Turtle Island

A short ferry ride from Ko Phangan brought us to our last stop in southern Thailand... Ko Tao. We quickly signed up for a PADI Scuba Diving certification class at Ban's Diving Resort, and were excited to find that we also got free accomodation with the course. For the next week, Rachel, Molly and Beth completed nine dives. The first day was 4 hours in a classroom-we weren't expecting to return to school so soon. Our charismatic and slightly vulger English dive instructor made the experience that much better with his sheer enthusiasm for diving and his zest for life. He became a big fan of the "American Girls" during the course of the week. Day two was spent in the pool, learning the basics like how to breath through a regulator, remove our masks under water, remain neutrally buoyant while maintaining proper scuba swimming form and assist a buddy if their air was out. Rachel's form was perfect-the instructor told the class to watch her because her kicks were long and straight "like daggars." Our favorite dive was the night dive, where we felt like we were tink and peter pan with our hands moving through the water creating pixie dust-like bubbles. You'd think it would be scary to shut off your flashlight in pitch black water, but it was the most incredible experience and we can't wait to do it again. At the end of the week we finally celebrated Rachel's birthday with dinner out, where Carrington (UofO friend) happened to walk by and spot us. We all headed to a Muay Thai fight in the jungle afterwards, where our dive instructor was oddly enough the emcee. We watched several fights, ranging from 7 years old to mid-twenties. We enjoyed it much more than we'd expected and had fun hanging out with Carrington and drinking Chang to celebrate Rachel's 23rd. On our way home we grabbed our last thai pancake from our favorite pancake maker, who did some pretty cool knife tricks. Spent the next day hanging around relaxing and watching movies at a restaurant on the beach waiting to catch the night ferry back to mainland, and then a bus up to Bangkok.