Learnin' to dive....

Made the journey to Koh Tao the night before last via overnight ferry and I thought the last overnight ferry was bad.... This time around I prepped the group for the nuances of overnight ferry life to find we were going to travel on more or less a cargo barge that had overbooked the beds so we had to sleep on the roof or between overly-inviting elderly Thai woman - I promptly choose the roof. Miraculously we made the seven hour journey under no clouds, no rain, light seas and no wind. And the boat running lights provided ample light to play Uno (although the green running light made the blue and green cards identical) have a few Chang beers to help the sleep.

We awoke to Koh Tao and after finding our accommodation booked into the Phoenix Dive School - where my buddy Fraser from my last trip to Thailand instructs diving - for our Open Water Dive certificate course. Yesterday, our first day, after two hours of films we entered the pool with our gear and learned how to replace a lost make, regulator, etc all while underwater. For someone that has more or less lived their entire life surrounded by watersports, scuba is surprisingly frightening. But taking the class with three friends (Nick, Cam and Brooke) and with a Fraser as the instructors assistant the class is too fun.

For those concerned that my collapsed lung of several years past will pose a problem, rest assured I was checked out by the finest physician on Koh Tao who simply asked, would you like me to sign "yes" or "no" - awesome advice. I did speak with several dive masters and physicians and found that going to the surface slowly should do the trick and no deep breaths underwater.

The weather is far better today than yesterday and in less than two hours I will be on a ship out to see for my first open water dive - Gabe saw a 3 meter bull shark while diving yesterday and there is supposed to be a whale shark meandering around the island.