Woke up today at 7 with a really dry-tongue-stuck-to-roof-of-mouth feeling, dying of heat and dehydration. I said my farewells to one of the Lara’s who was going back to Bangkok later-she even shed a few tears, my body lacked so much water that I probably wouldn't have been able to even try shed a tear-even if I wanted to, which I didn't really. Then I decided to down a litre of water to up my h2o levels in my body and back to bed till 9.30-yay sleep. Last night was a bit huge-so needed some extra shut-eye and maybe some beauty sleep from the way I was looking.

At 10 I went to the corner bakery and had breakfast-coke and BLT baguette-with Lara and Toby. Was not feeling great at all and the heat wasn't helping with the thirst, pounding head or nauseous feeling. I then met up with Olivia and we decided to explore the island-which is only 7km across. So we hired a quad bike-me riding first-and off we set down the main road to try find Au Leuk beach. Riding or driving around koh Tao is not easy and actually quite dangerous as the other motorists all seem to be in a huge rush, and overtake you even when cars are coming towards them on the other side of the road. They basically drive like mad taxi drivers making up their own road rules as they go along-I bet some don’t even know what a driving license is...

We eventually found a sign pointing down a very dodgy, rocky, sandy cliff which is apparently a road-wtf. So we decided to go down on our quad-not a clever idea, especially when your breaks don’t really work and you kind of skid down the hill, at not-a-slow-speed with thoughts of jumping off racing through your mind. We eventually got about half way down, to a flat ledge where we decided to park the quad and brave the hill on foot. Not a good idea either as you slip and slide often landing on your bum, but a lot safer than going down on a non-stop-breaks-don’t-work quad bike. After trekking, slipping, sliding, falling for about 15minutes we eventually made it to a beautiful, amazing, sandy bay-Au Leuk bay. It was really beautiful with crystal clear water, whiter than white sand and a few people spread out tanning and some swimming, so was definitely worth the scary trip down. One word-paradise!! It was amazing. We set up base near the water, plonking down our things, and ran for the water. There was no coral but millions of fish swimming everywhere, so you could walk in quite deep before you had to start swimming. The water was lovely and refreshing-about 30 degrees.

We swam for about 40 minutes till we were all wrinkled up and were tired of the fish nibbling at us, and went back to sun ourselves dry and add to our already near-black tans. After dehydration set in again, I walked to one of the restaurants set on the cliff with an amazing view over they bay. Here I had a really delicious coconut shake-it was so good I had another... Mhhhhhh yummy! Once my liquid levels were in check and I started to feel slightly human I went back to the beach to swim and tan. Mostly we just bobbed around in the water, or swam a bit, and just chilled-felt so good to do nothing and have nothing to do! This is the life!

At about 3.30 when our skin was feeling a little bit tender to the over exposure from the sun we headed back to town. We did get picked up a few times on the quad-while driving-crazy foreigners! At DJL bar we had some baguettes, water and coke-loving the sugar and chilled there for a bit. The water in the pool was a grass-green colour so we decided to give the pool a miss for today-we'd also been in the sea so didn't need to swim again. After our late lunch we went to our rooms to chill, shower, change and for me to pack-boo hoo-as tonight would be my last night... Sniff, sniff, sob, sob... I've really loved it here, on koh Tao and meeting all the new people and learning to dive! This has definitely been my best week so far!

I met up with the others at 8 for my last dinner-chicken red curry again-I know, but it was delicious as always. We then headed off to a party at the 'treehouse', which is one of the long term accommodation options for dive master trainees. We had a couple of drinks there, meeting more people and saying goodbye to others who were also going home or travelling further. I decided to have an early one as I had a long day the next day and I was still feeling slightly tender for my well-done-for-passing-your-open-water party and celebrations. So off to bed, for my last night in my beach shack. Sniff sniff!

