Day 228! We’re getting closer to the end of my divemaster training. And today was another test of my abilities with an older fun diver. It wasn’t the worst experience, definitely not the best, but it was a new experience to learn from! I also enjoyed a nice afternoon off and a lovely dinner with friends.

With the days of my divemaster training winding to a close, it was another morning of taking out fun divers. Soon enough, I’ll be paid for each of these excursions! Paid to dive, who would’ve thought!

Today I was taking out two fun divers, Carla and Sam. Sam actually did his rescue course with us last week, but had been sick since. He wanted to sneak one more morning of dives in before he left the island. Carla was an older lady from the Netherlands and her last time diving on Koh Tao was 30 years ago!

Carla also had on hand, her original dive log book from when she was first on Koh Tao. It was pretty cool to see some of the same dive site names in the book.

Our first dive was to HTMS Sattakut. I’m not sure how old Carla was, but she did require a lot of assisting setting up gear, getting gear on, and helping her on and off the boat. I’m honestly impressed she was still diving, but it did cause us to be a bit delayed with getting into the water.

Sam also had equalization issues. So it took us a bit to get down as well. But eventually, we made our way to the bottom of the shipwreck and found the sleeping Jenkins stingray!

The dive didn’t last long because the fun divers air consumptions weren’t the best down at depth, but I did this on purpose. Since we were so late our 33 minute dive lined up perfectly with the rest of the boat. We were all ascending at the same time and were able to move on to our second dive site with ease.

Our second dive site was White Rock! I made sure to get our dive briefing in early and got all of us geared up with plenty of time to jump in.

On this descent though, Sam started to really struggle with his ears. But with patience and persistence we eventually were able to descend fully and start the dive.

White rock was beautiful today, but I was way more focused on keeping an eye on my divers than I was at taking any pictures on this dive. Carla wasn’t the strongest diver (bicycle kicking in the water tends to do that) and I wanted to make sure Sam’s ears weren’t causing him problems throughout the dive.

We got to explore the entire dive site and saw plenty of marine life swimming about! Almost all of my stingray spots I know were empty, but I was able to find one blue spotted stingray lurking about.

This dive was a nice and long 53 minute dive, but much shallower. Even with a bit of frustrations and equalization troubles, I think both fun divers really enjoyed the morning which is all I can ask for. I’ll always have irritations here and there from fun divers, but I’ll keep leading with a smile! Especially because I’m getting to see these dive sites every day, so I’ll have an even better dive the following time.

We got back to Taco Shack and I helped clean up the equipment before going home to shower. When I came back, there was still a nice group of DMs and instructors hanging around and eating lunch. So I spent the next hour or two chatting, eating, and playing pool with the hostel staff!

I was starting to fall asleep at the table, so I excused myself and went home for a nap. When I woke up, I had an errand to run!

My friend Gracie left her dive equipment on the island. Since she won’t be back for a few months, I asked her if I could borrow her equipment and she said yes! One of our other friends was holding on to it, so I went to her house to pick it up! It’s very nice of her to let me use it and I’m excited to not have to share equipment anymore. I also can now dive anytime around the island after I’m done with my dive master! So I’m sure plenty of shore dives to come.

For the rest of my afternoon, I played some guitar, went to Taco Shack for a snack of French fries and my fix of more pool, and then I relaxed more in the AC at home.

I then went back to Taco Shack to hang out with some diving friends and wait for Sina and Chris to be done with diving so we could go get dinner.

We eventually went to Buddy restaurant again and had another delicious meal! I asked the owner what she’d suggest I try next, since I’ve only had the yellow curry. She asked me if I like spicy food and I said yes, and she laughed and said she’d cook me something good.

It ended up being a green curry which was fantastic and not that spicy.

When she asked how I liked the meal and I told her it was delicious (in Thai) she was very happy! She also told me her name was Bee so now I know her name and she knows mine! It was a very sweet interaction.

After we finished our dinner we all parted ways to call it an early night. I stopped by Taco again to fill up my water bottle and I was met with one of the fittest babies I’ve ever seen. She’s one of the dive shop workers kids and she’s around all the time. But today she was thrusted into my arms for a brief moment and the hostel manager, Yi, caught this funny photo.

I’m continuing to have amazing days on this island. Sure the dives were a little tougher today, but I still very much enjoyed it! It’s also nice to have something to complain about every now and then.

Tomorrow I have more fun divers to take out diving! Currently, they are slated to be open water divers, so a bit shallower dives and less experienced. But I’m sure it’ll be fun nonetheless!

– Elie