Koh Tao- diving

Off the east coast of Thailand, north of Koh Samui and Koh Panang (famous for full moon parties), there's Koh Tao, where dive schools are cheap and plentiful. As part of my month in Thailand I aimed to get PADI Open Water certified, and for 10,400 baht ($335?) I could do a three day certification course at Alvaro Dive School, including 3 nights at Taraporn Bungalows.

The dive school is nice- good equipment and really friendly dive instructors. A bit disorganized- I still have no idea what the schedule is. I showed up this morning with my PADI manual, expecting to have a class on 'scuba 101', and the instructor just directed me onto the boat which took us to a site for our first confined dive. Jump on in, newbie- now remove your face mask underwater and put it back on. Same with your regulator. And your vest. There are only two other people in my class- a German couple- so it's nice to have a very personal class. Not to mention a beautiful confined location:

The bungalows are not as great: the design of the hotel is a pain in the ass (have to walk along a dangerous and rocky stretch of beach, which sucks after the sun sets at 6:30pm), the staff are pretty rude, and I had a lizard in my bungalow bathroom for the first day: 

But also a private beach and a hammock:

To get to the dive school/ bungalow>