Location: Koh Tao, Thailand

Ass o’clock was the name of the game this morning when I got up for my sunrise dive! I had to be at the dive shop by 6AM at the latest and I arrived there dishevelled and half asleep but still excited!

Our first dive was a 30 minute boat ride away and Harry and Toby were back, so I got to visit with them on the boat as the sun rose above the island behind us. I was in dive master Ben’s group with a German couple who seemed nice enough. I say nice ‘enough’ because while they were pleasant they were also… how do I say this?

Overly mushy.

They literally held hands for the entirety of the dive, and I swear they stared at each other more than the things we were seeing at South West (our first dive site of the day.) Do you see the spotted rays? The squirrelfish?? I’m glad you’re in love and all but do you see this dancing shrimp?! Ben and I shared a few funny side-eye looks which made me laugh/choke in my regulator. We had an awesome time exploring and pointing out every new thing!

I think the only time I caught the couples attention was when I showed them that if you wave your hand close to a Christmas tree worm it will suck itself inside a little pocket and slowly peek back out! These little guys are pretty common here and one of my favourites.

We packed up and boated off to our second site, White Rock, which had blankets and blankets of purple and blue and yellow anemones filled with little fake clown fish. We saw an absolutely massive giant grouper that actually startled me from how close it was when we noticed it. My favourite part of this dive was coming around a corner of the rock face and seeing a school of literally thousands of blue and yellow striped fusiliers being hunted by crocodile fish from above. The dance they were doing was mesmerizing and I had to make sure I didn’t drift too far in the current while I stared. I loved this dive site and had I had enough air I could have easily spent hours poking around at everything there was to see.

Because we started so early I was back on Koh Tao by 11AM, and totally unsure what to do with myself. I was so tired so it seemed like a good day for admin and I spent the afternoon doing laundry, making a bank run, re-upping my SIM card and scooting around the busy Mae Haad Pier area to see more of the island. I had to do a lot of back and forthing on my motor bike in Mae Haad because the streets don’t actually correspond to the google map and eventually I just gave up and scooted around until I thought I’d seen enough little shops and cafés. I found out at one of those cafés what a ‘lemon shake’ is which I have been curious about on every menu. It’s basically a fresh made lemon slushie sooo I cannot believe I haven’t ordered that yet! I ended up having two of them at two different places!

At 5:30 I joined the Roctopus team on Sairee beach for a sunset beach trash pick up and a beer, which was the perfect way to spend my evening seeing as I’ve signed myself up for another sunrise dive tomorrow… so off to bed early for me again!

Sav

P.S. I have extended my stay on Koh Tao for a second time and we’re getting dangerously close to me just spending the rest of my trip here…