Back in April I went diving for the first time. Completing my Open Water and Advanced Open Water certifications back to back, I then finished off my week with two fun dives, bringing my dive total to 11. I guess you could say I was quickly hooked.
So of course, already being down south for the meditation retreat, I had to return to Koh Tao for another week to get back to diving (and daily yoga classes). If my visa wasn't expiring I could have easily gotten stuck for many weeks just diving and doing yoga and I would be completely content. The simplicity of island life is hard to part from.
My preferred area of the island is Cholak, both for it's removed location (away from the main party beach) and the fact that it is the location of Ocean Sound Dive and Yoga. I got a week long yoga pass and decided I would dive every other day. This would give me 6 more dives and a chance to return to my favorite dive sites as well as one new one I had missed out on last time. Since these were all fun dives, I would get to do them all with the dive master (now an instructor too) of the boat, Norman. I had met him back in April because we did my final two fun dives together- the last one being extra exciting cause his o-ring malfunctioned causing us to end our dive early and do an air sharing accent. After an experience like that you just naturally become friends with the person, so we had stayed in contact a bit since April.
First morning back on the boat felt natural. I was too stoked (and used to waking up at 4am) to be tired from the 6am wake up call. Almost 6 months had passed since my previous dives, so I was hoping I would remember everything. Setting up my gear and then running through the pre-dive checks, it felt just like getting back on a bike. As I jumped off the boat and the salty water kissed my skin, I was back at home. Joining Norma and I was another dive master, Nana. Our little group of 3 was perfect. With 20 meter visibility, we descended down to Chumphon Pinnacle. On the first of our two dives (dive time: 41 minutes, max depth: 27.4 meters) we saw six lion fish, some batfish, white eyed eel, all sizes of barracudas, and some boxer shrimp. After some surface time, we went back down to the same site (dive time: 36 minutes, max depth: 24.2 meters) and this time saw a giant grouper, moon wrasse, Weibel's butteryfly fish, and a Spanish Mackerel (rare to see). We also saw the tinniest jellyfish with an even tinnier parasitic shrimp hanging out on top of it. Norman is incredibly knowledgeable on all the fish species and how to spot them. Love being able to dive and learn from him.
Sunday, I took the day off diving and did a double yoga day. For lunch I went to Coconut Monkey with Alex who was my instructor for both my OW and AOW in April. Always nice to catch up with people you weren't sure you'd get to see again after the first encounter.
Monday it was time to get back in the water. The first dive of the day was at the Shipwreck and Hin Pee Wee. I had dove this wreck during my AOW course and was excited to get back without having to practice any skills. We descended down to our max depth of 30 meters to start the dive. One circle around the base of the wreck and then we made our way to the top of the boat to check out the cannons. With enough air left in our tanks, we then swam over to Hin Pee Wee. Norman pointed out four Scorpion Fish and I also spotted a Crocodile Needlefish and two Porcupine Pufferfish. Of course we saw many other fish as well but those are the notable ones. Then out of the corner of my eye I see Norman make the signal for a Whale Shark. "What? No, I must have seen that wrong." I didn't see the Whale Shark, so I just stayed in line with Norman and followed his lead. Then there it was. My eyes lit up and I let out an excited scream.
He was beautiful, and big, and so close to us. Our group was Norman, me, Nana (another dive master), and two other divers (Melissa and Jan) who had just finished their AOW course the previous day. The five of us were the only ones with this beauty and we just swam with him while still giving him his space. However, at one point he turned to the left and just slowly swam towards me. I just held my ground cause I knew he would get close but never touch me. We were face to face and within about 3 meters of each other before he swam up and to my right. That's when his tail was right next to me and I could really gage just how big he was. At this point Jan had already gone through all his air and was using Norman's second. We lost site of the Whale Shark for a bit, and Nana and Norman lead us up to the surface. Melissa and Jan got back in the boat.
"How much air do you have left?" Norman asked me.
"50bar. Can we please go back down." I responded
"Okay, Yes, lets go."
Relieved cause I wasn't ready to call that enough with the Whale Shark we descended again. Everyone on the boat heard the news and many divers just jumped in with snorkels to try and spot him on the surface. The Whale Shark had circled back around, so Nana, Norman, and I followed him for a bit but then tons of other divers spotted him and began crowding around him. Since we had had lots of time with him already, we decided to stop chasing after him and just wait to see if he would circle back in our direction again. Our air was running very low at this point. Spotting a Great Barracuda, we watched him for a bit, and then made our way back the surface.
