First sea dive: Tue 16 March

We have the morning off as we are doing our Open Water certificate over four days, rather than three. I eat a big breakfast / lunch to keep me going (my first non-Thai meal of a breakfast burrito from the lovely waterfront Buddha cafe). We then meet at 12.20 to collect our kit and then drive to the port to catch the big Buddha View boat.

There are a lot of people on the boat, either doing skill dives (open water, rescue etc) or fun dives. Our first dive is in Japanese Garden which is shallow enough in places for us to do our skills and then we get to swim lower to explore the coral reed. The water is really clear and we have great visibility. I love swimming slowly and silently like a fish, but I'm not so keen on all the skills we have to do including swimming 10 m without my mask. I actually do the swim with my eyes open in the end as closing my eyes feels really weird.

We see an Indian Walkman fish which is quite rare, very ugly and extremely poisonous. Our instructor, Sarah today, nearly gets us to do our fin pivots on this fish however luckily she spots him in time! We also see lots of other fish including Angel fish and Butterfly fish. Karine and I are buzzing when we resurface after 42 minutes.

Sorry for the lack of photos!

1st day of Scuba: Mon 15 March

Our instructor, Dave, reminds of Jack Black. We have class for 2.5 hours and then a light lunch before we start in the pool with various skills tests. I find breathing through the regulator weird but not as scary as I thought it would be. I do get some water in my mouth but quickly learn to purge it. The only skill I really don't like is clearing my mask of water.

Underwater Dave looks even more like Jack Black and after we give him the OK sign he always wants to bang knuckles, which seems a very Jack Black thing to do.

After our class we have some time to sunbathe on the beach and I meet a German girl called Erin who I later meet for drinks in a really cool waterfront cocktail bar, along with her friends Anna and Daisy. The vibe is very relaxed here and it is so much easier to meet people. A lot of people seem to come for two weeks and end up living here!

Photo here of Erin and Daisy at the bar.

Koh Tao: Sat 14 March

I arrive via Catamaran at 2.30pm and am met by Buddha View Dive Resort at the port. A short drive to Chaolak and I then I have time to settle in and a quick swim before my dive briefing.

I agree to start the next day and meet Karine who will be doing the course with me. We are very chuffed that there are only two of us. We watch a video that afternoon to kick off the course and collect our books. We're told to read chapters one and two that night before class tomorrow, so that scuppers my plan of exploring the local bars! I'm up til 11pm just reading and finding it all very technical and bewildering (a bit like a school science lesson).

Buddha View gets its name as it overlooks a beautiful bay with giant boulders at the headland that resemble a large buddha. I marvel at the beauty of the island and the bay I'm staying on. It really is paradise.

Koh Samui - the final verdict

Overall I wasn't a big fan of Koh Samui. Granted I liked the airport (although Bangkok Airways own it which is why its so expensive to fly into as they have the monopoly on it) and I also ended up loving shambolic Shambala because it was very laidback, had an empty beach where I could hula in the morning and their rice soup (Kao Tom Gai) was the best yet.

I also loved my spa treatment, the waterfalls, Bo Phut and my noodle man. However the island felt too touristy, lots of ex pats, sex tourists, pole dance bars and it was hard to meet people.

When I arrive at the port to catch the boat to Koh Tao I see and meet loads of people - where had they all been hiding?

Water Nymph again: Sat 13 March

Its my last day on Samui and I decide to hire a jeep to see the rest of the island and check out some of the waterfalls. The first one is disappointing (very small with a murky pool that I don't want to swim in). The 2nd and 3rd ones are close together and much better. At the first swimming hold there are lots of tourists but when one jeep load leave I'm left along for about 10 mins and I cam pretend to be a water nymph again. Bliss.

Some people then tell me about the next waterfall and they say it is even more impressive so I hike uphill a little further to find a very high waterfall with water that runs over giant boulders. I'm not sure the photo shows this very clearly though. I can't see a pool here however a Thai man asks if I want to swim and motions for me to carry on up the hill. I see a rope to help guide me and then realise he is following me. He jumps infront and then leads the way, helping me with his hand when it is very steep. I am a little wary, as it is just the two of us, but reckon it is probably his job to guide people.

It is about a 15 minute trek up a very steep route and I would never have found this pool on my own! We reach the pool and there is nobody else here at all. He flings off his shorts and shoes and does a running jump off a high boulder into the pool. I follow him in and the water is cooler than the last pool and it has an amazing view across the hills and down to the sea.

After my swim, while I dry off, my guide clears the leaves from the pool and then hops out and plucks a yellow flower off a tree for me to wear in my hair - it matches my outfit too! He probably does this for all the women but it does make me feel special.

After waterfalls I explore the beaches on the south of the island, stopping for a spicy prawn and squid salad in Bangkao, a small fishing community, and then later heading to Big John's Seafood place for dinner.

Big John's has come highly recommended in the Lonely Planet however to me it proves the inverse theory that seems to be the case in Thailand, that the less you pay for a meal, the better it is. I spend the most yet on a two course meal (about 10 quid to be fair!) and it is disappointing. I order their recommended 'the lovely tower' which is a glorified tall, thin spring roll, supposedly filled with prawn, squid and pork, but in reality filled just with pork. Then, I want Red Snapper or Sea Bass but the don't have any small fish so they recommend I order Barracuda. Unfortunately it tastes like swordfish and is too meaty and heavy for me. For the first time yet in Thailand, I cannot eat all my dinner.

The best bit about the location is that I witness a wedding on the beach and then get to watch the sunset and get some great photos of it.

Best roast pork noodle soup yet: Fri 12 March

I want a light dinner so go looking for some noodle soup. Although I'd like to try something new I keep getting lured back to roast pork, wonton and noodle soup. This time it is in an open air canteen where there are three or four cooks at different stalls, each preparing a few dishes.

My noodle guy serves me, honestly, the best version of this soup I've yet had. It has wonderfully dense stock, bits of crispy garlic and lumps of pork crackling in it. When I pay him I watch him and for a while. He has a very slick process witih everything prepared and ready to be cooked. The noodles are fresh and cooked to order.

He refills his crispy garlic and pork crackling jar while I'm watching and sneaks me a piece of crackling as a wee present. Little things like that just make my day!

Finally, a day by the sea: Friday 12 March

A day of relaxation, reading and generally being a beach bum. I did walk up to the next beach, Bo Phut, to explore the old fisherman's village and treated myself to a crab curry for lunch.

Rather than all the minute details, here are some photos I took.



BOOK RECOMMENDATION
I'm mourning the end of a brilliant book which was recommended to me by Jen. It is called Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and it is set in the 1960s in the Nigerian civil war. At turns horrifying yet poetically beautiful. Read it!