It took 8 days before I left Bangkok and headed south to the legendary islands of Thailand. My destination was to be the stunning triplets of Ko Tao, Ko Samui, and Ko Pha-Ngan. I boarded a night train from Bangkok to Chumphon and tried to sleep the night away as the train teetered along the tracks southbound. I wasn’t in a private sleeper car; so all seats on the train car transformed into a lower and upper bunk with a curtain to maintain some privacy. The 8 hour train ride left me with little sleep and a few sore muscles.
We arrived in Chumphon around 5:00AM the next morning, and after about an hour boarded a bus for the pier. We then hopped on a ferry and were on our way to Ko Tao, the first of my stops. Ko Tao is famous for its incredible cheap and good scuba diving courses. It is one of the cheapest places to get a scuba diving certificate, and Ko Tao certifies more people every year than any other place in the world. We reached shore but I wasn’t ready to yet earn my gills underwater. I decided to spend a few days chilling in a bungalow that faced the beach and was about 40 yards to the water. For $15 I was living an island dream. I spent two days cavorting around the tiny island, comparing dive shops and indulging in some amazing Thai and barbecue food. Two days passed before I had picked a winner: Ban’s Diving Resort.
Ban’s cycles through diving certificates like North Carolina cycles through potential NBA superstars. It is the biggest and most popular diving resort on not just the island, but the entire world. According to Lonely Planet, Ban’s certifies more people per year than any other place in the world. I was worried about too many people vying for classroom and underwater time, but this being low season meant it was fairly deserted, and we only had 7 people in our class.
It took three days to complete my Open Water Certificate, and by that time I was thoroughly hooked. There was no question I wanted to continue on to my Advanced Open Water Certificate. Two days and 5 dives later, I had accomplished my Advanced as well. We packed in some amazing dives the last two days, including a night dive, a wreck dive, and a photography dive. Five days, nine dives, and one very happy Creets. I am already contemplating getting my Rescue Diver Certification and possibly moving on to become a Master Diver. First, though, I need to get a bunch more dives in as I head around Thailand and Indonesia, the diving meccas of South-East Asia.
These pictures are AWESOME! I want to scuba dive.
So, do they loan you a camera on the photography dive? I’m just guessing that your new camera isn’t waterproof 🙂
Yeah it was amazing. I can’t wait to go again.
For two of our dives in the Advanced Open Water training (the wreck dive and the photography dive) they loaned us a camera. Even though the camera I was given malfunctioned once I reached a depth of 13 meters (due to the pressure) I still think I got some pretty cool photos.
The first picture and the one of the fish concealing himself are my favorites. The concealing one is somewhat freaky, I couldn’t see it at first then when I found it, it kind of creeped me out 🙂
Very Awesome! More pictures please!
More coming…
Wow Brian. How exciting. I actually took an intro to scuba class a few weeks ago. It was just the basics, how to breathe under water and how to get yourself back to the surface in a 10 foot pool. LOL. I had a good time and would love to actually go do some ocean scuba :). Your blogs are well written and it sounds like you are learning and seeing so much.
I really had a great time and am looking forward to doing some more diving in Indonesia.
I am seeing and learning a lot – hopefully the blog entries will continue to improve and keep giving you a sense of what each place is like and the interesting things I discover there.
Is the flooding in Thailand affecting you at all?
So far it has not affected me. It is worst between the northern edge of Bangkok and south of Chiang Mai. I will be flying to Chiang Mai so won’t have to worry about the intermediary zone. They have been canceling trains/buses overland from Bangkok anywhere north up to Chiang Mai due to the flooding so I’m glad I booked a flight. I fly to Indonesia in 3 weeks so hopefully when I come back to Thailand after that the floods will have subsided.
Found this site…http://www.travelfish.org/blogs/bangkok/
Maybe it can offer some help/info with your travels.
Thanks Kurt – that’s definitely a great link and will help a lot with what the current situation really is.
I’m actually worried too about all the standing water becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes and then the very real possibility of malaria or dengue fever.
Great pics…ur blogs are very interesting too..have fun and take care..
Thanks Akshata – hope you are doing well and I will continue to be safe so I can have lots of interesting stories to tell you once I’m back in the States.