Ko Chang, 26-29 January 2020

From the Thai border at Hat Lek a minivan takes us north to Trat, where we get the ferry to the island Ko Chang. The name means ‘Elephant Island’, deriving from its elephant-shaped headland. There are actual elephants on the island too, but these are not indigenous. Historically, Ko Chang is most known for the 1941 Battle of Ko Chang between the Thai and French Navy.

We’re staying at a guesthouse on White Sand beach, one of the more touristic places on the island. At high tide the water comes right up to the porch, can’t get better than that. The area attracts a somewhat older crowd and the restaurants seem to be a bit better down south, but even the most basic Thai food is already pretty good.

Over the last few months we have been doing a lot of snorkeling and while this was great and allowed us to see turtles, a dugong, whale sharks, and a whole lot of fish, we decide it’s time to take our skills to the next level and get our PADI Open Water Diver certificate. This course combines theory with practical diving experience and takes three days, so we have just enough time to complete it before moving on to Bangkok. It’s a bit costly, but we have been saving up for it while travelling, nice to see our efforts finally paying off.

On day 1 we meet our dive master Tam, who sits us down for a four hour long instruction video explaining the basics of diving, how to use the equipment, and colourful descriptions of every possible calamity; there are a lot! Then it’s into the pool to learn and practice different exercises, such as buoyancy, sign language, changing air supply, etc. It’s a ton of information to take in, and a lot of it is training for eventualities that don’t usually occur, but since we’ll be 18 meters under water it’s important to know the essentials that keep us alive.

For day 2 of the course we’re already on the open water. It’s a clear sunny day when we get on the boat, and the water temperature is a very pleasant 29 degrees Celcius, so, out of all possible hazards, at least there’s probably not much chance of hypothermia today. Before diving in, first we have our written exam (we both pass, phew!), then a swimming and floating test, and finally it’s time to suit up. After some last-minute equipment checks we jump in, nervous but excited!

The dive location is Hin Raab (meaning flat rock), where we descend to 12 meters. The sea is choppy, with poor visibility of a maximum 5 meters, which makes it a bit claustrophobic, but then again it’s probably good to learn how to dive in slightly difficult conditions. First there’s more exercises to be completed, and then we finish with a fun dive around the coral, where we catch a quick glimpse of a baby stingray!

It takes practice to stay buoyant, and after 45 minutes I see Lauren a bit above me, then a few seconds later she’s completely disappeared from sight. Tam turns around and gestures at me: “Where’s your buddy??” We look around us while he’s flashing his light, but Lauren is nowhere to be found! I’m starting to panic and want to go look for her, but we have to follow the plan. After staying put for one minute we head back to the surface. Thankfully Lauren is already there, alive and floating! When we check our oxygen levels it shows I’ve been flying through mine, clearly I’m a heavy breather.. I guess there’s a few things left to improve.

The second dive of the day is not far from Hin Raab, called Blueberry Hill. I’m breathing more steadily, Lauren’s not floating up as much and we enjoy ourselves a lot more this time.

So we’ve made it to day 3, the day of (w)reckoning. In the early morning we head out to the HTMS Chang, a 100 meters long former US warship, which was gifted to Thailand. After the ship was decommissioned the Thai sank it in 2012 to make it into the biggest shipwreck in the country, which has since become a paradise for underwater life.

First we descend to 20 meters about halfway down the ship before slowly making our way forward to salute the (imaginary) captain in the cabin on the front and circle our way up around the mast. Thankfully Tam has got a sharp eye for the dangerous scorpion fish around here and we find a large puffer fish looking at us angrily from its hiding place.

At the crows nest we make a safety stop to get rid of some of the nitrogen that’s been building up inside us and with that our third dive is completed, only one to go. We relax a bit on the boat while we’re heading back to Hin Raab. Visibility levels are just as bad as yesterday, but that’s alright because we’re mostly going through our exercises. We already know how to use the dive computer, now we’re navigating with a compass too. Then it’s back to the coral and one final test for me when my air supply gets knocked right out of my mouth by another diver. No panic as I calmly reinsert it; our drill sergeant has trained us well.

So that’s it, we’ve got our OWD, meaning we’re allowed to dive up to 18 meters! We’ve got log books to keep track of our progress and hopefully we’ll be adding to our experience later on in the Andaman Sea.

The next morning it’s already time to leave. We haven’t seen much of Ko Chang’s surface, but it seems a very nice place, lots of jungle and karst rock formations. Maybe some day we’ll come back here a bit more experienced and dive with whale sharks!