Just a quick note – the beach is calling – but have to tell you that I have now completed my PADI Open Water course! I came back up to Koh Tao by plane from Singapore, and signed up for the Open Water course with Easy Divers. My cycling friend Sally also joined me.
A couple of mornings of classroom sessions, two confined water dives, and four open water dives later, and we’re done! Took a while equalising my ears, but once I got that sorted, it was pretty cool looking at the huge amounts of tropical fish in the water here. Rays, Moray Eels, Barracuda, Nemo, etc. Plus every shape of coral you could imagine.
That done, we’ll have a few more days on the beach, and then I’ll think about getting back on the bike again.
In further good news, I passed my CCNP/CCDP recertification exam. Not sure what it says more about – me or the exams – but I managed to get back into the swing of it fairly quickly, after a year of doing this other nonsense instead. Perhaps there is hope yet of me being employable in future.