Day 194! 6 more days until day 200 of traveling! Pretty crazy how long I’ve been on the road… and even crazier, how long I’ve been living on a tropical island! Diving has been a blast and today was no exception.

I got to sleep in this morning, which was super nice. I still was not feeling 100% so the extra sleep was helpful, but it’s quite frustrating that I’m feeling sick again. Congestion and diving don’t pair well together!

I went to Taco Shack around 9:30am for a muesli bowl, first one in a while. And while I ate, Chris, Kit, and I went over how to properly give a dive briefing.

It was a fairly interactive class and we discussed the multiple steps to giving a good and thorough briefing. Dive briefings are essential to a successful and safe dive, so it was important to learn. Kit and I will be leading fun divers in the next couple of weeks, so we will be practicing giving briefings to each other before dives from now on!

We had an hour to spare before our dives, so the three of us played some pool and then enjoyed our lunch prior to heading to the pier.

Today’s dives started from the Hin Wong pier again… and even with leaving for the pier early, we still ran into troubles getting a taxi boat to our diving boat.

But after a while of waiting, we were off and ready to dive!

Today, Kit and I had a “swim test” to do. This entailed a 25m swim holding our breath under water, treading water for 10 minutes with our hands and 5 minutes without, and then a 350m swim in the ocean with no gear.

We started with the 25m swim underwater… and I got super close but unfortunately didn’t make it all 25m before coming up. I tried again a couple minutes later and wasn’t successful again, so I’ll try again a different day. Not something I’m used to doing!

I smashed the 15 minute water tread though and then it was on to our first dive of the day.

We were at Aow Leuk again, so nothing really of note happened on the dive. We made our way towards the beach (instead of away this time) in search of baby reef sharks, but we didn’t find any.

We did however successfully make our way back to the boat, even after losing our direction halfway through the dive!

We then made our way to Tanote Bay, where before Kit and I started diving, it was time for our 350m swim.

This proved to be a lot more challenging than I was expecting. I was assuming it’d be tough, that’s 14 lengths of a pool… but we also had to worry about the waves. Thankfully they were not crazy, but swimming in the outskirts of the bay was a tough feet… which, I was able to do! It took me a bit longer than Kit and I was exhausted, but I made it back to the boat.

I’m very happy I won’t need to do that one again.

Kit and I took a breather on the boat while the rest of the divers made their way on their fun dive. We then geared up for a mission to find the catamaran again!

This time, we were determined to find it!

We descended on the buoy we were moored at, which allegedly was nearby the sunken vessel.

We started making our way through the ocean, heading east until we were around 18m. Apparently, this was the depth it was at. We searched around at 18m for a bit using our search methods we learned in our navigation course…

But no luck. The visibility was worse than the day before.

And then, a dark shadow in the fog caught my eye…

AND THER IT WAS!

Kit and I immediately gave each other a big (slow) high five before diving around the wreck for the next 20ish minutes.

It was pretty rewarding to find the wreck that most of the dive instructors don’t know where it’s at (it doesn’t make sense to come here with students since there’s not much else around it). But now I know exactly how to get to it and can point others in the right direction.

We then made our way back to the pier and on the way, Chris showed Kit and I how to properly moore the boat. We then put this skill into action as we docked back at the pier alongside another boat.

We made our way back to Taco and after cleaning bags, I went home, showered, and came back for dinner!

I didn’t have my phone, so no pictures, but I had 2 chicken tacos, which were fantastic! Taco Shack has been really tasty lately.

I sat and chatted with Lydia, Kit, and Chris for a bit and then one of the Taco Shack employees came in on his day off. He has been asking me to play a game of chess for a while now but I haven’t had the time or energy, but he caught me at the right time today!

We played for a solid hour, battling back and forth in a very slow and conservative game. Eventually I got far enough ahead and he got too tired and resigned. I was glad to have played and had fun, but it prolonged my nap which I really needed.

I then quickly made my way back to my room to nap before the long night I had ahead.

Tonight was the England vs Spain match for the finals of the Euros. On Koh Tao, there’s a big presence of both fans, so this was going to be a big night!

We started out at Taco and then made our way to Echo hostel for a bit after. Closer to game time we made our way to Choppers and Diza bar, where we rounded out our night. Unfortunately, England did not bring it home. But it was an exciting match!

After the game was over, I quickly went to bed… and hopefully will spend the rest of my day off tomorrow sleeping!

– Elie