Namrin in Pattaya -SCUBA diving test 22-23 March

Hello all

Finally, here it comes, the photo album that I really proudly present, Namrin in Pattaya -SCUBA diving test 22-23 March!

Pattaya is a city beach, about 150km away from East of Bangkok. Pattaya is popular for night life and how easy to access to the beaches so if you look for white-sand beaches and quiet atmosphere, pls don't go there. I have warned you. Pattaya city is crowded and somewhat developed. You can find everything here almost like a little 'Bangkok', and therefore it's popular place for many Western foreigners who are retired/early retired.

One of my closest friends lives and works in Pattaya so during this diving trip,we got free accommodation. The trip cost was included in my class fee so I didn't have to pay more except for transport cost and breakfast and dinner.

Let's get to the diving spots. We sailed to the islands near Pattaya beach, called Koh Laan. Laan in Thai has two meanings 1) bald and 2) million. From my own eyes, I think it should refer to bald. So Koh Laan would mean Bald Island(s) in English. Around Koh Laan, there are also smaller islands and we dived there. But as I didn't take note properly, today I can't tell which name belongs to which island. Just know that it's Koh Laan, LOL.

The visibility was bad. If I compare to the Rea Sea, I should say here is terrible! Of course not, I don't recommend you guys to dive here. My closed friend also said that from her 5-6 times experience diving here but there was only once that it was clear and the currency was still. The rest is probably like these 2 days about 5-6 metre visibility and strong currency. Therefore, Pattaya is not Thailand's favourite diving spots. Most of people come here for practice or just because they don't have enough time to go to further islands in South or very East of Thailand.

It's time to dive, my first official dive! I was so excited and delighted. I was ready with all equipment and jumped! Boom! Fine....I was okay. I caught the rope and preparedto dive. I found my buddy, Art. Give okay sign to each other, and then he dived first and I followed.

"Ughh...what is this? I can't go down." I thought.
Right, I had to release more air from the BCD (Bouyancy Control Device-the thing that looks like a jacket which connects a diver with a air tank). Then, I started to sink....but but remember what I'm scared the most? It's ear equalising. I grabbed the rope as I didn't want to go down too fast.

But before I tried to balance the air in ear (body) and the pressure from the sea. The water came into my mask. Of course, this is the second thing we learn in the pool class, how to clear the mask. I didn't know what happened. I couldn't get rid off the water like when I did in the pool. So I came to the water surface to clear my mask. Then, I went down again but just when I put my face into the sea. The water came into my mask again. I feel something wrong. I couldn't get rid off the water from the mask. I told myself "I'm not gonna start diving with full water in the mask" It's been little while so my buddy, Art, came back to ask me what was going on. I told him about the water. One of our instructors told my buddy to go first and waited for me at the ground of the sea. So I tried again and it happened exactly the same.

Now I realised that I was the last student left on the water surface. I thought to myself, "What am I doing here? You are going to ruin all the things that you have learned for 4 weekends. You wanna do that?" Definitely not. I gave myself another go but the water came in again. And this time I thought. "Hang on! Nam. The first rule of diving. You only dive when you feel safe." I didn't feel safe anymore and I knew that if I forced myself I would drown. Now I wanted to give up.

Another instructor who is also the owner of this diving school came to me and asked whether I was nervous. I told him I was a bit nervous but more importantly something wrong with my mask. He looked at my face and said my mask was too tight. Thus, he adjusted it. Now I felt more confident and tried again. BUT the water came in again.
"It happened again!" I told my instructor.
He asked me, "is this your own mask?"
"Yes, it is. But this is just the second time I used it. For the first time I used, the water came in too but it wasn't this bad. It was fine later." I replied.
"I see. Can you adjust it again to make sure it fits your face?" He told me. "I think it's little slipped off from your face"
I followed his advice. And just put my face into the water like snorkelling. I think it worked. I faced up to the air and my instructor pushed my mask on my face. "Ouch!" I felt the mask caught my face more tightly. Then, my instructor told me to follow him slowly and when I was under water, I had to keep pressing my mask on my face.

You know what, that really helped!!! It was just I had to keep pressing my mask when I dived down. When I reached the meeting point, I was fine. And then, I said 'cheese' to you guys :-D. And that's the most difficult part of the trip :#)

Even though the visibility is not good and the sea creatures are not as abundant as Sharm El Sheihk in Red Sea, there are still some underwater animals come out to "hi" to us. And I feel every single thing I found here is valuable because it's not easy to find. hahaha.

Hope you enjoy the photos and if you have any advice about the types of animals, pls feel free to correct me.

Namrin

Link Version
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/namrinb/Photo%202008/Pattaya%20SCUBA%20diving%2022-23%20Mar/?albumview=link