Day 180! We’re back to our morning diving… for now. Today’s dives were incredible and I had a blast in the morning, having the afternoon off, and then diving again at night! It was a long day, but totally worth it!

It’s been a few days since I had my last morning boat… and today was going to be a special one!

The boat was heading to Chumphon, a dive site I had heard a lot about, but hadn’t had the pleasure of going yet. Somehow I’d always miss it or the schedule would change last minute.

But no schedule changes today!

We were on course for two incredible dives today!

The first was a 30 minute deep dive around Chumphon. I was assisting the last two dives of my instructor friend, Pauline’s, advanced course. This was the first time going to 30 meters for her students and it’s always a treat to see their reactions to the change in temperature and colors… and also hearing their excitement after the dive.

But this dive was BEAUTIFUL! There was easily 25 to 30 meters of visibility and the water was a beautiful shade of blue today. It was so peaceful and serene diving around. The dive site itself was quite busy but we made our way around the pinnacle seeing huge schools of fish, various colorful fish, and gorgeous corals and sea anemones. There’s a whole pinnacle that’s covered in just anemones, it was spectacular.

Unfortunately no whale shark spotting… yet. There was one at Southwest Pinnacle the other day, so there’s hope that the migration is happening! It’s currently peak whale shark season… but global warming is messing up their migration patterns.

In between dives, I sat down with the majority of the students on the top deck and ran through the fish ID with them! It’s a fun little talk that helps the students realize what they’re looking at, what the hand signals are, etc.

The second dive was a wreck dive. Today’s was at No Name/HTMS Suphairin.

We started our descent into the ocean and made our way for the front of the shipwreck… I didn’t know this, but you can actually swim under the nose of the ship since the ship is at an angle, it was very cool.

The visibility on this dive was also crazy good and we enjoyed cruising our way around the shipwreck and No Name.

When we got to No Name, we saw a massive school of barracuda! It was really cool to see.

This dive was 32 minutes and we reached a depth of 24.3m. And with that I marked 55 dives in total!

This morning was also my friend, and fellow DM, Ami’s last dives on Koh Tao before she goes home for college. A little bit of a somber note, but I’m glad I could be on the boat for them.

With those two dives complete, we had two more advanced divers on our hands! They were super excited and I was super excited for lunch.

I wasn’t in the afternoon boat today, so no free lunch for me. Instead I ordered a chicken quesadilla and sat with the divers.

After all the afternoon divers left and I finished eating, it was time for some pool playing!

I played for a bit and then went back to my room for a nap.

I had a few hours to spare after I woke up, so I hopped on my motorbike and made my way across the island to Echo hostel to hang out with my friend Immy! It was along overdue hangout.

We sat and chatted while she worked. We also played some pool and I played some chess as well against one of the other volunteers at hostel.

It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon and I really enjoyed hanging out with Immy more!

Before I left, I ordered some bruschetta. Immy gets a nice discount from the hostel. So she’ll buy me something and pay her for it, it’s a very nice deal!

5pm rolled around and I made my way back to my room. I needed to get ready because tonight I was hopping on a night dive!

We had a small crew today. There was only one student in our group, then there was Zach, Kit myself, Till, and one other fun diver.

This dive was cool, because it was at night. But it was a pretty lackluster for how my last night dive went. The waves were pretty crazy and we could feel the ocean swell 10 meters below.

We saw a lot of sea cucumbers slinking around… and we also saw a giant hermit crab! It was super cool!

I got back from my night dive, and went back to my room for a quick shower. My friend Pauline invited me and a few others over for dinner. I missed the dinner part, but I still went over to hang out for a bit! It was nice to hang out with some people, but I was tired.

So I made my way back home… but first I stopped for dinner at POOH’s family restaurant.

I think this, hands down, was one of (if not the best) pad Thais I’ve ever had. It was huge, peanut buttery and just all the flavors worked really well.

After that it was time for bed! It was a long day with 3 total dives. But it was well worth it! The dives this morning were a nice reminder why I’m enjoying diving so much. It’s such a beautiful activity and I’m ready for more!

Tomorrow I “have the morning off” but that just means I’ll be attending a classroom in the morning and then assisting in the afternoon.

– Elie