Friday, December 01, 2006

Phi Phi Islands for Incredible Diving

24th November - 30th November

After the utter disappointment that Koh Tao, our diving destination,
has been greeted by a typhoon, we didn't waste anytime planning to dive somewhere else. The Phi Phi Islands boasts to have the most beautiful diving in Thailand and we rushed there to get started. Shortly after, we struck up a good deal with a Moskito Diving, a 5 Star Padi dive shop and began our Open Water course with David, our Swedish instructor.

Our Open Water course was mostly a breeze, though we studied hard and didn't entertain the idea of partying even for a minute. The first few dives were a bit awkward but we tempered on and finished the course. Here, we sit with David and smile before we plunged into the waters around Bidah Nok.

Here, we celebrate finishing the course and being able to dive on our own.

Our last dive was so much fun that we all agreed to do the Advanced Open Water and begged for David to be our instructor once again. We did the course on the Excalibur, a luxury boat with a captain, a full time cook and staff to help us with everything from filling up our air tanks to helping us out of the water.
Tom was so proud of his new mustache (aided by the stinking compliments of both Pat and Sarah) that he looked forward to each picture with a smirk.
The water was pleasant and calm on our liveboard and as far as the eye could see there was no one to interrupt our paradise. Pats burnt face says it all.

This picture was taken right before our night dive, where we saw many coral dwellers too scared to come out during the day.

We finished the Advanced Water course with flying colors and enjoyed every minute of it. To top it all off we saw soft blue coral, a haven for all the tropical fish in the best of the fish books, along with zebra sharks, a turtle, a black and white spotted lobster, moray eels and so much more. Congratulations to the Moskito Team NYC!

4 comments:

the cheese wagon said...

That 'stache, Tom, really! InnnConnnCievable!

Anonymous said...

I love the handlebar mustache. really, it deserves its own blog entry lol. :-)

Anonymous said...

great faces. mishka

Anonymous said...

Tom, you have the same face on all the pictures in this group...It's hillarious! But i am sure it's the handlebar which commands such a presence!!
Rockin' it hard!