Our Asia Trip Diary – Part Twenty Five
Monday morning we woke up in our tent. How cosy is that, to have the camping feelings! After a good breakfast, we discovered the little centre of Koh Mook (which is really small!!) and went to the beach.
Koh Mook is a small and authentic island in the Andaman Sea. It’s not full of tourists and there is actually not a lot to do on the island. And that’s exactly why we were there! We are bad at doing nothing. There are always things to visit, a viewpoint to climb, a walking street to discover etc. We wanted to force ourselves to do nothing and really rest. We had the same goal in Koh Lipe, and as you probably read here, that didn’t really happen.
On Tuesday, the owner of the camping brought us, with his rickshaw, to Charlie Beach. We spend the whole day at the beach and we both finished our books! I guess that’s proof that we actually did nothing but lay on a beach chair and sip some fresh fruit juices. After watching the sunset, we took a taxi rickshaw back to our tent, how lazy of us 😉.
Wednesday morning we took some time to re-plan our island hopping. When we were chilling on the beach close to the campsite, we spotted two Dugongs (sea cows)! We were quite shocked as they were just swimming so close to shore, but we couldn’t resist getting in the water and having a closer look. You can find Dugongs in the whole Andaman Sea but there are only about 200 of these creatures left.
I was so happy to see two of them without even going to special snorkelling spots. Because let’s be honest, I was already experiencing fear of missing out.
Thursday we took a ferry to the next island, Koh Lanta. This trip would have taken only one hour, but when we were driving, the captain and crew were very alert to see a man floating in the middle of the sea. They acted immediately and saved the local who got carried away by the waves. He was already floating for three hours! So, we obviously had to make a small detour to bring the man home.
Not even a week ago we had our first dive. We fell in love with the sport. Although, I cannot say it was love at first sight for me but more of a struggle that came with some anxiety. Marnick learned the basics quickly, while I was still trying to relax two meters below the surface. But, once you get the hang of it and are actually diving, you can see all the underwater beauty. It’s so wonderful you don’t want to stop. After this first diving experience, we have been talking a lot about it and we decided to do the Padi Open Water Diver Course. This is basically a diving licence!
When we arrived at Koh Lanta, we first went to a dive shop to register ourselves. This diving course takes four days, so it will keep us busy. Afterwards, we got ourselves some food at a local restaurant and watched the sunset on the beach.
Friday, we did the online learning and it took us more time than we expected. There are five online videos to watch and we got some homework with questions about the theory. Seemed like both the videos and questionary are created by non-native English speakers. Quite weird since we know PADI as a famous diving association and is American. The material covers basic knowledge about diving, but also about the equipment and what to do in certain emergencies. In between our e-learning sessions, we cooled ourselves off in the pool of our hotel!
Saturday, we started early in the morning at the Dive Shop that is right next to our hotel. We met our instructor and started with some quizzes to test our theoretical knowledge. This went smoothly and we continued to our equipment and learned how to set it up. Our instructor talked us through all the exercises we would be doing in the water.
We then put on all of our gear and walked via the beach into the sea. We swam a little further so we were around a depth of 2 to 3 meters. Here we did all of the necessary exercises you need to know for the diving licence. This includes situations like how you control your buoyancy, what to do without oxygen, emergency ascensions, taking off your mask etc. It was a bit difficult but we managed to do all skills properly. We were exhausted after this though! It took the entire morning and half of our afternoon, so we needed the rest of the day to get our breath back.
Today is Sunday, and this morning we woke up early again for the third day of our course. We got a briefing from our instructor in the morning about what we would be doing. We first get on the boat and drive to Koh Haa, a beautiful secluded island, where the sea is filled with coral. We practised some of the skills we did yesterday at 12m depth and then continue the dive to see some cool fish!
We saw pufferfish, eels, flute fish, needlefish and many more! We resurfaced and got back on the boat for some lunch. Everything is very well organised by the dive shop, which is just great. We then went for our second dive a little further out!
Here we did another set of skills and continued the recreational part of the dive. We saw lots of big fish and other sea life and it is truly an amazing experience. The underwater universe is a completely different world and it is amazing to discover it. Tomorrow is our final day and then we are qualified divers! We really hope to see some turtles or lionfish, but who knows… For now, we will rest and try to upload this blog in time.
