Open Water

After attacking Bangkok, fighting cobras, exploring scorpion infested ruins, hiking waterfalls, spending afternoons with live tigers, and trekking on elephants, I decided I would spend my second week lounging about on the white sand beaches in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand. For those that enjoy the crystal clear waters, the swaying palm trees, and the buckets of liquor, there are two general options. For the most part, tourists head in droves to the town of Phuket to bronze their pasty bodies in the Southeast Asian sun. However, locations like this on the Andaman Coast also bring plenty of rain this time of year, giving the pasty bodies more of a translucent hue. The more adventurous, and consequently poorer travelers like yours truly, decide on the more exotic islands in the Gulf of Thailand.

The largest of the three, Koh Samui, is glitzed out with shopping malls and sunset strips. We left Bangkok to get away from that. The second largest is Koh Phangan with the beaches and sand I was craving. It also came with the Full Moon party and thousands of tourist getting high on illegal drugs. Although the party had already come and gone before I got there, the island is still notorious for its seedy foreigners and party hard style, and something I wanted to avoid as a man looking for rest.


The final island is Koh Tao, or Turtle Island, and is so small it only takes about an hour to walk across the extent of it. There is little to do here except snorkel, dive, and lay out on the beach. Most of the island doesn't have 24 hour electricity meaning I was going to finally be away from the tourists and be able to have my relaxation time. My wake up call came at three o'clock in the morning on our overnight train from Kanchanaburi.

We were warned that trains tend to arrive late. We didn't expect them to mean one and a half hours late. So, at 3:00 AM we watched patiently out the dark window for our stop at Chumpon. Fortunately, we were entertained by the Thai version of the blond guy on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. When we arrived at Chumpon, we were met by the boat company ready to bring us to our island paradise. But not quite yet; we had to wait for one more train. Another hour went by while we were approached several times by this scary German woman trying to get us to stay in her hotel. Eventually she left us alone and the train finally approached, sending at least fifty foreigners to join us. Splendid.


I have always been amazed by the movie selection people choose to show on bus rides and boat rides. For some reason, they think it's a good idea to play loud action movies from the 90's like "Time Cop" and "Hostage Train" while people are trying to sleep. This boat did not do any better in their film selection: "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". A film filled with sex, violence, and cursing was not really the best choice for a boat filled with families and people puking off the back. Needless to say, this was a disaster ride.

Upon reaching terra ferma, my plans to finally relax on a beach were spoiled by my lust for adventure- I signed up to get my open water diving license. The program was at the Coral Grand, a five star luxury resort right on the beach. If we took the Open Water diving course, we were given free accommodation. A great bargain, we signed up.



The diving was great. The resort was not. First, they showed us our room: a nice five-star bungalow. They said we would have to change rooms tomorrow, but the room would look exactly like this. Oh, how they lied. The next day, we had to clear out to move into the next room. When we reached the lobby, they said the room was not ready so we had to leave our stuff there. I told them it was not safe there, but they said it would be fine. Of course it was not fine, and my nice sandals were stolen. When we finished our training course at the end of the day, we grabbed our stuff and went to the room. I don't know what it looked like before when we couldn't move in, but this place still had dirty bedspreads and beer bottles all over the place. The fun didn't stop there.


While we went out for dinner, they cleaned the room. When we returned, the room was clean with an extra bed for me to sleep on. However, there were no blankets on the bed. I went down to the reception (it was about 8:45 PM) and asked for an extra blanket. They told me that housekeeping was closed. So I asked them if they could just open the door and give me a blanket. They said they couldn't because they were closing in five minutes. Preposterous!!

The next morning, we all left the room and went to our respective destinations- some to yoga, some to diving school. During a classroom break, my friend and I wanted to return to the room. We went to the reception and asked for the key. She said that she didn't have it. We thought our friend must have already come back and got the key so we went up to the room. However, when we found the room to be locked and no one was inside, we returned to the reception and told them that we didn't have the key. They said they didn't have it so they were rather sure that we lost it. We informed them that we didn't lose it, and right before it turned into an argument, another staff member found the key at the reception right where it should be.


I went back to class while my friend went back to use the bathroom. And a funny thing happened when she went back there- the toilet blew up! She went back to reception and told them about the catastrophe and they said they would take care of it. Eight hours later, no one had been to the room so we ended up dragging someone there ourselves. They looked at they toilet, told us they couldn't fix it, and politely informed us that we would have to move rooms, again. So much for my relaxing vacation on the beach. And the trip to Koh Tao would have almost been unbearable had I not had such an incredible experience breathing underwater.


For everything we hated about the resort, the same could not be said about the diving course. First off, we had an enormous Dutch guy named Kim. Go ahead, try to convince him it's a girl's name. But when your sixty feet underwater breathing from a pressurized canister strapped to your back, you'll be glad you stayed on his good side and have a massive European watching your back.