I took off my mask and had the biggest smile plastered on my face. Nana and I both let out yells of pure joy and Norman just laughed. We climbed back onto the boat after a 62 minute dive (20 of those minutes with the Whale Shark), completely over the moon. Next dive site of the day was White Rock (this would be my 5th time here). Good thing it's a solid dive site that usually has a good variety of creatures. Our second dive of the day wasn't nearly as incredible as the first, I mean how could it be unless we saw the Whale Shark again. However the visibility was good and during our 45 minute dive we saw a pipefish, white-eyes moray eel, blue spotted ray, and of course many other fish.
Fueled by the excitement, I was still high energy for the 6pm Vinyasa yoga class. Got in some solid headstand time, and was able to hold a side crow for the first time too.
What a day.
Again, I took another break from diving on Tuesday to keep with my every other day schedule. Morning yoga was then followed by a 5 mile round trip walk to get lunch. Cause it's always a good idea to walk through the heat of the midday sun. It was my way of being outside cause I knew if I just laid on the beach I'd be completely fried in a few minutes and I just didn't feel like dealing with that.
Today (Wednesday), is my last morning on the Island. I woke up at 5:30am, packed up my belongings and walked my two backpacks to the dive shop. Before my ten hours of travel this afternoon, I wanted to get in two more dives. Back to the sites that Norman and I first dove together (Southwest and Shark Island), and this time it was just the two of us exploring together. Southwest is in my top 3 favorite sites. After descending, Norman and I swam away from the main pinnacle and went to the "Secret Pinnacle." We had it all to ourselves. We spent 15 minutes cruising around there and then went back to Southwest for the rest of our 45 minute dive (max depth: 26.6 meters). Lots of cool fish like always, but the highlight was seeing an adorable yellow box fish and a baby blue-spotted ray. There was also a giant school of oxeye scad at the top of the pinnacle and we swam on the outside of them for a while. It was beautiful seeing them all shift in unison- definitely the largest school I've seen so far. Our boat was also the only one there so it was a very empty site and that is always refreshing.
The second dive of today was at Shark Island. Last time Norman and I were there together, his o-ring malfunctioned so we didn't get a chance to explore the site much. Luckily this time all the equipment functioned properly. Well, except for my mask which decided to fog up every 5 minutes- got lots of practice filling my mask with water and clearing it again, hahaha. We jumped in and looking down we were both a bit bummed about the visibility. Shark Island doesn't have much in the way of "exciting" fish, but Norman always has a way of finding tiny details that keep the diving exciting. We did end up seeing a school of butterfly fish (which is rare), a lion fish, and a durban dancing shrimp. The tiny creatures Norman spotted were a few bubble coral shrimp, a jorunna funebris on some blue algae, and some parasite worms on coral. Apparently these worms will wrap themselves around the coral and continually squeeze tighter until the coral dies.
The dive was alright, but as we were surfacing my heart broke. We had just come up surrounded by plastic bags. Immediately Norman and I began grabbing as many bags as we could. My hands almost full, I spotted a large wheat flour bag. Grabbing it, I then filled it completely with all the plastic I had collected and continued to collect as we swam back to the boat. It was wild too because you would have never seen the bags from the surface, you had to be just a below the surface to see just how bad it was. Yes, it felt good to be able to help clean up, but it was also a reminder about just how horrible the trash problem is. All those excess bags that Thailand uses just end up right into the oceans and the spot we cleaned up was only a micro-example of the true trash problem in our oceans.
After another six awesome dives on Koh Tao, it is now time for me to move on. I do know I'll be back someday. The crew at Ocean Sound has become life family, and a few of them have mentioned how I'd make a great addition to the team. Some good motivation to get in more dives and go after my dive master certification sooner rather than later. My currently dream is to work summers in Yosemite and then work as a dive master or instructor during the six winter months (which also happens to be high season in places like Koh Tao).
So if you're reading this and ever want to go diving, just know I am always down.
I have also decided that since I am teaching in Vietnam and therefore making instead of spending money, I can splurge on an epic Christmas gift for myself. What is this you ask? Well, I have decided to do a week long liveaboard in Komodo, Indonesia. This will be from December 8-14, and will add 19 more dives to my experience. I'm excited to live on a boat for a week and get in lots of diving in some of the best dive sites in the World. Apparently I am just going to make myself broke from diving, but I think it's worth every penny.
My visa for Thailand expires in a few days. So after calling this country my home for 13 months, it is time to move on. It'll be strange getting on the plane to leave Thailand with no idea when I'll be back. But I have a teaching job that starts on October 20th just outside of Hanoi. Island life is sweet, but getting back to teaching for a bit I'm sure will make me happy once I get into the swing of things again.