Shamanic journey: Wed 24 March

Today I throw myself into the experiences that the Sanctuary offers. I start the day at 8am with an hour and a half meditation session focussed on health and wellbeing. This starts with chanting to open our left and right sides of the brain, and then we focus our breathing on each gland in our body. I find it incredibly calming and enjoyable. The meditation is a guided one and as I'm new to this it really helps to have a guide.

After breakfast (of a very filling vegetarian version of my rice soup) I join a Trance and Dance workshop thinking that it will all be dancing. The first half hour is focussed on dancing and we are guided through the 5 Rhythms dance by Gabriella Roth (on tape). This dance is based on the idea of the energy within a wave and leads you through from flowing, to staccato, to chaos (great fun, mad dancing), lyrical and then stillness. We all dance with a blindfold on so we are not influenced by anyone else and also so shy people can dance as madly as they want. The dancing actually leads you into an ecstatic state and at one point I think I am levitating!

I'm sure this dancing can be found in Brighton and I'd definitely do it again. Further details are here if you are interested.
http://www.movingcenterschool.com/about-5rhythms

Then we are invited to go on a Shamanic journey to the underworld. I was not expecting this but I'm intrigued. The mission is to find our 'power animal'. This is harder and not as natural to me as the dancing. I really want to go on a proper journey but find it hard to 'see' where I'm going once I'm in the trance like state which our shamanic leader has put us into with his constant drumming. I do see lots of images of animals though and the one that keeps appearing is an owl.

The owl is magical and all seeing and your animal can often complement your life in areas where you need it. I think he'll be of benefit to me as he's supposed to help you see the truth in people.

Sanctuary - Koh Phangan: Tue 24 March

Very short update here. Spent half the day travelling from Koh Tao to Phangan via ferry, then taxi and then waited an hour for a taxiboat to take me round the coast to Haad Thien where The Sanctuary is located on a private beach. It is a hippy idyll, recommended to me for cheap spa treatments by Fran. I think it has developed since Fran was here but has stayed true to being at one with nature and the restaurant serves delicious organic vegetarian food (although there are some other cafes serving meat and authentic Thai food so I can still get my rice soup!).

I've splashed out on a wee house for my last four nights in Thailand and it is up on the hill in the jungle. I finally have a bath too in a wonderful openair bathroom. I love the bathroom so much - it is wonderful to have a shower under the blue sky or under the stars. I've included a photo of my little house and one of the beach. The bath photo wont upload though for some odd reason.

Swimming with Sharks: Mon 22 March

My last full day on Koh Tao and its packed full of fish. I meet Chris, an English woman staying up the beach, at 8am and we hire a small boat and full snorkel gear to go round to the next bay - Shark Bay - to swim with sharks. A Thai family went the morning before and saw loads but you have to go early morning or late afternoon when they come in to feed. I saw two sharks, quite large ones too. Chris took some underwater photos so I'll add these when she sends them to me.

Following lunch at the Buddha Cafe (where I have yet another veggie omelette made with spinach and shiitake mushrooms - so good I must recreate when I get home!) I join the dive school for two fun dives. I'm in quite a small group and have an instructor as my buddy so I see loads of fish including the supercute Box Fish. We also see two different species of Trigger Fish playing together which is quite unusual.

The photo above is of the Buddha shaped rocks on the headland at Chalok Bay.

Festival on Koh Tao: Sat 20 March

Every year Koh Tao have a festival and I happen to be here for it. The theme is on preserving the natural beauty of Koh Tao and included conservation exhibitions and giant sculptures made from waste. Some of the photos show the tunnel we had to walk through to get into the festival. There were lots of food stalls and two stages. I saw one pretty good ska / reggae band and then when the bands finished about 12.30 there were then some DJs playing some wicked dance music. I had a really good dance until 3am, and left when the DJ started to repeat himself.

Last day of Scuba Course: Thur 18 March

I wake to torrential rain which means that conditions out at sea will be choppy. Its a very early start (7am) and I take-up the offer of a seasickness tablet from my instructor, just in case the big waves make me queasy.

Our first dive is at Shark Island. So named because the island is supposedly shaped like a shark (see photo) and not because there are lots of sharks in the water. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to be face to face with a shark yet!

When we go to jump into the sea the waves are very big and the current strong. We descend down a buoy rope for a bit. This is our 18m dive and it does feel quite deep! Luckily the visibility gets better as we go down and we see more Puffer Fish, a Trigger fish (who does not attack us but does go for another group of divers!) and quite a few Goat Fish which our instructor gets to change colour however I sadly miss the colour-change.

After an hour's break on the boat, tea and some fresh pineapple we then do our second dive of the day at Three Rocks. This is a shallower site at 10m however we get to dive for 46 min. The visibility isn't brilliant however we get to swim through lots of rocky corridors which is great fun. I see Sea Cucumbers, some Prawn Gobis and the stunning Parrot Fish.

Once we are back at Chalok I have a quick lunch and then take my final exam, getting 100%. Apparently it is tradition for your instructor to buy you a beer if you get full marks but I'm yet to nab Sarah and make her pay up.

That night Karine, Alex and I (who all passed our Open Water today) celebrate at the Buddha Bar where there is a cross-dressing party going on (I administer make-up to one of the boys) and then some of us head up to the Castle where there is a party going on. The venue is fabulous however it hasn't really got going at 1am. We explore a few other places with a plan to go back there later but then fatigue sets in and when I get home I realise it is 3am which is why I'm so tired. I was up at 6am for my morning dive! Luckily I can sleep in and take it easy now as I'm not diving for a few days. I don't think I'm going to my Advanced Open Water this trip but I definitely want to get some fun dives in before I leave.

3rd day of Scuba: Wed 17 March

I have a wonderful breakfast at the beautiful Buddha Cafe on the beachfront - cinnamon roll French Toast (very healthy!). Pictured here is Erin (from Frankfurt) on the cafe deck. Then I have a morning of classroom before our two dives in the afternoon.

The first dive is to a site called Twins (photo above). The dive is 12 metres deep around some underwater pinnacles and we see a Trigger Fish, some Banner Fish, a Coral Grouper and the famous Nemo! Nemo is actually a Clownfish however it is very protective and will try to attack you if you enter its area. The divers have marked Nemo's lair (it protects the Anemone it feeds on) with a circle of stones and we are advised to stay outside the circle of stones. Anna had texted me asking if I'd seen Nemo the day before and I didn't understand the reference - however today it all made sense!

The second dive is at Mango Bay (photo of Mango bay above) and here we have to practice lots of skills before we get to explore. The variety of fish at this site is breathtaking. I see a puffer fish (not inflated though), a File Fish which is incredibly beautiful and thousands of Fusiliers (yellow and white fish) which I swim through in awe.

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!