Yesterday we decided to stay in Koh Tao a few days longer to achieve our advanced open water diving certification, this allows us to go 30 meters (100 ft) beneath the sea. Between 18 & 30 meters is where all the "big stuff" lives - sharks, some whales, rays, huge fish, barracuda, etc.

Today we completed 3 of the 5 required dives for the certification. The first was at Chumphon Pinnacle, regarded as one of the best dives around Koh Tao. The visability was the best our instructors have ever seen in the location so they decided our second dive would be there as well. Our instructors said there would be a good chance of seeing sharks during this dive, this was exciting news until we learned it was the highly aggressive bull shark whom inhabited these waters rather than the vegetarian black tip reef sharks (friendly sharks of Thailand) that we assumed we'd run into. After we were fully geared and about to submerge beneath the surf our instructors clarified that sharks are not attracted to human blood (great news since you can often scrape yourself on sharp coral) rather the sharks are attracted to human urine (bad news), so of course immediately Jen had the unshakable urge to pee and to make matters worse her weight belt was firmly resting on her bladder for the full 40 minute dive, and each time she equalized her mask (plugging your nose and blowing out your ears) she hoped like heck a little wouldn't come out and attract a swarm of bull sharks! Eek. At 30 meters the ocean is a different and more active environment! We saw beautiful coral, banner fish and one large and mean looking bull shark just 20 feet away from us. The shark sighting alone made the decision to progress to the advanced diver course worth it :)

Our second dive was almost as exciting as it was our first solo navigation dive. Together Levi and Jen navigated the pinnacle with out instructors or other classmates. We learned quickly communication under water is incredibly difficult - Jen motions slow down & Levi thinks it means lets go deeper, this is something we need to work on.

Our 3rd dive was a night dive at White Rock. Before we entered the water Koh Tao showed us it's first beautiful sunset. We entered the pitch black water with just a flashlight each. The barracudas in the area are so accustomed to the frequent night divers they've incorporated the activity into their feeding schedule. They swim along side of the divers and use their beam from the flashlight to spot and attack their prey (smaller fish). Another interesting tidbit - The parrot fish cough up their stomachs and cocoon themselves inside of it while they sleep at night. The stench from the stomach is so distasteful to their predators so they are able to sleep safely through out the night. On our dive we spotted a beautiful blue spotted ray and a huge hermit crab tucked into a shell the size of a basketball.

During our dive we kneeled on the sandy bottom in a circle and turned off our flash lights, after a minute our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we then flailed our arms about activating the phos florescence (spelling? no time for spell check). We had glowing bits of green plankton illuminated all around us, it was a very surreal experience.

Tomorrow is our last two dives of our adv. course, afterward we're catching the night boat to the Surat Thani and then a bus to Krabi with a final destination of Railey Beach. We're hoping to do a little cave kayaking, more snorkeling, visiting wats (temples), hiking in the national park, and perhaps tackle a beginner rock climbing route or two. We LOVE Koh Tao but after a week here with our bearable restrooms, western food on the menu, TV in our room, English speaking locals, and minimal attempted scams we realized we are experiencing the JV of Thailand. We're anxious to travel the less beaten path and experience the nitty gritty of this country.
Hope all is well at home :)