The Start of the Islands and a Deep Sea Adventure

We were pretty pleased with what we saw when we arrived in Koh Tao, a Paradise island complete with beautiful sunsets and beach side bungalows. After inital problems involving giant lizards inhabiting bathrooms, holes in thatched roofs and no power between 6am and 6pm which means waking up in a fanless sweatbox, we settled in nicely. A few days and evenings were spent aquainting ourselves with our fresh surroundings, when we were once again rejoined by old friends Matt and Robbi complete with new recruit Samuel Micheal Manners. We eventually got round to signing up for our open water diving course and persuaded Sam to join us diving for some "getting to know you" bonding sessions. At the point of enrolling we were unaware that this involved 9am starts at school, homework, tests and some hardcore sea action. Things got off to a shaky start when in our first session Collman revealed that she was both afraid of fish and an unconfident swimmer to boot. The instructors were further concerned when at every opportunity we digressed from learning the A, B Cs of diving to discussing overuse of cotton buds in the ear canal and a famous garlic restaurant in San Fransisco- expect to hear more on this in future!

Looking hot in scuba gear

The first real trauma was squeezing ourselves into damp wetsuits and the dawning realisation that scuba diving is literally the most unattractive sport that we could ever partake in. If the fins, goggle masks, mouthpiece (regulators) and cylinder on back weren't bad enough our instructor kindly informed us that in a few hours not only would we all be wearing these outfits but we would also be almost entirely covered in snot- yes please! Dive one involved us descending to the great depths of one and a half metres, not exactly the deep sea adventure we were expecting, instead we spent the next few hours practising such skills as removing our masks underwater, sharing breathing appartus with a buddy and learning how to relieve cramp. Once we had these manoueveres nailed we were ready for our first ocean floor experience and itching to do something more adventurous. After a couple of days diving to 12 metres we felt comfortable in the water and smug that so far we were A* students. The bombshell came however when it was revealed to us that on the final dive to 18 metres we would be accompanied by not one but two cameramen there to capture every inelegant leg flail and every stray bogey. An underwater dance off occurred with Murph rocking the knee to elbow, Collman doing the hop and skip and Sam whipping out a montage containing every dance move under the sun- the "bongos" being a particular favourite. This was only beaten by Tay pulling out the old school Macarena after panicking that an underwater "bend and snap" simply wouldn't work.

Upon meeting our instructors in a bar expecting a private viewing of the video, to our horror we discovered it was to be shown on three large screens for all to see and mock. Between us we purchased zero copies of this video- enough said.

The Sam Manners dance

Cheesy toilet shot

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed diving, not only is Colly no longer afraid of fish but her cold heart was melted at the sight of Mummy Nemo caring for her 2 babies. Tay still swears to this day that she saw a single tear through Collman's steamy mask. Our appetite well and truly wetted we are planning more dives later in the trip.

After a night out to celebrate our new status as qualified divers we left Koh Toa in a hazy blur. Unfortunately all too vivid in this scene was the now engrained image of Ryan James Russell, ever the exhibitionist, arriving in Koh Phangan wearing nothing but a flimsy skirt.

Ryan James Russell donning female clothing

The Start of the Islands and a Deep Sea Adventure

Bangkok, Thailand