At 6:30 I headed to DJL all ready and amped for my dives – woohoo… Today’s dive would be filmed by an underwater videographer – Amber, and the last of our open water training dives. So we all had to pose at the BBQ while Amber filmed our sleepy tired faces, then pack our equipment and head off to Sairee beach to get on our long tail, to get to our main boat. Its all on DVD which I bought so will post it on my blog when I get a chance. We were briefed again about the dives, the first one being a fun dive and the second one the last of our skills again. First dive site was Red rock.

So we suited up, did buddy checks and were briefed on our entry into the water – which would be the dead Mexican. So what you do is face into the boat (opposite of the long stride), heels over the edge, right hand on mask and regulator, left on weights and just… fall backwards off the boat into the water. Easy!!!! When the whole open water team was in the water we just descended down, Olivia and I buddy team number 1 and had to follow Alex while keeping negative and neutral buoyancy and remembering to equalize. We just missioned around in the water for 35 minutes, looking at the many fish and beautiful corals. We also saw a huge trigger fish, which do tend to attack people at times but this one just swam away. No whale sharks or turtles today – too bad. After 35 minutes, we ascended to 5minutes where we had to do a compulsory safety stop to lessen the chance of decompression sickness from excess nitrogen exploding out of your tissues. So we sat their hovering, trying not to laugh while Alex and Hannah did strange things in the water – they really are a great team together and so funny. So we surfaced and got back on the boat.

We got to jump off the top level of the boat in just our wet suits while Amber filmed us which was great as it’s quite high up and a long way into the water below. Our surface interval was a bit longer this time as we had to wait for tanks so we just tanned, jumped off the top level, swam around at the to of the water, snorkelled etc. we also went back to Japanese gardens for our last dive, then when our tanks got there swap BCD’s onto new tank, suit up, do buddy checks and into the water again.

We descended to 15 m where we had to do our last skills for the day and to pass our open water. First was mask recovery – my worst. I filled my mask, took it off, did my little dance, put it back on, and emptied the water from it and volia – no incidents, drama, near choking or dying today. I also kept my eyes closed the whole time which made it easier and so I wouldn’t laugh while I was doing it. Lara was again couldn’t do it at all and started panicking trying to swim up to the surface which is really bad. So Alex and Hannah weighted her down, jammed her regulator in her mouth, calmed her down, got to breathe again and finish the exercise. It took about 5 minutes of her panicking and not being able to do it 0- which must be pretty scary before we eventually got it right.

Then we did a ping pong show – not the Bangkok pat pong type – but the under water one, where Alex rolls into a ball and we push him, turn him, spin him around in a circle – trying to make him puke… fun but he didn’t get sick – probably a good thing!! We were supposed to do a pyramid of people under water but ran out of time so we did our safety stop and then surfaced. Yay I passed with flying colours – whatever that means…

Then back to the long tail and back to the beach, take our equipment and back to DJL. We were debriefed after we’d packed our equipment away and had some beers with our instructors and assistant dive masters at the bar. After a couple of beers we all went to change, freshen up, do some shopping, have some pad Thai for lunch and then back to the bar at 6 to do final briefing, certifications and to watch our DVD. We all passed our open waters, except Lara who is just certified as a scuba diver while we re all open water divers. She was quite upset but I didn’t think she really enjoyed diving that much anyway. We had more Heinekens, a BBQ and watched our DVD’s… ahhh I can’t believe my Thai experience is nearly finished – boo hoo….

We stayed there awhile before going to lotus bar for some snuck in alcohol, met some American guys and then headed off to the moov party at the other end of sairee beach. There were loads of people out and about celebrating for various reasons, us for passing our open water. The night was long, crazy, involved plenty of alcohol, many weird guys trying to pick Olivia and I up with their travel tales and supposed talents, corny and beyond-pathetic pick up lines and the often used ‘can we go for a walk on the beach’ whatever!!!! All in the all the night was great fun, a huge party on the beach, lots of alcohol, something to celebrate – what more could I ask for… this is the life.

I eventually stumbled back home at about 3:30, where I feel into a deep wonderful sleep.