While still in Koh Samui, Josh and I had booked a 12-dive package with Big Blue Divers: the second biggest dive school on the island of Koh Tao.
Upon our arrival, we were picked up by truck and brought to their large complex. We were given an incredibly hot private room as part of our dive package. Alexa was also doing her open water and advanced classes with Big Blue, so we could meet up with her once she had finished her lessons.
Koh Tao is THE place to learn how to scuba dive in Thailand and probably the cheapest place on earth to do so. There are over 50 dive schools on this small 21 sq km island and we heard that there are more divers certified on Koh Tao per year than the entirety of Australia! Pretty ridiculous I know.
With so many divers diving on a daily basis, and a limited amount of dive-sites, do not expect to be diving by yourself, although Big Blue does keep the group sizes small.
While Koh Tao doesn't boast the 40+ meter visibility that we had in the Red Sea, and water pollution has contributed to the degradation of many species of coral, it does still provide you with an amazing opportunity to see the world's largest fish, the whale shark, which frequents these waters.
Most people we had met, including Alexa, had seen one while diving at Chumpon Pinnacle, Koh Tao's best dive site. While not the 15m ones you get at the Galapagos islands, they still frequently see them ranging from 3-5m. Still a humongous fish!
Our first two dives were at Chumpon and we didn't see any. Our awesome dive master, Phil, told us that the best opportunity to see them is following a rain shower because the rain stirs up the plankton, a whale shark's primary food.
While we didn't see the whale shark, I still did see some Cobias for the first time, a large graceful shark-like fish, as well as many other beautiful underwater creatures.
Over the next few days we continued to dive with Big Blue's terrific dive masters like Phil, Tupac and James. Once Alexa was certified, she also came diving with us.
The thing with diving is that we had to be at the boat at 6:15am for the morning dives, and diving hungover is neither fun nor the safest, so Koh Tao actually ended up being quite the detox period.
After several more days of diving, with many trips to Chumpon pinnacle and still no stupid whale shark sightings; Josh, Alexa and I signed up for a trip to sail rock.
Sail rock is closer to Koh Pha-Ngan than to Koh Tao and is considered the best dive site in the gulf of Thailand. Big Blue did not offer a trip there so we went with a company called Rocktopus. Josh, Alexa and I got an amazing dive master from the States named Brit, who was pretty hilarious.
Sail rock was great because of the abundance of fish and their large size. Brit also managed to bring us to a secret pinnacle and we got to swim with schools comprising thousands of fish and even hundreds of giant great barracuda.
The following day, we took a break from diving and went to Koh Tao's southern Shark Bay. Even though this quiet beach belongs to a beautiful private upscale resort, you can still chill and snorkel there.
Shark Bay gets its name from it's resident black tip reef sharks that frequent its waters in the mornings and afternoons. We were hoping to see them so we went in the late afternoon.
What made this feat difficult was that not only was the reef quite far from the beach, but the water was quite murky and visibility was probably only 3m in front of you.
After 40 minutes of fruitless searching, we decided to try one last spot. As we were beginning to lose hope, from out of the murky waters comes a one-meter black tip who swims right in front of me!
As we continue to search the area, we end up seeing them another 3 or 4 times. What makes it amazing is that because of the low visibility, you only see them at the last minute! Although the shark is only one meter long and afraid of bubbles, seeing this little predator up close is still quite exhilarating! Happy we had finally seen a shark, we headed back to Big Blue.
During our stay on Koh Tao, we were fortunate enough to meet up with our Swedish friends Camilla and Fredrika, who we had last seen in Shanghai. After China they had met up with one of their friends from Sweden, Natasha, who was just as nice and just as blonde as the other two. It was great catching up with them and hearing about their adventures in South East Asia.
On my last day on Koh Tao, it was my last chance to see that elusive whale shark, but alas I will now have to wait until the next place I visit and they frequent.
After 14 dives around Koh Tao and many of those at Chumpon, I still didn't see that evasive fish. I still had an amazing time diving with Big Blue and chilling on the wonderful Sairee beach. Koh Tao was probably my favourite island on Thailand's gulf coast.
Even though I didn't see a whale shark considering everyone I knew or met had, I wasn't mad, because I know I'll see one one of these days, whether they want me to or not!
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