In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.
For the last few weeks, I was gone from my site for a variety of reasons ranging from doctor’s appointments to meetings to a much needed vacation. They’ve been some very full and busy weeks, but luckily they ended with an island vacation. It also included getting my PADI Open Water SCUBA certification.
Peace Corps Business
After spending a week in Bangkok receiving some of the best medical care I have ever received, I raced home to do laundry and head out another time. This time to a province called Chainat for an official Peace Corps gathering called Reconnect. More language learning, some skill sharing and lots of laughing and commiserating and general merriment. There was also two and a half days with our counterparts. My co-teacher that was supposed to come ducked out at the last minute and didn’t tell me, which was really frustrating along with some other things. But luckily I had an island vacation all lined up to help melt away those frustrations.
Island Getaway on Koh Tao
As previously mentioned, the past Monday and Tuesday were holidays and as such I had them off. In addition to the conference ending on Wednesday mid-day, it was the perfect storm to head down to the south of Thailand, get out on an island and get PADI SCUBA certified.
Three friends and I took overnight transpiration to Koh Tao, the beginner diver’s Mecca in Thailand. We got to our accommodations, walked the beach, picked up our Open Water Diver class materials and met up with another friend for some pizza.
Open Water SCUBA Certification
We got up the next morning and headed to school. We watched some videos about the physics behind diving, hand signals to use, safety techniques and general diving practice. Then we got on a boat and headed out to a shallow bay in the real live ocean. We suited up in wetsuits and donned some buoyancy control devices (BCDs), weight belts and respirators to practice some basic skills in a confined area, where we could stand up if we needed to. We did so well we went on a short swim under water back to the boat.
Day two started off in the same shallow bay doing more skill work, like taking off our mask, putting it back on and clearing the water from inside. After an hour on the boat to let some of the accumulated nitrogen in our bodies work its way out, we were off on our eight meter dive. So great. Then back to dry land for one last video.
Third and final day had us ready to go 18 meters. The first dive of the day was super gnarly. There was a really strong current and we had some folks join us from another group so our group felt pretty big. A lot of things did not go according to plan and I had a little bit of a freak out, but was able to calm myself down and see some neat little fishes.
We ended that dive after about 35 minutes of dive time. After some time on the boat, again to decompress (in the many meanings of the word) we set off for our final dive. Jara, our instructor jumped in first and gleefully exclaimed that there was no current at this location. After reviewing some of the things that went not as planned before, this dive went pretty much according to plan. I saw angel fish, banner fish, a blue spotted sting ray, some giant clams and lots of coral. Super beautiful and amazing. Then up on shore to take our final exam, which we all passed with flying colors and there are three new Open Water divers ready to take the plunge.
Dive School Recommendation
I would highly recommend diving with New Heaven Dive School on Koh Tao. It is pretty clear where their priorities are: conservation efforts and not nickel and diming their students. While there we saw some folks welding together some steel bars that were dropped down in the ocean to create an artificial reef and some six month old green sea turtles that will be released when they are a year old.
Only about 2.5 of every 1000 sea turtles survive past a year, but past the first year survival rates soar. New Heaven in a partnership with the Royal Thai Navy is piloting a program to help increase the numbers of these beautiful animals. (Koh Tao means Turtle Island in Thai, but these days turtle sightings are few and far between. Let’s hope these efforts can help to reverse that.) The staff at New Heaven was amazing, gracious and supremely helpful. Of the 46 dive shops on the island, I am so glad I went with them.
