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We had always planned to do a PADI Open Water Scuba diving course during this trip and Thailand’s Koh Tao island  was the cheapest places learn. Thankfully Lynz was also up for the challenge so late one evening we left Bangkok  on a cramped sleeper bus for what became the most horrendous journey of our trip to date. The first leg was on a bus and despite being squashed and arriving at 4am it was fine. The second leg however was a 2 1/2 hr boat crossing over to the island.   I had my eyes closed from the first second but Mark assures me it was the scariest ride of his life with enormous waves engulfing and swaying the boat making about half the passengers chunder. I assumed the fetal position until the torture  was over thinking the whole time how I was definitely my mother’s daughter. To our credit, both Mark and I both held our stomachs though we swayed back and forth for hours later ack bon dry land.

Our first night on the island was spent in a scummy pit with damp linen and bed bugs so we hastily checked out  and into a new place that offered the course. Caz & Asa arrived later in the day and along with our instructor Alex, we began our classroom sessions that afternoon. We weren’t expecting to have to use our brains on this trip so the lessons were somewhat of a shock to the system. The following day’s pool activities were more fun and we were excited about our dives out at sea.  Unfortunately the water didn’t calm any for journey to the reef and consequently in our four following dives I managed to vomit on the boat, on the surface of the water and under water into my regulator at 16m deep - not pleasant. Sea legs I ain’t got.

Despite my illness and poor visibiity due to bad weather conditions it was great fun and we all became fully certified. Now I’ve had time to recover I look  forward to diving elsewhere in the world, where the seas calmer of course!