Diving School

We went to Ko Tao with no intentions of learning to dive, however on arrival we were sucked in by its prevalence on the island and the fact that is the cheapest place in the world to do it. We ending up doing an open water course at Sairee cottage and really enjoyed ourselves. Our instructor Gordon was great and we were both surprised by how much we enjoyed diving itself. After 4 days of semi-hard work we were presented with our diving licenses and we were both keen to dive again.

** The course itself**

Once we had decided that we were going to take a diving course we then were faced with the decision of PADI vs SSI. We did a bit of research online into it and went to a couple of shops where we got as much information as we could. First we went to Sairee cottage and then to a couple of others to compare prices and options. In the end we went with the SSI course, it was about £40 cheaper and involved a fair bit less paperwork both and other than that the courses were pretty much identical. We were even in the same class as a girl doing the PADI course. We decided to take the course at Sairee as the guy who spoke to us was very helpful and encouraging, plus it was slightly cheaper and gave us 5 nights free accommodation in their lovely bungalows.

Sairee cottage was a great decision our instructor and the other staff were really good and friendly. We joined them for a BBQ one of the nights and watched the snorkel challenge. The course started with some classroom sessions then over 4 days we learnt new underwater skills and built up our confidence in the water. the dives 1 and 2 were at Japanese Gardens and Twins near Ko Tao and after these dives I was so excited to do more. Dive 3 was at Chumpon Pinicale and this was an amazing dive site however the day we went the sea was very choppy and had a strong current even fairly deep. This panicked me somewhat and consequently the 4th dive at White Rock where we had to take our mask off at around 15m was pretty scary. We did our exams and both passed. We are now officially Open Water Divers.