Diving in Koh Tao

Before heading to Australia, gareth and I thought it would be fun to get our open water diving certificates which allows us to dive up to 18 metres in open water. Once we looked through many online reviews and were given a couple of recommendations we decided to go with Phinox Divers. I'm really glad we chose this school because although popular, we had 1 instructor to ourselves meaning we had all his attention! Anyways I thought I'd do a little blog post as to how the course went day to day! Photos cautious of Kwan from Pheonix Divers!

                                                                           

Day 1

We started the course at 5pm which was basically an introduction to the course and what to expect. We also did a medical checklist and were asked to watch a film about scubba diving. At one point i felt as though i was back in school because we were given homework to complete! I do however think it was really helpful and set us up for the next day.

Day 2

We spent our morning learning the equipment and how to set it up which at first was daunting but was actually quite simply to understand. After lunch it was then time to hit the pool in our snorkeling gear! I was all up for this and raring to go until I submerged myself in water and had a minor panic because I couldn't get used to the concept of breathing under water! I did however get my act together and could breath without any struggle under water, until the instructer told me to take off my eye mask under water. At this point I fluttered about helplessly until i hit the surface not realising that i had a full tank of air on my back... that is just as effective as going to surface! I soon realised that the only way i was going to enjoy myself was to calm down and believe in myself, the instructor and most of all the equipment that 100s of people have relied on before me! Once I calmed down and stopped being a drama queen I started to really enjoy myself and found that I could do everything he asked even if it took a couple of attempts.

Day 3

This was the day of our first dive in open waters at 12ft! We got the boat out to a destination called 'Twins' whilst setting up our equipment on the boat which is very easy to set up! If i can do it anyone can! Once geared up and at the destination we jumped into the water and off we went! I manged to keep calm and relaxed which I found really helpful! There wasn't much marine life to see on this dive because we were still practincing techniques such as finding the breathing system if it falls out of your mouth and we practiced sharing air! We then did some buoyancy skills and then let water into are masks. Again this took a couple of attempts but because I didn't panic I was able to clear my mask! On this dive Gareth had a few problems with his mask because of his mighty beard so he was having to clear his mask quite a bit! Thankfully i don't have this problem... We were under water for 36 minutes but I sware it only felt like 10! We came back up to surface and chilled on the boat before desending at "white rock" for our second dive!

This dive focused more on the essence of diving... having fun and discovering new things! We swam around the coral reef in a circle and got really close to the coral where you could see the marine life up close and personal. My particular favourite was seeing a small sting ray! We also saw fishes in groups of hundreds all swimming in sequence. Once our air was running low it was time to assend to which you have to go up slowly. But because we're still in training, we had to share air and go up together and then manual blow air into the BC, this requires pressing a button and blowing. However, me being me, I didn't press the button so I was blowing air but kept on sinking. Took me a couple of seconds but I realised where I was going wrong whilst gareth kept me up! On more of a positive note gareths mask stayed nice and snug thanks to the good old vasiline which glued his hair to his face! This was also gareths first time seeing a coral reef up close so his mind was blown and he immidietly started planning his next animation!

The most amazing thing about phinox divers is they have your best interests at heart! We were suppose to do our final two dives the next day but  F, our instructor, asked if we wanted to do it the day after because the location was suppose to be incredibly and it is less frequently visited because of the distance. We of course said yes and sat our multiple choice test so that the next day we could chill on the beach. The test was the best test I've ever done, purely because he gave us a beer and was like take your time! The test itself was pretty straight foward and most of it was common sense. Once we had passed the test we only had two more dives to complete in a beautiful coral reef before claiming ourselves as certified open water divers.

Day 4

Day 4 was supposed to consist of dive 3 and 4 to which we would then be certified divers, but because of minor stomach issues, we were only able to complete dive 3 at Chumphon Pinnacle. This dive had an interesting finally, after Gareth persevered for the whole 32 minutes before returning surface, there was a quick saftey stop for Gareth as he darted to the top puck up! It was however looking back an amazing dive and the hundreds of different types of marine life was just mind blowing! Especially when you compare it to the reef we visited the next day which was miniscule compared to it!

Day 5

This was the day we did our final dive thanks to pheonix for rescheduling! We did dive 4 at mango bay where we followed the shore along! There wasn't much to see here but the odd cool looking fish ans awesome coral! Dive 5 (an unexpected extra dive) is where we had to complete our finally safety routines before getting certified! This involved the dreaded removal of the eye mask at 12ft. Gareth managed it with ease but it took me a few seconds to puck up the courage but i finally did it and removed the mask from my eyes and nose which for anyone who has ever swam with me knows i can't enter water without holding my nose or having it blocked by a mask! I couldn't believe it and was super proud of myself (sad i know)! But now we are both certified to dive up to 18m and the best new is my clumsiness never got me into trouble by destroying any coral!

Diving has definitely became a hobby for both of us and we're already planning our next dives!

A Kais Kids Christmas!

When our travels started we were not sure where we would be or what we would be doing for Christmas!  So as the weeks moved forward the idea came to us about the possibility of going to Kais Kids Village, the same orphanage that Sarahs dad visited! It fitted really well into our plans because by the time we made it too Cambodia it would be about Christmas time anyways!

