Koh Tao

I'm sat in a French cafe in Vientiane, Laos and I'm going to attempt to put up at least three overdue blog posts from Thailand. So here goes...

After meeting Paula in Bangkok we headed down to Koh Tao to get our PADI Open Water certificate. I'd never actually intending on doing this course but once Paula explained it to me I thought why not?! Anyway I'm really glad I did, it was an amazing experience. I was pretty scared at times though being 18 metres underwater but I loved seeing all the tropical fish down there! That was truly amazing. Felt like I was in a fish tank. The course was pretty tough though, we had homework each night and daily tests and then after our four dives we had out final exam. Well I passed! With 98% as well ;) and this now means I can go diving without an instructor up to a depth of 12 metres I think. I really should do at least one dive while I'm in the great barrier reef but I'm not sure I'm ready to go solo just yet, maybe I'll do a free dive.

Anyway asides from the diving, Koh Tao was a lot of fun. We made a good group of friends staying in the same resort as us so had a brilliant celebratory night after our last diving day. I really think I'd like to go back to the island cause there are so many beautiful restaurants and bars on the sand that I didn't really get opportunity to try out as we had a lot of early nights due to diving the next day. Well I definitely don't think this is going to be the last time I visit Thailand so plenty more chances to see the beautiful Turtle Island. (That's what Koh Tao stands for in Thai)

Delhi & Agra

Okay so it's been absolutely ages since I last blogged, purely for the envious fact that I've been having too much fun in Thailand to even think about using an internet cafe, but I think it's about time that I did as I haven't even finished India yet. Also, I have hours to wait for my bus to Chiang Mai. So let's start with Delhi...

Can I just say, I actually quite liked the place. Prior to our visit, we had the city described to us as 'hell on earth'- a bit extreme to say the least. Yeah it's busy, yeah it smells, but doesn't the rest of India?! Granted there's a lot more poverty in Delhi, and a lot more scams, but if you keep your wits about you, you'll be just fine. Our stop to Delhi was just a flying visit as we spent pretty much the only full day we had there in Agra at the Taj Mahal.

What can I say about the Taj? It's incredible. This sounds obvious but it's so huge, much bigger than I'd imagined and with beautiful hand painted marble walls. I'll admit, when my alarm went of at 4am for the 5am train, I really wondered whether a visit to the Taj was really worth such an early rise. But of course it was. Infact I'd advise anyone going to visit early as its a good 4 hours by train from Delhi, and plus when we were leaving at about 11am it was really busy. Definitely more opportunities for tourist photos earlier on.