Sawadika Part Two - Koh Phi Phi

Day two - heading for the dream

The sun is shining through the roman blinds into the room, the deafening song of secadas prevailing, cutlery clatters on the terrace outside our room, breakfast is being served. We lazily wake up and step outside on the patio where our fry up and coffee await. After a quick shower we head to the pool - soaking and swimming sipping watermelon juice and enjoy the cliff sights surrounding. It doesn't get better than this...

The ferry over to Phi phi was a good opportunity to work on that much needed tan. Sharing my iPhone with alex we listened to the tune of our holiday, chicane's latest album, Giants.

Once on the island we were greeted by our friendly Host, barman, waiter, and entertainer (they know the meaning of multitasking!!) And after a lunch on the beach we headed to meet Trevor at long beach dive centre... Trevor wasn't there, he'd gone to Phuket to greet his niece and nephew, but Noe was there. Noe is Swiss and he was going to be our instructor :) we are later joined by Parisian couple Laurent and Dora. Eager to start after a long chat and a fresh coconut we Start off watching the first three modules of the Padi open water course.

Day three - just under the surface
The last morning we got to sleep in and after a long breakfast, feet in the sand, starring at the deep blue sea and shallow turquoise water, we started on our training. Assembling the kit was child's play but exercises in stumpy waters as a storm broke out was less fun. I totally freaked out when I first had to breathe underwater! How very embarrassing! For a split second i felt like i struggled to breathe only through my mouth and could not handle the water getting in my nose but that was resolved the minute I had the mask on. Phew.
It was an exhausting day, the choppy water, the current, the lack of visibility spoiled the fun and we were glad when it came to an end. Although the day was far from over with having to study the manual before a series of quiz, which we sneakily read on the long chairs on the beach with some cocktails from our friendly waiter.

Day four - first open water dives
We were up at dawn and after revising everything we had learned we took the boat to Koh Phi Phi Lei, Maya Bay for our first dive. Much to my disappointment, it was nothing like in Finding Nemo! The corals were dead :(such a sad sight. Still I saw lots if little fishes including Nemo's relatives and some other exciting sorts but at that point I was more interested and focussed on my buoyancy, making sure I did not lose Alex, hit the reefs or the sand bed or float back to the surface unwillingly! But the second dive was a whole lot more fun, feeling more at ease and seeing more sealife like a giant pufferfish, lots of angelfish, Scorpion fish, but ended this wonderful experience swimming with a pair of turtles!!!

Day five - Completing the course

Now half way through our course, we jumped off the bed with eager anticipation at going on our next dives! There was a lot more people on the boat diving with Trevor, his relatives, and a South African diving with Celia (Noe's girlfriend). The morning dive was leisurely, I was focussing on improving and controlling my buoyancy. Saw a couple of lion fish, barracudas, yellowback snappers, but this was nothing compared to what we were about to do and see for our last dive... a Leopard Shark!!! What an amazing creature and how lucky were we that he'd stick around with us, swimming back and forth just 2 or 3 meters away from us.

The day ended with the PADI exam, and me running up and down the beach between dive shop, hotel room up the hill and down the beach to get a tailboat to get back to Tonsai Beach where I had booked a cooking class, but that's a story for my next post.

What an adventure, what an experience, what a feeling. We are both so chuffed we've done it and we can hardly wait for the next diving adventure.