The effort of being up, bright and early by 7:30 was outweighed by the perfecticity of the water. It was so calm at times that it looked like some industrious bastard might have paved over it. Zigor - our instructo,r was delighted that water visibility was at 30 metres and that in the past 4 years he’s only experienced such clarity half a dozen times.

Our morning class comprised of seven of us. As Priya and Jennifer were a day behind us, our class was merged with another. There were two Irish girls, and two Irish guys, all about the same age as us. We spent a lot of the time working from a quite complex dive table which determined how much nitrogen we would absorb, how deep we could go, for how long and also how long we needed to de-pressurize and rest between dives. It was the most demanding part of the theory course although we could work together and in all honesty we won’t be planning our own dives for some time anyway.

I began my day at Caf� Del Sol. One of the many places to eat on Koh Tao. I like Koh Tao right now. It is very similar to Khao San Road in that there are bars, cafes, souvenir shops, internet cafes a plenty but at this time of year it was [...]

My bungalow was an adequate fan-cooled double room with a clean bathroom and shower. I was booked into the Beach Club Resort, at the far end of the island’s hub.
I spent much of my day reading my books on a rock. I rented a PADI Diver’s Manual and decided to spend a few [...]

I don’t have any virtues, but if I did, patience would certainly not be one of them. I hate waiting for things to happen. A week before I see Tik again, 10 days before we go to Taiwan, Two weeks before I get paid, 20 days before I get my new computer and [...]

Last weekend I attended a monumental Aikido seminar, packed with the world’s most accomplished Aikidoka (Aikido students).