Location: Koh Tao, Thailand

I woke up again at ass o’clock, ready and excited (in a bittersweet way) for my final dive day with Roctopus. I’d extended my time in Koh Tao through today so I could join in on ‘Sail Rock Sunday’ which is the most sought after dive in the entire Gulf Of Thailand. It was quite a trek to get out there, but an hour and a half on the boat passed in the blink of an eye as I chatted with Ethan and Nina, the American couple from yesterday. Our group was joined by Angus, an Aussie who I’d joked around with on and off the last few days who was finishing off his open water certificate. The four of us were with dive master Harry, who did my refresh on the first day and who was very fun to dive with because he would point things out I would never have noticed, and somehow made under water jokes constantly.

We arrived at Sail Rock, which, from the surface didn’t look like much… it’s a rock in the middle of the ocean. I don’t know. Seagulls were kicking around?!

But under the surface?

Wow.

A solid wall of granite shaped like a sail sunk 40 meters down to the ocean floor, so far it was hard to see even with good visibility. We were doing two dives in the same spot because the wall was exploding with all types of marine life, soft and hard corals intertwining all along it. Huge curious batfish swam right up to us, alongside more shy angelfish and butterfly fish. We saw queens fish hunting around the area which are big silver guys with black spots on the sides that herd other small fish around into ever tighter formations until they dive in and feast. The dive masters were so excited about this that I realized after the fact it must not be a super common occurrence to see that! We even got to go underneath a chimney type structure in the rock and look up into it, the sun beaming down through the water sending shafts of light to where we were, and creating silhouettes of the fish floating around inside.

The current was so strong on one side of the rock that we couldn’t even get around the corner to look, so we just did a lot of back and forthing at different depths along the less intense side. When we surfaced after the fist dive, the current was so fast and the waves were so big I had to use every ounce of energy I had just to make it back to the boat. Both Nina and I were pretty gassed by the time we actually made it back and at one point, despite kicking and swimming pretty hard we were getting further from where we were trying to go. Alright ok cool this is fine. Just keep swimming swimming swimming. WHAT DO WE DO WE SWIIIIM.

After our second dive Harry brought us up on the moor line, so we were able to use that to haul ourselves to the boat, but as we approached someone from another group got shoved underneath the boat by a wave and had to be rescued! Luckily they weren’t hurt but the water was really picking up. We all made it on the boat and then started hearing shouts from another group that they were missing divers, who were finally spotted way far away, surfacing off in the open ocean as the current pulled them from the dive site. Their boat was able to pick them up but it was certainly a reminder of how quickly conditions can change and why scuba diving is considered an extreme sport!

Nina, Ethan, Angus and I were all so tired by the time we got back to Koh Tao that we agreed to meet up for sunset drinks and dinner after we all took a much needed nap. I was really tired but also feeling a little sad because it was my last day on Koh Tao and I wanted to go out and explore!

And then I remembered I’m not tied to any sort of schedule and I can do anything I want so… one more day it is! My third extension on Koh Tao. I must like it here or something.

The four of us (along with Angus’ girlfriend Rachel) met up at Fizz, the beach bar I went to last night for sunset. We ended up drinking cocktails well past when the sun actually went down, sharing travel stories from all over the world. We eventually moved to Chu Chu for dinner, and ordered up another round of drinks and a bunch of Thai food. I rarely feel like the least experienced traveller in any given group but here I was, practically a wee baby, and was taking mental notes of everything they all said. I had so many amazing recommendations by the end my head was just spinning with ideas and new additions to the travel bucket list.

Finally the cocktails and the early morning hit me so I shuffled off to my hostel. It’s taking all my effort to stay awake and sound mildly eloquent as I write this. I’ve been going to bed at like 7PM so suddenly to be up late… zzzz

Sav