After yet another long day of traveling, we arrived to a small island in the Gulf of Thailand called Koh Tao. Aside being very beautiful, it is also known for travelers to get their scuba diving certifications due to its extremely attractive prices. In fact, it is rumored to be the cheapest in the world, as well as an easy location to learn due to the calm waters and great visibility. It was fair enough for us to decide getting our PADI Open Water certification there, which is an official scuba diving permit allowing you to dive to a maximum depth of 18 meters.

The course took four days, which worked perfectly for our schedule as our visa was about to expire and we were slightly in a rush to leave Thailand. On the first day, the fantastic instructor we had been assigned to, Kev, welcomed us. We were extremly lucky not only to have him just to ourselves, but also for being able to do the course with the most professional, knowledgable, and friendly instructor we could have had. It all began with watching informative videos and studying 3 chapters of the PADI Open Water manual, only 180 pages (!). Accompanying this, we had to take quizzes and thereafter had theory review sessions. It was back to school for us… but hey, it was for our safety!

The following days were filled with practicing underwater skills, getting comfortable with our scuba gear and learning how to set it up, break it down and clean it, and especially studying all about the safety precautions and potential dangers of scuba. Despite the fact that these dangers do make you hesitate for a second to continue the course, we quickly learned from Kev that it is a very safe sport, and if you don’t do stupid things, you should be fine!

Accompanying all of the theory and skills, we also enjoyed our first four dives up to 18m depth. What an experience! It is truly fantastic to feel as if you were in an enormous aquarium. The entire underwater world truly opened our eyes to something we had never seen before, nor imagined existed. Nemo and all of his friends are not just made up characters from some creative human beings – they are actually hanging out deep down there! We also have a great video of our last two dives shot and edited by an underwater videographer, which is truly spectacular. Since it is only of the two of us, it makes us feel almost like it is our underwater wedding video!! haha, hence the name of this post… you got excited/scared ehh…!

After four extremely intensive days of very long hours (12 hours + per day), and successfully passing all of our underwater skills (including removing, replacing, and clearing our mask of water at 18m deep… quite scary!!), as well as a final exam of 50 questions, we did it!! We are now officially licensed to scuba dive up to 18m… This achievement has been especially rewarding, since it was proof that we had overcome our initial fears of scuba diving. Furthermore, it has given a new dimension to this trip and even to life in general, opening doors to a world that was very unknown to us. Actually, did you know that there have been more people landing on the moon than diving deeper than 300m?

The last day in Koh Tao, we decided to visit a small island off of Koh Tao that is truly beautiful and recognizable by its fantastic formation, which includes a small strip of sand connecting two larger mountainous limestones. This small island had crystal clear water and again a vast array of underwater friends, especially in what they call the “Japanese Gardens”, an area famous for snorkeling amidst beautiful corals and fish. It is so far the most beautiful we have seen.

The same day at 9PM, a night boat took us south to Malaysia. Boy was this an experience… and actually we consider that we got lucky. This was a large boat, with at least 500 passengers on it, and we were all crammed into what was more like jail cells without walls. Each person had a numbered “bed” on the ground, some with a soft mat others with none, one next to the other without any separation. The “bed” had a width of 50cm and length of 150cm, some people (like us) were lucky enough to be indoors and with air conditioning, despite it not working so well and the heat sweltering in there anyhow. Others were placed outdoors (yes, you understood correctly), and the worst were the poor people sent downstairs in the engine room (huge, loud engines) where they had no mattress, no more bed number, just all crammed in sleeping on the hard metal floor with gas smells and engine sounds.. it is inhuman how all of this went down! And it is even worse to think it happens every day of the year…

After 11 hours, at 5AM we arrived to southern Thailand where we took two minivans another 7 hours in order to leave the country in time before our visa expired. The last 30 minutes of the trip were fairly scaring, since we were driving through numerous military strategic positions, where heavily armed soldiers and sniper stands were lining the road. This due to ongoing conflicts in southern Thailand, and previous bomb attacks. In any case, yes, it was all fine and we managed to cross the border on time.

Next destination: Moving into Malaysia!