Breathing Under Water is Coooooool.

After a day of regrouping ie being an online junkie in Bangkok, I headed to Koh Tao--a tiny islandin the middle of the Thai gulg just north of the better know Koh Samui and Koh Phangan. Though small, Koh Tao has a lot to offer, but it's gifts are mostly submerged. It's no surprise that Koh Tao is known to be a scuba diver's paradise as dive sites dot its coasts on either side and you can't wak 10 meters down Sairee Beach with out tripping over another dive shop just begging to take you on as a student. So I threw my hands up and signed on for a 4 day PADI open water certification course. Happily for me, Koh Tao is one of the most cost effective places to get certified as well. My course of choice as Seashel Dive Resort included instriction in and out of the water, 4 open water dives and accomodation in a pretty basic but overall suitable bungalow 150 yards or so from the beach (no view out the window but I've got legs) just big enough for 1. My only gripe if I'm allowed to have one is that there's no hot water--many other places I've stayed have shared to deficiency, but rather than a cool refreshing douse after sweaty sightseeing, I have a painfully chilly rinse after an already sufficiently cold and wet boat ride. (oh yeah and gripe no 2 might be that the mosquitoes are eating me alive!) Ah well, I live.

AS for the diving portion of the package deal I must admitt I was a tak nervous for the non-classroon segment--yeah the scuba part. The first few times going under in the shallows (where we practiced on our knees to start) I found myself inhaling long and deep from my mouth piece (regulator) before ducking under the surface as though I'd have to hold my breath, then I'd remember, exhale, inhale cautiously, woah I'm still under water and breathing taboot--sweet!

Like most things worth doing, scuba takes practice and requires the safe dismissal of a few basic instincts. Fortunately, 10 minutes in to my first open water dive I was hooked. Weigthless as though in outer space I floated along with the 2 other students in my class behinde our instructor Emma and savored my time in this other world. And another world is really the only way to descrive the experience I think. You don't see any fish drifting by your house peeping in, but lucky for us we have the opportunity to be voyeurs at the windows of sea life. I dunno what the heck the Little Mermaid was thinking giving all this up just for some guy--she must have major psychological issues by now!

Okay so I'm no expert, like any beginner, I struggled at the start to maintain my buoyancy--first siking to the bottow like a rock and thinking "Ah! Dagnabit!" (or some other explitive of frustration and panic) and then quickly take a huge breath to avoid bumping the coral at the bottom bc it'll be injured and so will you probably at which time I rose like a bubble towards the surface. My path through the water was something like a sign wave--or cosign if you prefer (yes calculus is good for something!) But after a couple dives, I had it better fifured--breathe normally--not as exciting but more effective to be certain.

Over the course of my 4 dives, I saw some pretty cool swimmers the highlights being: big boy trigger fish, x-mas tree worms (i'm not sure whether these aren that rare but they are so cute--little multi-colored plants shaped like, you guessed it, xmas trees that go blup! into their little holes as you swin by and then carefully reemerge when the coast is clear), giant grouper, hexagon grouper, squirrel fish, white moray eel, a clam that could swallow you whole or at least come close, and a super quick little yellow boxfish (he was awesome)

It was funny how some fish looked nicer than others, some had a little scowl and some looked kinda nervous, some looked cooky and some looked like they owned the place. Hopefully as a newly certified PADI diver, I'll be able to use my skills often and fill my log book to the brim, but sadly, I think I may have been spoiled by the richness of the reefs here, forever doomed to be one of those abnoxious people who surfaces and says "This was nice and all, but have you ever been to Koh Tao?."