Koh Tao is world renowned for being “the” place in Southeast Asia to get certified for diving.  That being said the island has SO many dive shops. This is awesome because the prices are low- allegedly one of the cheapest places to dive in the world (but I am pretty sure Philippines was equally as cheap).

I woke up at 5 AM to get to the dive shop at Sai Ree Beach, where I was doing a morning dive at a famous dive site called Southwest Pinnacles.  I had read online that this was one of the best spots on Koh Tao so I was super stoked.  The most famous dive site being “Sail Rock” which I was scheduled for on the next day.  Most the people on the boat were being certified, so I only dove with one other girl (who was super cool, she was an Israel and dives in the Red Sea).  Our dive master was Walter who was awesome and very knowledgeable about the sea creatures and dive sites in the area.  Instead of writing about what I saw I will include photos from the day!

 

The visibility wasn’t the best because it had been raining the previous day, but I was still impressed with the abundance of life.  There were so many beautiful anemones and tons of fish.  Way more than I have seen diving before.  Red Sea has bright colorful corals which Thailand doesn’t have, but the Red Sea is so overfished that I would never get to see huge schools like this!  It was incredible. We did two dives then headed back to the island

I reached the dive shop at around 11 AM.  My parents were doing a refresher dive course in the morning, and then did two afternoon dives. This means that I had the afternoon to myself- woohoo! I wished them goodluck and the headed to the central shop area for lunch.  On my way I realized I forgot my sunglasses and the sun was very bright so I bought a super nice pair of knock off Ray Bans for like $6.  What a deal!  I found an awesome vegan restaurant overlooked the ocean.  I enjoyed good food and my view before falling into a food coma and taking a nap on the beach.

I decided to get a pedicure, which was amazing. The “spa”/massage place was literally right next to the beach.  I was also the only person in there which was pretty nice.  A pedicure was also just $6 which I think is a great deal!  After my pedicure I headed back to the beach where I slept for two straight hours.  I had set an alarm at around 4 to pick up my parents back at the dive shop.

After my parents returned, we had an early dinner at a restaurant on the beach called Fizz.  Got some amazing Thai food and local beer on happy hour.  We watched the sunset and then walked along the shore all the way to our hotel.  The trail was pretty long but most of the way has shops and restaurants along the way so it is worth it.

 

 

The next morning Lynda and I woke up at 5 AM again for the trip to sail rock.  This trip was a bit more expensive, around $75, but the boat ride was a lot farther away.  This diving was INCREDIBLE.  Massive schools of barracuda, trevally, and spade fish.  The highlight was getting to spend the day with my mom and dive with her.  She was a little nervous but she did a great job.  We had a blast doing two dives.  Someone even saw a whale shark but we missed it unfortunately. Nonetheless it was an incredible dive!

When we returned from the dive, we returned to our bamboo bungalow for a quick nap before dinner time.  I always am exhausted after diving so I passed out right away.  We enjoyed the beautiful blue ocean views, than headed to dinner near the ferry pier. It was an awesome day!