If you head south from Bangkok, the shape of Thailand looks a little like the tail of a comma stretching out towards Malaysia. Phuket Island is a little north of the tip, just off the west side – the Andaman coast. It was this part of Thailand that suffered devastation at the hands of the Tsunami a few years back, but now most buildings have been reconstructed so well it’s hard to tell (apart from the occasional sign directing you to the ‘Tsunami Evacuation Point’!). Phuket is not quite the idyllic Thai Island that travel agents describe in their hard-sell – it’s too big for a start, and a bit over developed in places. But it still has beautiful stretches of palm-lined sand, crystal clear water, and – of course – loads of Go-Go bars and sweet Thai girls on the hunt for a sugar-daddy!
But Phuket does have some truly picture-perfect miniature islands off it’s coast – and they were the real reason we came here. Well, at least their coral reefs were. We thought that this trip around the world would be the perfect time to learn how to scuba dive – we actually have time for once! And of course over the next few months we’ll be visiting Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Tahiti… I suppose Thailand is really the start of the beach section of this trip.
So, we checked into a hotel in Patong Beach as it has the biggest concentration of dive shops on the island (and incidentally the highest concentration of Go-Go bars…), and signed up with West Coast Divers for the PADI Open Water Course. This is the standard introductory course for scuba diving – after finishing and passing you become a ‘certified diver’ and can go on dive trips to a depth of 18m. Easy peasy? Erm, well, sort of.
The theory part certainly wasn’t too bad - you just had to read a 200 page manual, watch a video and answer a few questions, before finishing off with a very friendly MCQ exam. After all the exams we’ve done over the last few years… no problem. Then you had to swim 200m and tread water for 10 minutes. That was fine too – although my wonderful tendency to sink like lead made the treading water a tad tiring! Next we were introduced to our scuba gear. Air tanks, regulators, BCDs, weight belts, depth gauges, fins, masks… hooking it all up was bad enough, but after putting it on you feel as cumbersome and ungainly as an astronaut. And the stuff is as heavy as anything – really disconcerting as you’re about to try and swim in it!
Fortunately the equipment is designed to be ‘neutrally buoyant’ with you in it: neither sinks or floats (unless you inflate the buoyancy control device of course, at which point you can pop out of the water like a cork if you’re not careful). And actually swimming underwater with it is relatively easy – once you’ve started. I had a bit of a nightmare trying to start since my ears really didn’t like adjusting to the pressure changes as you descend through the water. It took me ages to get my ears ‘equalising’ properly by swallowing, blowing my nose, jaw wiggling – and sucking loads of Thai sweeties! It was worth it in the end though, as after our training in a practice swimming pool we graduated to spend the last two days diving off the shore of Ratcha Ya and Ratcha Noi – two tiny untouched islands off the south coast of Phuket.
So now we’re both certified (certifiable?!) divers and have seen lots of pretty fishes, coral, and the odd cuttle fish and sting ray. On to Malaysia!
But Phuket does have some truly picture-perfect miniature islands off it’s coast – and they were the real reason we came here. Well, at least their coral reefs were. We thought that this trip around the world would be the perfect time to learn how to scuba dive – we actually have time for once! And of course over the next few months we’ll be visiting Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Tahiti… I suppose Thailand is really the start of the beach section of this trip.
So, we checked into a hotel in Patong Beach as it has the biggest concentration of dive shops on the island (and incidentally the highest concentration of Go-Go bars…), and signed up with West Coast Divers for the PADI Open Water Course. This is the standard introductory course for scuba diving – after finishing and passing you become a ‘certified diver’ and can go on dive trips to a depth of 18m. Easy peasy? Erm, well, sort of.
The theory part certainly wasn’t too bad - you just had to read a 200 page manual, watch a video and answer a few questions, before finishing off with a very friendly MCQ exam. After all the exams we’ve done over the last few years… no problem. Then you had to swim 200m and tread water for 10 minutes. That was fine too – although my wonderful tendency to sink like lead made the treading water a tad tiring! Next we were introduced to our scuba gear. Air tanks, regulators, BCDs, weight belts, depth gauges, fins, masks… hooking it all up was bad enough, but after putting it on you feel as cumbersome and ungainly as an astronaut. And the stuff is as heavy as anything – really disconcerting as you’re about to try and swim in it!
Fortunately the equipment is designed to be ‘neutrally buoyant’ with you in it: neither sinks or floats (unless you inflate the buoyancy control device of course, at which point you can pop out of the water like a cork if you’re not careful). And actually swimming underwater with it is relatively easy – once you’ve started. I had a bit of a nightmare trying to start since my ears really didn’t like adjusting to the pressure changes as you descend through the water. It took me ages to get my ears ‘equalising’ properly by swallowing, blowing my nose, jaw wiggling – and sucking loads of Thai sweeties! It was worth it in the end though, as after our training in a practice swimming pool we graduated to spend the last two days diving off the shore of Ratcha Ya and Ratcha Noi – two tiny untouched islands off the south coast of Phuket.
So now we’re both certified (certifiable?!) divers and have seen lots of pretty fishes, coral, and the odd cuttle fish and sting ray. On to Malaysia!
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