The course began with studying in the classroom. This really was just watching a video and then filling in answers in a book. The second day, we got into the pool and practiced out skills in the safety of the shallow end. With gusto and bravado, we ventured into the deep end. Exhilarating? No. Strange? Most definitely. It was, after all, my first time ever breathing underwater.


Our first open water dive took place at Mango Bay. A shallow dive at 12 meters, this gave us a great introduction into scuba diving. The experience was phenomenal. Going under is a bit nerve racking, but with slow, deep breaths, you can remain calm and begin to float around like a bird in the sky.


An underwater reef is something I thought I would never see. But, for the first time in my life, I was venturing out on excitement in a land I was always too afraid to explore (due to my nasty, obsessive fear over sharks that makes my knees lock and me landlocked)! But there I was, swimming through walls of Barracuda, over marshmallow puffs of coral housing angel fish, nasty trigger fish, sea snakes, scorpion fish... wait a minute, sounds like I have more to worry about than just sharks! But these animals adopt a serious live an let live attitude; they didn't bother us as long as we left their home undisturbed.


At one point, we swam into pretty shallow water. Bobbing along, smiling, laughing (yes, you can laugh while scuba diving), I suddenly noticed the ocean floor getting pretty far away from me. I thought it was strange that the water was getting deeper and deeper until I realized it wasn't getting deeper, I was just surfacing by accident. I realized this when I accidentally popped up back at the surface. I quickly deflated my BCD and joined on with the group feeling a little bit stupid.


We surfaced again, floated to another and went down below to practice our skills. These skills included flooding our masks, pivoting, discarding and retrieving our breathing regulators, and so on. I was doing fine until I had to fully flood my mask. As I did so, a lot of water got into my mask and subsequently up my nose! I coughed a few times and then felt the pangs of panic shooting through my body. Knowing that I was underwater, I had to play a serious mind game: reminding myself that I had a regulator and that I COULD breath. I calmed down, finished the skill, and continued on with the dive.

At the surface, my instructor inquired if I was alright. I told him I got some water up my nose and panicked a bit. He then reminded me that during our dive tomorrow, I would have to practice taking off my mask completely. This was not happy news, and I dreaded it until that moment came the next day.

Our day of diving began at 6:00 AM. We were down at the gear room, with a camera in our faces (yes, the entire event was videotaped very professionally and I do have a copy), cheery and ready to get going. On the boat, our location was revealed to us. We were going to one of the finest dive spots on Koh Tao: Chumpon. On our way there, our instructor told us that, at 18 meters, we may be quite lucky and see some sharks.


"Wait," I had to ask, "how does seeing sharks make us lucky? Wouldn't it be luckier if we didn't see any?" Suddenly, a new fear was taking place of the old fear of taking the mask off. I jumped in the water and said a little prayer that we wouldn't see any sharks along the way. As it turned out, we were lucky.


Going around a bend of the reef, our instructor turned around and put is hand on his head like a shark fin, indicating that there were sharks. I looked out and sure enough, saw seven decently sized sharks swimming about. Following the instructions from the video I watched the day before, I cringed fearfully close to the bottom and waited for the killers to pass by. When they lost interest, we continued on in our trip seeing jelly fish, tropical fish, and the ever elusive and the all too rare flat worm.

Back on the boat, I asked our instructor about the kind of sharks we saw. Still out of breath from excitement, he told us we saw Bull Sharks. Now, I am no expert on sharks, but I did know one thing about Bull Sharks: they are one of the few fish in the world that can swim from salt water into fresh water without any problems. This unique adaptation also makes them one of the most dangerous sharks in the world, ranking up there for most kills along with Tiger Sharks and the notorious Great White Shark.


My entire life I have been terrified of two animals- the shark and the skunk. I have had the image of a mindless killer branded into my mind by Hollywood and legend. But this trip changed all that. I saw these animals in a new light; not as aggressive harbingers of death, but as amazing, beautiful creatures. As I swam with them, with no cages or weapons protecting me, I looked at these creatures and there was no hate or hunger in them. A bit of curiosity perhaps, but there was no danger posed.

I left that water a remarkably different man. I left respecting a creature I was feared and saw in nature not savagery but survival, and as long as stay off the dinner plate, I think I can maintain a much healthier view on these animals.


Oh, and as for the mask removal, I succeeded with only small panic. And with the mask off for one whole minute and cool shades on my face instead, I performed, quite poorly, the Macarena underwater.

The next day, I laid on the beach as originally intended, got sunburnt, took an annoyingly long trip back to Bangkok, checked out the riverside markets of Chachoengsao, met Pote for dinner on last time, and then boarded my plane back to Taiwan. A trip of a lifetime? Perhaps. But one thing is for sure: there will be many more like it and I'm going to try my damnedest to top it.


From your PADI Openwater Scubadiving Licensed adventurer of the high seas, both on top and now down below, Michael.