It was startling to wake up not needing to run to the bathroom, but I was infinitely relieved (if not still exhausted from the fitful sleep and emptying of my stomach the night before). After a call home while braving some steamed rice, our van took us to the ferry for a beautiful ride to Koh Lanta that I mostly slept through. Arriving in the brutal midday sun, we were very grateful our hotel offered transfer from the pier, and dropped our bags before heading back out to the dive shop. A quick gear-fitting and signing away of our lives left us all but ready to embark on our soon-to-come underwater adventures, and we enjoyed a simple dinner by the water. Not long after, I learned how foolish my earlier thoughts of being done with running to the restroom had been. We were thankfully already returned to the room, and we finished our e-learning for the next day's class despite the returned uncertainty of my ability to complete the course...

Thankfully, the morning presented an even keel, and we were off to the pool after meeting our British diving instructor Gareth, AKA "Gaz". Him and his wife had traveled for 8 months, then returned to Manchester for 2 months before returning to Koh Lanta to work as a dive guide/instructor...5 years ago! His light demeanor kept us smiling as he ran us through how to use our gear and practice various safety techniques in the pool before our 5 open water dives over the next two days. The morning went quickly, and I spent the rest of the day resting and braving some white bread. By dinner I expanded by day's diet of steamed rice and bread to include a lone egg. It was sublime; even if my stomach did complain the rest of the night.

The next two days followed roughly the same structure: get picked up ~7:45 and taken to the boat, have breakfast and go over the dives on the ride out to the site, dive, rest and snack, dive, lunch on the return ride, shower before a quick dinner by the hotel, and crashing early for the next day. 

Rough schedule out of the way, we can focus on the meat of the days. The not even 5 hours we spent underwater in those two days were some of the most surprising and beautiful experiences I have had with nature. On our first day's pre-dive chat, Gaz mentioned that Thailand diving was "pretty good, but not as good as the Philippines and Indonesia." Which I translated as "good place to learn, get to see some cool fish usually". This gross underselling lead to a shocking first view into the dive site: it was breathtaking; which is unfortunate in an activity where the structural integrity of your lungs depends on continuous breathing. The sheer number of distinct species of fish, let alone individuals or groups, was impossible to keep track of while trying to focus on breathing regularly and maintaining contact with each other and the dive leader and staying at the right buoyancy and keeping track of air consumption and not bumping into the coral. While we did have to spend some portion of the dives practicing the safety skills we had learned in the pool, by the end of the last dive many of the aforementioned pullers-of-focus had become slightly more automatic while observing the local wildlife. Some highlights of our sightings included: cuttlefish (surprisingly big, maybe an average house-cat), a seahorse, a sea snake, several lionfish, many moray eels (including a spotted moray eel!), rays, bubble coral, and some curious cleaner fish that were nibbling Gaz's legs for most of the dives. Unsure how frequently we would get around to experiencing this, we splurged for the professional photos, some of which we will include here, and the remainder we will eventually put in the Pictures page. 

Aside from Kaia: "Isaac has said that the number 1 million is too large for our brains to comprehend; I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I truly believe we saw a million fish on our last dive at Koh Haa". 

Exhausted from the previous days' underwater adventures, but with me back to a full-food diet, we explored the island slightly more than just between our hotel, the dive-boat, and the restaurant down the block from our hotel. Lunch and dinner with beautiful ocean views capped off our wonderful time in Koh Lanta, and we looked forward towards the remainder of our time in Thailand.