Koh Tao - Turtle Island

Yess, we are certified PADI Open Water Divers!!! It took us 4 days, a lot of very fascinating theory lessons and 4 open water dives. After we managed to relax and forget all the possible accidents and became comfortable with breathing only through our (otherwise your nose runs full of salty water or your mask sucks in your face like a vacuum cleaner) it is soo great fun! We saw all kinds of tropical fish and different corals, sometimes eyeing with a big buffer fish with one broken tooth in the front or swimming in the middle of a cloud of fish. It is so funny that they come close to look into your eyes or just swim next to you as if you were one of them. But the most fascinating thing about diving - at least for me - is the neutral buoyancy; it negates gravity and you are weightless like in a vacuum or space. You can turn up-side down, flip or "fly" over a coral, stay still and enjoy the view from above. You can see and touch the air in water as it bubbles up in huge umbrella shape shiny balloons when divers exhale. Unfortunately we did not see whale sharks nor turtles, but at least we have an incentive to continue making more bubbles. One of our next course may be underwater photography, but until then you have to accept pictures from public galleries...


We decided to cut our seaside vacation for the time being and return to Bangkok to head further North in Thailand. Though the fascinating electric storms, the turtles, the lagoons, the blue eyed cats and funny dogs all around and our Eden-like bungalow home secluded in the jungle will make us miss this place.