Friday, March 13, 2009

Diving in Koh Tao

I finally got a PADI open water diving certification after a four-day trip to Koh Tao with Maggie Cheung and Neomie Lenoir.

So in effect the trip did not feel like a holiday at all coz we were studying every evening - things like diving equipments, respiration, breathing air at depth, compass navigation, and using the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, recreational diving plan (some bleeding matrix).

We did not even get wasted in the evenings coz we had pages and pages to review for an exam that we took every day. Besides, obviously it is very dangerous to dive when you have a hangover. So we were studying like crazy instead.

We used the services of Planet Scuba Koh Tao with our South African instructor, Ash, who ends virtually all his sentences with "cool". He is a cool guy indeed, and very supportive at that. One time, I dropped my mask to a depth of about 15 meters, and he had to dive down to pick it for me. I apologized profusely but he was fine with it.

We took a total of five dives, with depths ranging from about three meters, all the way down to roughly fifteen meters. We did get a glimpse of the majestic underwater world of Koh Tao, supposedly Thailand's diving mecca.

I was not quite impressed with the corals though, neither with the variety of fish and marine creatures. I remember Puerto Galera, where I went snorkeling once, had a more vibrant underwater environment. But for what it's worth, Koh Tao is a wonderful place to dive in, and some of its beaches are quite stunning.

Aside from scuba diving, on our free time we rode on motorbikes to explore some snorkeling areas on the southern tip of the island. Neomie Lenoir supposedly saw some small sharks (I forgot what they're called), but I did not join him all the way to the sharks coz I panicked and had to swim back to shore when I realized that the water was dark and deep (haler, what else can it be, aber?).

One afternoon, we also climed Two View, a section of one of Koh Tao's hills, that has a panoramic view of the eastern and western sides of the island. We had one majestic sunset the day we climbed the hill (actually, we took a 4WD truck and hiking was only like 1/8th of the trip).

So there, I'm wearing a delicious tan right now. I just love it to bits. Also, I have one small cut on my right knee when I scraped it on a coral on our first dive. A scar... I'll remember this diving trip though a scar. Sigh.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! great you got your Open Water certification, and congratulations for it!

I got mine in Phuket, but unlike you I only slept like no more than 4 hours each night and had plenty of alcohol indeed. Definitely not a good idea but I couldn't waste time! lol

In my defence I had read half of the book before I landed though...

fuchsiaboy said...

wait ka sa lte trip to siem reap. day! lifestyle asia ang peg! mala-vanity fair.

parang si peter beard lang ang nagkuha ng pictures.

btw, mukhang yummy yung si noemi ha. sya na ba ang bago mo?

mwah!

at tse daw sabi ni rey, mike and ace.

Luis Batchoy said...

bakit sya may maskara? si kalbo guy? hihihihihi

Gayzha said...

Hmmmmm.... adrenalin pumping adventure! Kainiz I have deep-sea-diving phobia ... vuti ka fa, you're now a certified sisid gurl!

The Dork One said...

nice trip!

i wanna do that too but deep waters freak me out

btw you're body's bangin!

hehe

why is guy's face covered?

echosero?

Anonymous said...

There will be a time in the future when you look back at your scar, and say I wish it was as easy as this.

kawadjan said...

hedonist: wow, i heard the diving in phuket is quite good as well. what do you think of it?

donita: i saw your pics na! gaga ka, you outwerqed all of them! hahahah. sorry, LTE. choz. and no, neomie is not my "bago". he is my future. choz!!!

luis: kase di ako nagpaalam that i would post his pics.

jaze: mega takot din kaya ako sa malalim na dagat, especially if it's dark.

alex: thanks to my diet of paper and patis i can keep my body fat to zero. choz! covered si neomie kase di nya alam tong blog na to.

was once: how profound of you. but really, it's an allusion to something, my statement and your comment. :-) thanks for dropping by...

Bianca La Plonguese said...

hi! so nice to know that you got certified already. hope i can go on a dive trip there again soon. i will let you know when i get that chance. i can't wait to see if you can have some underwater photos posted soon. :-)

kawadjan said...

bianca: sige, you should come to thailand for some diving. there's loads of diving sites here, daw. i don't have underwater photos though. :-)

Anonymous said...

Diving in Phuket was great, it was only two days, one of them was quite nice and another we took a speedboat to Phi Phi and was just amazing, got to do great diving and see some of the islands around too! On the first dive I got to see six black tip sharks, which was amazing! :)

Bkkdreamer said...

Tell me you are not wearing eye-shadow in that close-up pic of you in the wetsuit, darling. :)

kawadjan said...

hedonist: diving in phi phi! that should be a dream. now that you have the certification, you might want to come back to thailand again, coz i don't think you can do some diving in the UK, no?

bkk dreamer: gosh, how did you find out? AND blush, lip color, and a dash of bronzer.

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