today i have two awesome reasons for you to continue watching this adventure on the
beautiful island of koh tao the first reason is if you're interested in coming to koh tao for
some scuba diving then stay tuned because i have a discount for you the place that i did my diving
today they offered me a discount for you guys my audience so stay tuned for more information on
that and the second reason is today we're going to be exploring what the island is actually like
now that it's back and it's open and it's busy what is it actually like to be here is it still
as beautiful as ever are the sunsets still as epic as ever and is the island buzzing well
no spoilers but yes the answer is yes yes yes
but before we get to paradise it's time to get the ferry to koh tao i do not just want to paint
a picture of everything being beautiful and rosy in thailand because getting to koh tao
was an absolute nightmare just bumped into some subscribers who just got the
ferry from koh tao to jump on and they said it was brutal and everybody was being sick
so we've taken our medicine and i think we're just
gonna suck it up for two hours and hope that it's all gonna be worth it
um let the journey of hell commence
i lasted five minutes not even five minutes inside the boat i had to come up here at the top
because i don't actually suffer that much from seasickness
but everybody is going to be sick and the sound of people being sick
and the smell of puke that would make me sick and up here it's not too bad
and nobody else has had the same idea as me look it's just empty up here
yeah it wasn't long before a few people joined me on the roof but not to enjoy the view just to puke
in private you see when you get on the boat they hand out red plastic bags as travel sick bags
basically which i think just makes or incentivizes the puking i pop downstairs to check on miss p
and michael and everybody was just throwing up in plastic bags it was miserable i mean look
i'll be honest with you we were going to coat out in a storm so just don't go on a stormy day
coming back was fine but getting to koh tower was oh it was rough we had taken dramamine travel
sickness tablets michael and miss p and everybody in the lower deck was green and i'm not gonna lie
it was two hours of hell and i was on the top and eventually when we arrived at koh taos and
vaguely good spirits and uh we got to michael's airbnb he'd booked us in this beautiful place
and uh well you'll see that i tried to give you a tour but the second we got in i passed out
and could not get out of bed for 24 hours the whole room the house was shaking wobbling from
side to side motion sickness kind of kicked in for me when we arrived which was weird so
yeah coming to koh tao and leaving hotel make sure you can leave on a good day if
you're not committed to other travel plans don't bother going on the ferry if you don't have to
stay a few days wait for the weather because yeah it was absolutely horrific okay we've made it
uh miss p and michael haven't said a word since we got off the ferry and they've gone straight in
to pass out it looks nice huh looks very nice let's go in and see if all of this journey
was worth it two days later so for at least i'd say 30 years koh tao has been the spot to learn
how to scuba dive whether you want to do your open water and advanced or just
practice and do fun dives it's all here for you the ecosystem on this island has been built around
scuba diving yeah for decades i actually did my open water on this island in 2008
and it was a great experience it was around about 9 000 baht at the time coattails the place to come
if you want to learn how to dive and uh how could we not come all the way to koh tao
and not experience some diving so today we've come to lbd diving school which is just behind
us here and they're based in fisherman resort on this beautiful bay absolutely gorgeous there's a
nice pool here they've got really good food the rooms look lovely they also have dorms available
if you're looking for a cheaper accommodation option when you're doing your scuba diving
and they reached out to me on instagram because they wanted to offer you guys a really cool deal
so they're letting us come with them today we're going to go on the boat and experience some diving
michael's coming miss p is coming she actually doesn't have an open water but so she's just doing
a discovery dive today but she'll come with us and she'll do some of the skills and we'll go down to
about 10 or 12 meters and so she'll get a full diving experience today which is really cool and
uh me and michael we've just been doing a little refresher course just learning relearning you know
how things work because i haven't dived in five years so i'd forgotten most of the skills most
of the hand signals and the rest of it but lbd dive school um if you're look in the description
if you're looking to do an open water or an advanced or a rescue diver any package any course
not just fun dives okay just courses you'll be able to get ten percent off so if you're thinking
about coming to do open water or advanced or some other course then enjoy the discount you excited
to go diving michael yes yes very excited what's that thing about hold your breath a whole bunch
hold your breath flap your arms around make lots of noise touch all the animals what was
this hand signal for i'm hungry right then let's get out to sea
okay and we are off look at this blue skies at last
we're diving with three spanish people i think they're doing their advanced open water so they're
doing a course um so we won't be diving along with them because pidgey's never done it before and
