Is This Underwater Love?

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It's been a long time since my post, but that's mainly due to the hectic schedule of diving, drinking, sleeping and working my Divemaster internship for Ban's Diving Resort. Oh, and also because the internet is so slow here as it's through satellite rather than cable! Takes me ages to upload photos (about 30 minutes for 10!).
As some of you know, it's my second time here. Koh Tao is a nice little island just north of Koh Phangan (the island famous for the Full Moon parties). It's much cheaper than Phangan and Samui for everything, and it's more laid back and less developed. It's a perfect get away. There are the occasional beach parties but those are confined to the area just in front of the bar involved, so it's generally very quiet around. The one problem is that all the ravers and partiers from the Full Moon party on Phangan descend upon Koh Tao as a recovery trip to do some diving courses (usually beginners doing their Open Water course), and they bring a lot of noise and drinking with them. It happened last week (the day after Valentine's Day), and the population almost doubles when they arrive the couple of days after the Full Moon party.
The last two weeks I've been doing my Divemaster course here, although I haven't done any of the practical stuff. I have all the reading material which I'll peruse during my 3 months in India before returning after Burma in June or July. Then I'll do my Divermaster course properly. I've done quite a lot of dives now, mostly two a day for about a week, followed by a day's break, followed by more. I'm really enjoying all the diving. I'm still not sure if I want to do my Instructor's course yet though. As much as diving is one of my great loves in life, I don't know if I could really do it every day as a job. I guess I'll know better when I'm back in summer to complete my course over a month or two.
Life is pretty easy here. My usual schedule consists of getting up at around 11am to get ready for the 12:45pm afternoon dives. Most of the time I help dive leaders look after students by bringing up the rear. We get back to shore at about 5:30pm, where we clean our diving kit in fresh water, then I go back to my room for a shower, then down to the Ban's bar to chat with the people who work here, have dinner and watch the fabulous sunsets. Sometimes I go for a massage next door to Ban's. They do the best Thai massages I've ever had, and it's only 3 pounds for one hour!
The guys here are pretty good fun. I know almost all of them now. Most I met last year and get on very well with. We've had some mad nights, dancing on the bar, and talking through to the early hours usually whilst very drunk! Diving is actually the best hangover cure! You feel right as rain after coming up after your first dive! Most instructors and divemasters swear by it. I've only done it a couple of times as I don't really like diving after a night of drinking!
Kosh arrived the other day, and it was fantastic seeing him again (well, for the first few hours :P). It's kind of weird seeing him here in Thailand, it's the first time I've been on holiday with him in the 10 years I've known him! I led the dives on Saturday and Sunday when we dived with Arden (a Canadian guy I met here), Mandeep (another Canadian, although he's Indian), and Freddy (a Swedish guy). It was my first time leading a group and looking after them, but at least we didn't get lost (unlike a dive last week when 5 of us divemasters got lost and had to swim 25 minutes on the surface to get back to the boat!). Had some good dives with them. Spotted plenty of Titan Triggerfish, Moray eels, Blue-Spotted Rays, huge garoupas (my mum would love to eat those... *sigh*), the most beautiful Angel and Butterfly fish, but no whale sharks yet! It was amusing when Arden threw up through his regulator half way through a dive due to nausea! Mmmmm, fish food.
Tomorrow I'm off to meet up with Ling, Dodgy, Ed, Adam, Lucy and the others (don't really know who else has turned up!). We'll be diving in Koh Tao for a day trip before heading to Samui where we'll stay till the end of the week. Then we're off to Bangkok where I'll stay for one night as the others head home. Then off to India for 3 months! Can't wait.....