Diving Nightmare

On the evening after my last post Jen and I began the course - we watched 2 vidoes all about safety etc etc and asked the instructor questions and so on. The next morning (yesterday) we went back to the class room and got fitted for wetsuits, fins, BCD's, etc.

We got into the gear after having extensive training on how to use it and jumped into the swimming pool to practice. I was doing fine until i was asked to fill my mask with water and clear it without surfacing. I managed to get all of the water out of the mask but couldn't stop it going straight up my nose - this caused me to freak out and I surfaced instantly!! I got the hang of it in the end and dove down to the bottom of the pool, however i forgot to equalize my ears and ended up with thorobbing ear ache!!

After lunch we got onto the boat - Em was there too as she was doing her refresher course, we all got our kit on when we got to the dive site, and in we jumped - I was fine up until this point but when we deflated the BCD's to go to the bottom of the ocean (about 4 metres at this point) i completley freaked out and had a massive panic attack and surfaced very very fast - it was a good job we were only shallow as i could have caused myself all sorts of problems. I felt like such a loser but have now decided that i am not suited to swimming deep in the ocean, I prefer the sky - in the flight instructors words "she was a natural" - I am going to have a good go at that when i get home!! I would rather crash a plane than be eaten by sharks!

Both Jen and I have now quit the course as she has a fear of open water, I have a fear of going down too deep - I can snorkel fine, so i'll stick to that i think!!

We are starting to meet more and more people on our travels, and i am so excited - we go to Oz in less than 4 weeks!! I can't stand Thai people for much longer. I hope Malaysians are nicer.

That's all for now i think - enjoy and keep safe!

Jac xx