Day 10 – Underwater Expedition

Once again, early travel means another early morning. Woke up at 6 am and made some hotdogs for breakfast with instant coffee before our ride arrived at 7:30 to take us scuba diving. We drove for about 20 minutes and got a better idea of how the streets of Thailand are laid out. They are a complete labrynth. Twists and turns, very narrow roads and not many landmarks to figure out your location, how the drivers on Koh Samui can navigate it is beyond me. We arrived at a building where we met the instructors.

The instructor in charge of my group (consisting of myself, my dad, and a Finnish guy) was going over the basics, like how to brearhe, what not to do, etc. Afterward, we tried on equipment to check sizes, then went out to the docks on the beach to board the boat. The lead instructor talked about the generalnplan, then the boat set off for about an hour and a half away from Koh Samui to a small island known for its scuba diving. We geared up, tested our equipment, and then plunged into the ocean.

The first little bit was spent going over techniques and hand signals while in the water, then, when we were good tk go, we started exploring the reefs below. Being in a tropical country, there were swarms of colourful fish navigating through beautiful coral. Figuring out how to control bouyancy and resist tide took some getting used to, but eventually I got the hang of descending get a closer look at something, then ascending slightly as to not hit the ground or coral.

After 45 minutes or so, we surfaced and went back to the boat. After taking off the equipment, our instructor gave us a brief debrief of what fish we saw, where we’re heading next, and so on. We then had some lunch on the boat as it made its way to the second area we would be diving. After some chicken, curry, and rice, we were suting back up for our second and final dive.

With the whole process of suiting up and testing equipment being quicker now that we kind of knew what we were doing, we were pretty quickly back in the water again. This area was even more alive than the last, with schools of fish swimming around you. We saw a giant grouper, manta ray, and some other odd looking fish. This time we were underwater for around 54 minutes before surfacing, and by the end of it I felt like I was getting prettt good at it, though I still don’t know how my instructor was able to stay still in a current.

After boarding the boat again, we started going back to the main island of Koh Samui. After an hour and a bit in the sea breeze, we get back to the docks and catch a shuttle back to our hotel. Before getting off the shuttle,, we ask the driver if he would be willing to shuttle us around the island to some of the popular tourist spots, which he agreed to and coordinated to do so at 11am the next day.

Tired and with our mouths tasting of salt water, we have a quick drink at our place. Afterward, we head up to the hotel restaurant to try some of their dinner options. My dad ordered a Pad Thai, and I got a “drunken” spicy Thai Spaghett. Both were very good and were, of course, accompanied by another luxurious looking drink. We finished up dinner and went back to pack it in for the night.

Sorry for the delay on the posts! I needed to wait to get the underwater photos from our dive instructors.