Trip of a Lifetime Round 2 (Thailand: Ko Tao)

Well Ko Tao was the next stop on my adventure. Ko Tao is located to the north of Ko Samui and is world famous for its pristine beaches, chilled out atmosphere, and INCREDIBLE Scuba Diving. I got there on the 28th of June and ended up staying until the 5th of July. Upon arriving, I headed to the stretch of beach known as Sairee Beach. After arriving at my accommodation (which was RIGHT on the sand,) I signed up for some Scuba Diving. For the first day, I decided to just do some "Fun Dives" (which is basically any dive that you do when not enrolled in a Scuba Diving course) to get back into the swing of things. I did four dives the first day and they were incredible! The visibility was amazing and I was lucky enough to see the usual thousands of tropical fish as well as a sea snake, stingray, lion fish, and scorpion fish.

After the first day of getting back into the swing of things, I decided to take my diving to the next level and enrolled in the Advanced Open Water Certification Course. This course is basically the next level up from the basic Open Water Certification (which is the basic level of certification) The Advanced Open Water Course consists of 5 Dives. We were required to do 2 "core dives" which were a Deep Dive and an Underwater Navigation Dive and then we were each able to pick 3 "elective" dives from a list of different specialties. I happened to choose Night Dive, Peak Buoyancy, and Computer. To make a long story short, on each particular dive, we obviously focused on the "theme" of that dive. My favorite was definitely the night dive. Not only was it really cool to jump into the middle of the ocean when its pitch black out, but you get to see so many animals that are nocturnal and that you cant see during the day. After I completed my Advanced Certification Course, I spent the next few days just relaxing and doing a few more "fun dives."

I have now moved on the the next island; Ko Phangan. It is home to many more pristine beaches and the world famous monthly "Full Moon Party" where upwards of 70,000 people come to one particular beach on the island to celebrate the Full Moon! Be sure to stay tuned for more stories from Paradise!