Ko Pha-Ngan

Pronounced "Kopanyan," this place rocks. We are currently situated in this tropical paradise in the Gulf of Thailand. This is our fourth day here and we are now officially certified SCUBA DIVERS!!! We have been busy. It took us three days and 4 open water dives (down to 18m)to become PADI certified Open Water Divers!!! This is the life. We have spent the last couple of days on a boat chilling out and learning how to dive. It's a truly amazing experience to see the world from the other side. It is like swimming in a tropical aquarium. The water is about 27 degrees and crystal clear - just like the postcards and tourist brochures. We dive in comfort as we don't have to constantly watch our backs for sharks and other nasty critters. We now plan just to relax on a golden beach for a day or two, and then we're heading north to Canchanaburi to pat some vegetarian Buddhist tigers (not a football team!) and see the River Kwai. Having tonnes of fun and don't want to leave this place. Others have come for a week and never left (our divemaster is one of the many examples), so we must leave before we are bewitched into staying for life.