we're so rusty that we're gonna go off and do our thing and they're gonna go do their advanced stuff
but isn't koh tao pretty guys look at this place
yeah so it just makes it right hand release so that all the buckles the overflap
is in the right hand and then you'll be able to release it as well
lift it up and release
it up right we're ready are you ready
yeah sure yeah look it's really actually quite not flat here today look at their water up and down
and down so yeah miss p is a little bit seasick so we're trying to get in the water as soon as
possible cool so when we're entering the water we're going to do what's called a giant stride
this place is just a big step forward yeah as you can see the wind had picked up the moment
we got to this bay and miss p was standing on the edge of the boat and the really helpful
instructor was really trying to help her learn how to jump in but the boat was moving up and down six
feet from the top to the bottoms of the waves so it was really off-putting i've done scuba diving
obviously before when i was learning you know the first time i put a regulator in my mouth
the first time i was wearing a bcd jacket and the first time breathing underwater it was all in a
controlled environment in a swimming pool and bless her she was getting thrown in literally
thrown in the deep end here eventually when she got in me and michael followed but the
waves were so choppy we tried to swim towards the coast to sink down to one or two meters
and do some refresher stuff and teach miss p how to do the basics but as soon as we got towards the
shore the waves were crashing and it was basically a no-go for miss p so she just went back and
called it a day me and michael went under three or four meters and we did our refresher
did our skills you know retrieving the respirator clearing our mask things like that
and then we actually got to dive we did about a 30 minute dive in the shallows
and it was quite nice the first dive site was quite nice but so yeah i felt bad for ms p because
the whole time i was diving i just thought oh my god she's probably up on the boat seasick
so
time for dive number two on this island behind me it's called shark point apparently there might be
sharks here they're heading out for their dive so we would have to wait anyway and since i'm feeling
good um i'm gonna go dive and hopefully we'll find some sharks and hopefully they'll feel better
so with michael and miss peace sitting out the second dive me and the instructor
we went down and it was amazing i was so so blown away this was the best dive i've done in a long
long time in memory actually because not only was it really good conditions and good visibility
um but we saw so much you know we saw lots of rays two big sharks which i'm so sorry i don't
think i caught them on the gopro my gopro was playing up it kept turning itself off
after we got down about five or six meters which i think is something to do with the pressure
and the gopro not being in the housing but i thought gopros could go down at least 10 meters
but yeah so it just kept turning itself off so i didn't get the most amount of footage but the
second dive was fantastic michael really enjoyed his first dive in the refresher and uh overall
the diving experience was really really great i just felt really sorry for miss p bless her
because the whole time she was struggling and i think it's put her off trying scuba diving forever
maybe not maybe if we can get her into a pool next time she can learn and we'll go out on a
non-windy day because as you can see it's so beautiful right but it's still really windy
and uh caused a lot of issues anyway fantastic experience with lbd diving okay we're back on
solid ground and i had a great time it's a shame that miss p was terribly sick the
entire time bless her and it's a shame that michael didn't feel very well enough and
to do the second dive because i had the best dive ever james the instructor thank you for taking on
me around um we saw so much stuff i'm sorry that i didn't get more footage but as soon as we got
below six or seven meters my gopro just turned itself off because of the pressure or something
the big thing that surprised me about this trip is seeing how much coral restoration work that there
is here in koh tao and how alive and well the ecosystem is because i'll tell you when i did it
in 2008 it was like scuba diving in a graveyard but they've definitely really improved the
ecosystem here through hard work and collaboration and responsible tourism so good job kotal now
we're gonna go back to the house and uh try and enjoy
the first bit of sun in like five days and try and catch a sunset
oh
i know this has been a less than perfect uh travel vlog
it's a bit different to the normal flow of things and i'm adjusting too
it it's difficult and strange to be traveling with two people my girlfriend and michael
it's it's nice to have company but i'm just adjusting to being able to travel and film at the
same time as trying to relax and and also let them have their time and let them have their moments
and juggling sickness bad weather and drama but we've got rewarded at the very end
here on koh tao in the next episode we're going to head south suratani khao sak national park
and lots of other highlights of the south on our way to phuket
let me know how you enjoyed this video i have no idea how it's going to turn out
it's been a difficult five days or six i can't even remember how many days it was since we
left bangkok the sun is setting i'll end the video and share with you this epic sunset
thanks for watching as always i love you guys and we're nearly there the end is in sight
you