We organised our visit over a few weeks and turned up to 'Kais Kids Village' on the 5th of December to stay for 3 weeks!  When we arrived, we joined a group of Irish guys who live in Australia, they were a top notch group and really helped us too land on our feet. They had different goals and jobs to do whilst there so we only saw them during the downtime moments mainly. As nice as it was too meet the other volenteers, the best part of the whole trip was meeting and spending time with the kids! There was about 40 all together ranging from 17 years to 1 month old! All the kids had their own personal qualities and personalities and it was a massive privilege to be able to be a small part of their lives!

The first few days were good as we arrived at the weekend when the school age kids are off on sundays meaning we got an idea as to who the big personalities were and who hide away in the corner! They are a great little bunch, some of them had great english skills and helped us communicate with those that struggled to communicate. Our main task for the trip was too try and teach the kids enlgish. With such a diverse group, it took a few days to find who exceeded and who needed more help. We found our groups and started our english lessons at 9 in the morning. We had to use the dining hall as the classroom was under construction, but the site has everything the kids and volenteers needed! Each day we would do speaking activities with those who knew basic english, whilst with the older kids we did reading and writing. We soon came aware that 3 weeks was not going to leave a long lasting impression but we decided to keep going with it because some lessons are better than non at all! The kids could be quite restless after a short while so stories, games and most of all technology helped us to keep them engaged throughout the whole session! One interesting lesson was using Sarah's tablet where we downloaded child friendly crosswords and wordsearches for the kids to complete. I have never seen kids so interesting in wanted to complete the search to the point where they moaned because the lesson had ended!

The afternoon was spent slightly different once the older kids left for school in the village. There were a few places that needed organised so at peak heat we either spent our time inside tidying or joining in the afternoon siesta. Once it was a bit cooler and the younger ones awoke from their naps we would interact with the younger kids as well as the kids with special needs who did not go to school. We did various different activities like drawing, story time, play time, and TV time (everyones favourite). Once the activities were finished we decided to spend time with the kids who needed one on one attention whilst trying to get the other kids to interact too. It would often be a tickling match or even just letting the kids touch you hands and face for sensory development but once we brought out the bubbles every child went wild for them from babies to the child who was blind (We'd rather not give names).

Other than our lessons we spent as much time as we could with the kids letting them play games on my phone, throwing them in the air and even just sitting with the ones who liked having someone with them. I did learn I make an excellent climbing frame and they all like being picked up! The whole time there was amazing and personally life changing, by all means it wasn't easy and at points it was quite emotionally draining but not once did I think "I can't do this anymore". Under the circumstances, I couldn't imagine a better place for the kids to grow up in where most of them are in a much safer environment compared to the lifes they would be living without the orphange. My only regret is we didn't stay longer! We had time for one trip out to Phonm Phen and had two Christmas parties thanks to the kindess of the staff! But having left now I miss every one of them from the master mind of trouble to the girl who has nothing but love and smiles to give but also turns into the cheekiest thing when you didn't give her attention! 

All the kids were amazing so I thought my final bit would be a one of the many stories we have come away with from the trip.

~'The Evil Little Genius'

While sitting playing with the babies and smaller kids, a one year old who couldn't walk caught my attention. He had been spending the whole afternoon sitting with me but suddenly started crawlling away very fast! So for my selfish fun I decided to bring him back, but again off he went! So I decided too see what he was up to. He was crawling in a direct line towards another child who had a bottle of juice! I moved him away twice, and as I rolled around laughing I couldnt see what was gonna stop him! Then on his way he stopped dead in his tracks! A nanny had appeared!!!! He was focused as he stared at her for a couple of minutes. The moment she dissapeared he was off like a bullet as I laughed so much I wondered how this would end?! After reaching his target there was a great battle of minds and physical strength!!! Or more realisticly the victim turned his back and continued drinking his juice. A few seconds later the tinker decided "not worth it, i wonder if the man with the beared (being me) will pick me up". He flung his arms in the air whilst directly looking at me as if he was waiting for a servant to arrive, but after that brilliant moment who was I too turn him down...

...From that moment onwards he was my master! 

The End 

~

2015 in a Nutshell

Personally, 2015 has been a very good year! I turned 21, graduated college with a second class BA (hons) degree (which at one point I thought could never be possible). I also volenteered in Costa Rica with a very special friend which unleashed the decision to take a chance and buy a one way ticket with gareth to Thailand with only 2 nights in Bangkok as a starting point and a rubbish travel guide that we barely used. This was by far the scariest thing we both have ever done and leaving our friends and family behind was hard but miraculously, its worked out fine and we've managed to see so much of the 4 countries we've visited! Highlight being Christmas volenteering at an orphanage (on Gareth's list to blog about it). Travelling has most certainly got its highs and lows where something like finding a guesthouse after being on a sleepers bus for 15 hours has its challenges. Having said that, I'm quite proud of the fact we both proved each other wrong and we lasted more than a month and we're still loving it! 

 

Lets see what 2016 throws at us!