Ko Tao literally means turtle island, I was hoping to see turtles there but the name refers to the shape of the island and not the fact that there are many turtles in the surrounding waters. Occasionally you can see turtles and whale sharks on the island however both eluded me on this trip. For many reasons, Ko Tao is considered a hot spot for diving. The main reason, and the reason I traveled there, is because they have over 50 dive shops on the island. This keeps prices down however the quality of the dive school is not so consistent. For this fact it does pay to do some research ahead of time. Smaller class size and safety were most important to me which varies among the many shops.
I got to Ko Tao around 10 in the morning knowing the place where I wanted to get my PADI certification from so I emailed them the night before and they had transport waiting for me when I arrived. This was fantastic since after an overnight bus and early morning ferry I was exhausted. I met a really nice French girl on the trip though so she hopped on my transport as well. Win win!
I checked in with New Way Dive and got signed up for my open water class that would start that afternoon. The class included a bungalow for 3 nights so after signing up I settled in for a nap but with no AC a midday nap wasn't going to happen in the room so to the beach I went.
The open water course went by fast and left me wanting more so I immediately signed up for the advanced open water class. This course allows you to dive deeper, teaches you navigation, and gives you a look into different types of diving. I tried underwater photography, fish identification, and a night dive in addition to diving down to 30 meters. In the span of 8 nights on Ko Tao, I went on 11 dives. I am super excited to check out some other locations in the future! Below are a few of the places I went diving throughout the week.
Throughout the week I saw some incredible sunsets and even 2 sunrises. With bars right on the beach it is hard to miss a good sunset.
There was also plenty of fire dancing to see and I even got to partake in some of the fun but there is no photo evidence of this.
On the final night in Ko Tao I decided to partake in a pub crawl because everyone loves a pub crawl. A group from New Way got together for the crawl. It was a fun night out with a lot of people doing silly things and drinking lots of buckets.
A few of the highlights; there was an awesome one man band playing at one of the bars that would loop his sounds to make a full song. It was really cool and he was a really good performer. We also got to see a lady boy show and dayum. These boys have moves!
One of the best things about diving with New Way was the family atmosphere there as well as the people that took the class. Everyone was extremely friendly and made leaving Ko Tao harder than I thought. Thankfully, I was leaving with new friends to travel with to Chiang Mai and Laos.
you did a night dive?! How long does your certification last for? that's awesome that you did all of those dives! I like diving better than snorkeling, but mostly because once your down far enough you can see all around you ;) Never, ever would I think about doing a night dive though, how crazy!!
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