Koh Tao: Big Blue Diving Day Four - Certification Day

Day 18
Hooray! I got my certificate for the SSI Open Water Course!
Everything went fine on my last dives. I had to join another group and our instructor said me and my buddy were the perfect together! Everything under control and perfect communication! 
A cameraman accompanied us on the dive and made a movie. When we get back to Belgium I'll upload it on Youtube. 

We got to see:

Parrotfish

• Parrot fish (my favourite!)
• Groupers
• Butterfly fish
• Clown fish (Nemo)
• Blue Spotted Stingray
• Yellow Margin Trigger fish
• Bat fish
• Angel fish
• Pickhandle Barracuda
• Banners

Koh Tao: Big Blue Diving Day Two - Into the Sea

Day 16
Ok, this didn't go as well as I had hoped...
When we got up this morning the sky was telling us rain would come. And it did in the morning. It wasn't a biggy, we had to pass our exam first anyway! I passed :-) 47/50

The wind didn't make it easy on us in the afternoon. We had to take the boat to our diving spot, but the waves made most of us really sick. I was already worried about the weather, about my first dive and then the seasickness came to hassle me. I started to panic a little bit and at one point I almost fainted because I was so sick. After a shake from my boyfriend to wake me up I managed to finish our buddy check and to dive into the water. I managed to calm down from the moment I jumped into the sea. 

Diving hand signal: 'Problem'

When I had to go down into the water it became really bad. During my buddy check I expressed my worries about my regulator. At the swimming pool I used another regulator that worked fine. I wasn't comfortable using this one, because I had the feeling my air passed through it in two times while I inhaled once. Hard to explain, though. Everyone said it was normal, but when I got under the water it really bothered me. It felt like I couldn't get enough air, so I started panicking. I was maybe half a meter below the water with my head, so I indicated there was a problem and asked to go up. My instructor saw I was panicking and couldn't calm me down so I went up. She told me to go back to the boat. I immediately started crying, because I really wanted to do this! I had to climb back onto the boat. I drank some water and calmed down. Failure.

If that wasn't enough for today, our banks blocked our cards and we were running out of cash. With our last money we managed to call to the bank's office to see what the problem was. Luckily, everything got resolved and we were able to withdrawal some money from the ATM again.

Positive about my day:
Although I didn't dive, I got to see some fish anyway. When I got back on the boat I had to puke overboard and fish came to the surface to eat my leftovers. Blue ones with a yellow stripe on their back.
I thought it was funny, so I had to laugh (and puke at the same time).

Koh Tao: Big Blue Diving Day One - Swimming Pool

Day 15
It was time for some diving in the swimming pool and some more academics.
It was quite exciting and weird to only breathe through your regulator. I always have the urge to breathe through my nose.
Tomorrow is real diving day, but first we need to pass our exam in the morning. Fingers crossed!

Koh Tao: Big Blue Diving & Lady Boy Show

Day 14
We took the ferry to Koh Tao around 12.30pm.
On the ferry there was a man who was spreading flyers from Big Blue Diving, a diving school. This was the company we chose yesterday and he told us there would be a free taxi waiting for us at the pier. Awesome!

We shared a the taxi with an Australian guy Leon. The taxi ride was very bumpy and I couldn't stop laughing. He was literally flying over hills and bumps.
When we got there we got our first briefing. Leon happened to take the same course as we did, the SSI Open Water Course.
We could start immediately by watching some introduction video's. Tomorrow we'll be getting into the pool.
We got our laundry to a laundry service. Everything was smelling so bad! I had to look for a new bikini in town because it was in my laundry bag and I wasn't planning to dive into the pool completely naked. Lets say that looking for a bikini isn't that easy as everyone says. At least it isn't if you don't have standard boobs. I think I tried on almost every bikini in town and they didn't fit. After a long search I happened to find one that fit and it's really nice too. I also bought a strapless one.

After my bikini hunt we grabbed for something to eat and went to a lady boy show in town. OMG, that was soooo funny and really good. I kept wondering where they all put their weeners! It's amazing how they can hide them! There were different acts like Britney Spears and Beyonce. Beyonce was really good. It looked very real with all her dance moves! I laughed my ass off!
It's time to go to sleep now. We'll have to be fit to get into the pool tomorrow!