yikes! o.O
and that's why we have to go up slowly or else we'll become a bloody can of soda and die.
2. The deeper you dive the more drunk you become. They said that nitrogen dissolving into blood is thought to be harmless, however, it makes you feel gooood. and that euphoria gets stronger with deeper levels.. My instructor even said that people who dive deep regularly tend to acquire better alcohol tolerance. While this may sound nice, feeling loopy with possible impaired judgment in a deep wet abyss sounds terrifying.
3. You can't take an airplane for 24 hours. This isn't actually so scary because its easily avoidable. Although imagine the awful pain if one were to forgot about this rule. It's unnerving to think that the body is so altered by the dive that taking an airplane for some scientific reason is deadly.
4. You must breathe constantly or it hurts. For some other scientific reason it is required to continuously exhale or inhale. Another student I met at the resort told me that he stopped breathing for a few seconds and found himself in tremendous pain.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the end of the video, I was feeling quite dismayed. I had met so many people around the world who love diving and talk about it casually so it seemed up until then like a relatively common normal activity to enjoy. I could hardly believe all the scary shitty shit the video and my instructor was saying.
Anyway Koh Tao was small, which I liked because I could walk anywhere. But it was also very touristy.
When the night came, I checked my Facebook and saw a message from someone I met many months ago in Australian while on a tour to Uluru He wrote, "are you in Koh Tao right now?" I thought "how the hell does he know that?? I didn't inform anybody publicly" and I replied that I was indeed on the island. He then replied " I think I saw you walking!"
What a coincidence that I happened to run into someone I knew totally unplanned on a tiny island.
Alex the bad ass was there to get the next level scuba certification after the basic open water one which I was getting. When I met with him I ended up hanging out with him and a big group of Koreans he was with. One of his friends told me that he actually enjoyed stinky tofu... weird.
That night we happened upon a fire jope rump open to the public on the beach.. I totally would have tried it if I hadn't been wearing loose long-sleeve pants that would have likely caught on fire.
however, I did try the limbo.
The day came for me to learn diving. The first dive was in the resorts pool... but that was actually a bit scary because during one of the exercises the instructor shuts off our air and we have to grab the emergency backup breather thingy and use it to breathe instead.
we were supposed to do an ocean dive that day but it ended up being postponed and the next day we went diving 3 times.
I asked and I wasn't allowed to film using my GoPro since the dives were part of a class to learn how to dive. However, there was one guy there who was diving with us but wasn't taking the class becasue he already had his diving license and he paid to dive for fun along with his girlfriend who was taking the class.
I asked him if he would take a brief film of me diving. I always find a way to get what I want.
The diving conditions which are normally tropically beautiful and clear happened to be gloomy with low visibility when I did it. The instructors told us its normally easier than how it was when we dived.
I got lost underwater :/
For whatever reason, my right ear took a lot longer to acclimate compared to everyone else during our dives. :/ It eventually did but I wasn't able to descend quite as quickly without pain. Finally my ear adjusted and I tried to catch up.. however, other diving groups were also in the same vicinity as us.. which ended up making me lost because I accidentally started swimming with another group which I thought was Phoenix. Realizing this, I turned the other way and became all alone..One of the core diving safety rules is to never dive alone.
Then the visibility gradually declined and I was surrounded by fish and fog totally lost with water seeping into my mask.. I had no idea where I was swimming to so I decided to ascend..
I probably ascended a bit quicker than I should have but I felt alright. After reaching the surface, I took a few breaths of outside air and then re-descended. My ears acclimated quicker maybe because I hadn't been up very long.
One of the instructors left to search for me in the watery abyss, but he never found me.. I was able to obtain better visibility by going from above to below and found the group as I descended upon them. The instructor seemed impressed that I found them on my own.
After diving so much that day, I felt exhausted but to my relief I passed the class and became scuba qualified.
on to the next adventure..
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