Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Under The Sea

When Sebastien told Ariel that life was better under the sea I think he was right. This week I completed my open water diver certification course on the island of Koh Tao, one of the most well-known and cheapest places to dive in the world. Many people come to learn how to dive but end up loving it so much that they become instructors and never leave; now I can understand why.


6:30 AM dive

I got my certification at Big Blue Diving Resort. It cost $300 (which included four nights accommodation), took three days and included four dives. There were 6 of us in the class from all over the world: the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil and Spain, plus a Finnish instructor.


Big Blue Diving

We started off in the pool to learn the basics skills and get a feel for the equipment, then into the ocean we went. I had no idea how cool it would feel to get to spend an extended amount of time underwater seeing all kinds of exotic marine life. Divers aren't able to speak to one another using words (they use hand signals instead) which creates and incredibly calm and peaceful environment (unless you get told off by the instructor's hands for doing something wrong!) It was definitely one of the most extraordinary experiences I have had in my travels thus far.


'Twins' dive site

So I now have my open water diver certification, which means I am qualified to dive up to 18m pretty much anywhere in the world. I liked diving so much that I actually decided to stay on Koh Tao an extra two days and do my advanced open water certification which will allow me to dive down to 30m and include more interesting dives, such as ship wrecks and night dives. Not a bad way to spend the week before Christmas if you ask me!


Off on our early morning dive

On the boat

The whole crew

"Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?
Under the sea
Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full time to floatin'
Under the sea"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, very cool!
Brenda

Wondering and Wandering said...

Really cool :) thanks for reading Brenda!