Koh Tao, Thailand

On the 11th I flew to Koh Samui which I reached within 80min. On the first day I rented a scooter to run around the island because it is recommended to be done by the “Lonely Planet” looking at all the nice spots. It’s a nice island with a lot of nature and nice places to see. I didn’t really like Chaweng Beach though because there are just to many tourists and everything is like in a western country: McDo, BK, Pizza Hut, Nike and Adidas Stores and a good old “Triumph Laden” from Aalen.
So I decided to leave the island the next day to hit my final destination: Koh Tao.
This is a small island with only 21sqrkm where mostly divers live, work or spend their holidays. I can also suggest non-divers to go there because the beaches are mostly empty with everyone being out in the water.
Luckily I met two Canadians, Andy and Joel, on my way to the Ferry whom I spent the rest of my trip with. As we arrived at the jetty and were able to pass all the taxi drivers and hotel agents we rented scooters to run around the island to find the diving school with the best conditions concerning the quality of accommodation and the diving.
We managed to find a great place in Sairee Beach north of the biggest city Mae Had which was very quiet and calm but still very close to a lot of fun places.
The course started on Sunday afternoon when we watched some movies and went trough all the information again the next morning. That was also the time when we first met our dive instructor: Renate from Berlin. On Monday afternoon we had our first diving experience in the pool that belongs to the school. Breathing underneath the water for the first time wasn’t as different and strange as I heard and thought it was. I actually felt very comfortable with all the gear and didn’t have any problems with the required exercises like clearing the mask, take out the mouthpiece, etc. We had another class the next morning doing chapter 3 and 4 and then we finally went out with the boat to do our first dive in Mango Bay. This is the spot for Newies because the water is very shallow and there aren’t any currents (Strömung) or other distractions. So we went down the line and did some of the exercises again also adding one minute sitting at the bottom without the mask on. By the way, going down the line looks very, very stupid and is not cool at all. I saw some students do it on my fifth day when we went down in a normal descent and I already felt like an experienced diver remembering myself that I had done it only some days earlier myself.
The next morning we went on our first morning dive which started at 6am and took us to Chumpon Pinnacles where we saw some reef sharks 10m below us because at that time we were not allowed to go below 18m. There was also a small Whale Shark with only 5m length there but I didn’t see it. But Renate who dived her dive nr. 2000 with us hasn’t seen one yet as well so I think I am still doing fine with my 9 dives. This dive was the reason for all of us to go on and finish the “Advanced Open Water Course” to be able to go down there and swim with the sharks. This was not the only reason to go on though because you also get to do night, photography and other more interesting dives as well as some more knowledge in orientation and underwater nature. So we did 5 more dives, the best ones taking place on the last day going down to the sharks and taking pictures and swimming on the reef for about 50min. By then I also felt very comfortable with the gear and everything and so I was really able to enjoy myself down there and also had the buoyancy (Tarierung) thing figured out and so I was able to get close to the reef without harming it.
So I can tell you that diving is something totally different and a great experience that should not be missed! There are so many things to see down there and floating over a reef is something very special.
As you can imagine having tow Canadians and a German staying together we also did some partying together even though we only went out twice because the other nights we were just too tired or had morning dives the next day. But we did go to the “Lotus Beach Bar” and the boys also showed me a nice Thai Drink called “Sangsom Red Bull with Soda” very nice lah!! Sangsom is some kind of Thai Whiskey or Rum, I don’t really know! At the bar Andy also spit fire about 10m high in the air and had never done it before. (See picture) The thing is they use normal gasoline here to do it so I suppose it’s not a good idea to swallow it ;-)
Well anyway I had a really great time and made some awesome experiences I will never forget!
When I came back here on Saturday night I had to go to the “Oktoberfest” organized by the German Malaysian Society right away because everybody else was already waiting there for me. It was a very nice party and Julia came especially for this from KL. The “Inntaler Musikanten” didn’t give their best though and could have pepped up the party a little bit more. I am also very sad that taxes on imported alcohol are so high and therefore a bottle of “Paulaner Weissbier” cost 25RM and we were forced to drink the good old Tiger beer.
I went eating indish and showed Julia and Heiko the Kek Lok Si Temple on Sunday before they left. And that’s it for now… I am back at work and now will start with it as well!! During this week I might write some more details about my trip and will also add the pictures. But I took about 400 normal and about 250 underwater pictures so it will take a bit to work on them!