Monday - Apr. 14, 2003

Koh Tao really is a diver's paradise. It is now for us, too, after we officially got certified Monday, Apr. 14. Yes, we made it, yipee!

We watched the video, completed all classroom lessons, quizzes, the final exam, one session in the swimming pool, and four dives in open water in various depth. Our last two dives was also videotaped for posterity.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. In previous mail I mentioned how miserable and scared I was. Well, I still have butterflies in my stomach everytime we go out diving. It's the same feeling I get before rappelling of boarding a rollercoaster. So I pretty much know it goes away once I hit the point of no return. In the case of diving, the first 5 minutes of hitting the water is always panic-time. I hate the mask, hate having to breathe through the regulator, my body's initial instinct is to surface and breathe through the nose.

Three things helped me get through all these jitters. First, there's Brian of course, who as my swimming buddy helps me put on all the gear properly, and regularly checks on me if I was okay. It's also nice to see him having so much fun, peering under every coral and lagging behind that the divemaster has to prod him to keep going.

Second, is Luke, our young ands cool instructor. He' s a lanky Englishman, young and blond, a good-looking version of Brendan Frasier. With three years experience in diving, he is Buddha View's youngest instructor. He is full of enthusiasm and passion when he talks about how much he enjoys diving, especially diving in Thailand. He is also competent as an instructor, has a natural talent for giving instructions and telling stories without boring us needlessly.

He`s a good communicator, patiently matching exagerrated gestures when he` demonstrating something and then repeats everything underwater. He taught us the different hand signals for the fishes we might come across while diving. He swings his arm high to indicate batfish, or "if you`re Britih and know cricket, I will swing low." For sharks he placed his palm sideways against his forehead to signify fin. But for whale sharks, which are in season now, and are huge fishes, he has a different signal -- it`s arm stretched wide ("huge"), some humping motion ("f***ing"), and the fin again ("shark~).

So he knows when to get serious and has the right touch for comedy just enough to make us relax. He is positive and is always encouraging and He is safety conscious but pragmatic. If we do something uncool like wear our mask on our forehead or miss a step in the procedure, he fines us a bottle of beer. Brian got an extra fine for donning his wetsuit backwards.

Luke also taught us new skills, trivial stuff that make diving fun -- like jumping off the boat James Bond style, you know, kinda like a backflip. He also taught us to blow rings underwater. This is all captured on video. The highlight is when we had to remove our mask and put it back on as part of our test, but before putting it on we put on a pair of sunglasses and did some funky dance moves for the camera.

The third reason why I made it is the great company of classmates we had. On our first day we started with Libby, an English lass traveling around the world with her huband Steve for their first anniversary; and Allen who is also Brit and is traveling with his Japanese girlfriend Yoko. As soon as it was made clear that we'd be swimming with buddies Libby and Allen convinced their respective partners to sign up as well. Then there's Cynthia, an environmental engineer from Canada, who is traveling to Asia alone. She signed up as soon as she arrived and was able to join the latter part of our classroom lessons. Last but not least is our divemaster Graham, from Scotland. He came to Koh Tao three weeks ago to get certified, and like many others before him, got hooked to diving and kept going for more lessons. He's now training to become either a divemaster or instructor. We did not run into any Americans in the island. Most of the foreigners here are from UK, Germany, or Japan.

Anyway, we had great fun and we quickly bonded. Steve and Libby are a real fun-loving, easy-going couple who just pent two months traveling around India. When Luke discussed how important it was to drink mineral water so we won`t get dehydrated, Steve suggested fruits like bananas. Luke said he doesn`t like bananas because they make him constipated. Without missing a beat Steve replied, "you`re supposed to take them orally."

So that`s the kind of group we hung out with. Pretty soon we were dining together, especially with Cynthia, who had the unfortunate experience of having somebody broke into her room in Buddha View. She, at least, locked up her valuables and the only thing that was taken was her gold chain that was left in the dresser. To make matters worse, when she complained to a Thai manager he contradicted everything she said, insisting that nothing like this ever happened in years, that maybe she left the door open -- and when they pointed out that the screen in her window was torn, he suggested it was her fault for not closing her window. Anyway, even though the manager told her she can`t move to our resort because it` full, she did find a room next to us and that jut made it eaier for all of us to hang out because Steve and Libby and Allen are also staying in the same resort.

Overall, Buddha View is a good diving school. All the instructors and divemasters we met are friendly and helpful. One of them, a big German guy named Frank, beamed when he found out I was from the Philippines. He has lived there (Boracay and Bohol) for 3 years, and although he's been in Thailand for 6 years, he said he likes the Philippines and Filipinos better.

Buddha View is a five-star diving facility, and according to Graham, one of the largest in the world based on the number of students certified and courses it runs. Things do run efficiently here. We're always on time and when we show up all our gear are ready.

The entire island of Koh Tao does cater primarily to traveling divers. So much so that even with the abundance of bar and restaurants, everything pretty much shuts down at 11 pm because people go to bed early and get up early to dive. Luke for example, usually goes home at 7 and is up at 6. In a way, if you don`t snorkel or dive, there` nothing much to do in Koh Tao.

So as soon as Luke signed our dive logs and papers, we signed up for Advanced course. Isn't that crazy??? This time it' Brian's idea and treat!