So we head to the last leg of the journey!
After a long and exhausting night of travel, full of uncomfortable sleeping conditions in the train and its station, on buses, and on a ferry. We finally arrive at our final main adventure with eager people to scuba dive and finally get to a beach! Arriving early at our resort in Koh Tao, we had free time until our first class (for some) on open water diving. Which prepared us for training in a pool that occurred the next day. We had training early in the morning and then class again in the afternoon. Although this sounds all so uptight and boring (which it was), we got to relax on the beach and end the day with a delicious barbecue dinner. Meanwhile, Riley, Jess, and Jared went on three dives. Two in the afternoon and the other at night (how scary). But so exciting since Riley was working on getting her advanced scuba certification!! The next day Kira, Megan, Bodhi, Matt, and I (Fallon) were on our first two dives in the ocean! We worked on skills in case an emergency were to occur. Then we got to explore the sea world where we saw many fish and coral as well as a sea snake which is very rare to see. Jared, Jess, and Riley also went on a dive and saw a 6-meter-long whale shark; super awesome! After diving, we took our final exam for the open water certificate and we all passed; Riley got her advanced diving too! It was an exciting day for everyone.
The next day we finalized getting our certification by going on dives three and four in the ocean and were lucky enough to have a professional photographer join us (sorry for the obnoxious number of diving photos). We had a very relaxing day afterward and celebrated Matt’s birthday with ice cream. We had to celebrate early due to traveling the whole next day. With a late start to the day, we headed into the humid heat, said goodbye to the beautiful island of Koh Tao, and got to the ferry. Then a bus to the train station, where we had dinner and waited a few more hours for the train. With everyone exhausted, we all passed out on the overnight train when we got on and called it a night as we headed back towards Bangkok and our final days together. Happy birthday Matt!
– Professor Fallon
