28.11.06

During the last three days I was mainly diving. I am now a PADI certified Open Water Diver . I first was not sure whether I should do the course on Koh Tao or on Koh Phi Phi but then I decided for Koh Phi Phi as I wanted to stay a few days anyway. I also met a few divers who said that the visibility, the variety of fishes as well as the training are much better on Koh Phi Phi. And although the course costs about 3000 Bath more than on Koh Tao (on Koh Phi Phi it is 12500 Bath, no matter which of the eleven diving schools you choose), it probably was worth doing it now. At Princess Divers the staff was very friendly and we were only two persons in the course with an own instructor, On the first day even another girl which was doing her dive master was with us so we really could not complain about not getting enough supervision.

On the first day we watched learning videos, discussed the questions with an instructure and then went out to do some basic skills near the beach in two meters depth. On the second day we already did the first two dives at max. 12m depth and watched the rest of the videos in the afternoon. Although it was still a bit difficult to control the buoyancy on the first day it was much easier in deep water and it is really great to float around and feel like a fish in a big acquarium. On the third day we did two more dives at max. 18m depth and wrote the exam afterwards. The visibility on all dives was good (20-25m) and the variety of the underwater world really great. Of course I have no comparison yet (maybe I will do one more dive in Koh Tao) but we’ve seen several turtles, a lepard shark, lion fishes, scorpion fishes and many more, which I didn’t espect from a beginner course to be honest.

Right now I am sitting in the boat to Krabi. I will probably stay two nights at Railay beach which is famous for its rock climbing possibilities. Then I will continue my trip to the Eastern islands Koh Tao and Koh Phangan.

Categories: Getting around