Koh Tao

A peaceful island - without hoards of tourists - this is how we have chosen it among scores of other islands we were looking at. Secondly a paradise for diving. Not that we had a clue how to dive but we came with the idea of learning how to do it. So we enrolled ourselves for a PADI Open Water Diver Course - after it we should be certified to dive wherever...assuming we pass all the examinations. Today was our second day and both of us feel a bit exhausted. All the magic we are doing under water does not come without a price. The first day was hard on me - today was hard on Rita. On the first day we boarded a boat - went to the sea - put on 18kg of gear on us and we told to jump of the boat. I felt like committing suicide and right about to drawn with all this things on my back - fortunately I floated. The second day we spent over two hours under water practicing all kind of emergency things like running out of air, losing your mask etc. This time Rita had hard time - somehow she could not make her nose not want to take in water :) - she recovered but I was totally exhausted by the end of the lesson.

As to the island - it is much more developed than we expected and can host much more people than anticipated (though no package tours seem to come here). Although at beginning it looked bad and seemed we will be frying on the beach with zillions of people we managed to find partly secluded lagoon on the southern end of the island. In principle we sometimes feel that we are almost the only ones there. Honestly, it is heavenly. For Rita it was even better than that in the hammock on the veranda of our lovely house. Today however, the hammock gave up after both of us boarded it. Rita is very much in despair and the owners of our resort seem not to have a new one for us - so I guess we will be buying a portable hammock for our own sake.


Of course, traditionally Rita has met some friends in our bathroom - this time it is a HUGE gecko - at least 30 cm long. The sound they make is amazing. GECKO - GECKO seems to be echoing everywhere but usually in the evening time. In the evenings we usually move to another lagoon which is about 10 minutes walk with a torch through the water of the lagoon. All perfect - just the idea of letting my breathing device out of my mouth tomorrow at some 10 meters below does not make me look forward to the next day :)