Could This Be Under Water Love?

I was told that going for a dive in Thailand was a must by my pal Mel. She's a professional diver - well kind of - she's scuba dived everywhere, got her Padi, so she knows!

I've been on a few fun dives before - once in Cyprus with my brothers, and done three other dives in Egypt. In Koh Pha Ngan we met so many people who had gone, loved it, so we thought it was time we followed suit. When we walked into the booking place, they asked if I as a beginner or had been before. So I told them proudly it would be my fifth dive. The lady behind the counter started looking into arranging the open sea dive for intermediates, then she asked 'do you have your certificates?' So i replied no, I'd just gone on a few fun dives before. The look of horror spread across her face. 'You've been diving four times before and never had a certificate?!!'

Apparently there is no such thing as a 'fun' dive. Scuba diving is extremely dangerous - you need proper training - in a pool, classroom, a test and then certificate before you even head into the water. I'd never learnt about breathing under water - the effects it has on your lungs, how to retrieve my oxygen mask if I was to lose it, how to give air to a friend in need, how to surface or anything like that. I couldn't believe I'd not practised any of these things before.

I'd always felt safe with the previous instructors but what if something had happened to them? I'd have been stuck at the bottom of the ocean on my own with no way of knowing what to do or how to even get back up to the surface! I'd even booked these dives through what I thought was legitimate companies run through the hotel. It really freaked me out. There were even children under 10 who had gone on these dives - apparently you have to be over this age with a lot of pool training to go out.

So I booked to go on a Padi Discover Scuba Diving course. We did a lot of pool training, had a test, then headed to Koh Ma (north of Koh Pangan) for the open sea. Swimming in, which felt like ages, we reached our point and went down. I didn't realise at this point that Lyns had some trouble with her mask and had headed back to shore with one of the teachers, but I headed out with another.

There was a lot of plankton at first, but we swam out, saw lots of fish, we even played with a clown fish and turned over lots of shells. It was beautiful, like being inside a giant fish bowl, and I felt so much more at ease. If anything were to go wrong - I'd be confident to sort it out.

We were down a good 50 minutes and had gone down eight metres, which isn't deep but at least I was safe. Yes, so maybe it wasn't as clear as Egypt, the Mekkah of the diving world, but it was just nice to be out with an instructor who wasn't on a horse - like the cowboys I'd gone on previous dives with!

I think this will be the start of a very beautiful, safe and legitimate new hobby!