I can’t believe I didn’t send an update! You guys, I had the most magnificent time in Thailand. I only wish I could have stayed longer.
I completed a refresher course and AOW with Big Blue Diving in Koh Tao. I was very happy with my choice of shop/accommodations for reasons stated above. Unfortunately, an old knee injury was acting up so while I felt completely fine under water, I wasn’t able to explore the island on foot much.
Afterwards, I took an extremely long and uncomfortable night boat to Surat Thani and transferred to a bus to Khao Lak. I decided to book the 3-day liveaboard (9 dives total) to the Similan Islands through Wicked Diving. It was FANTASTIC. All of the instructors and crew were so good at creating a fun, safe, educational, sustainable, and memorable experience. I was really glad that I’d already finished the AOW before the liveaboard so that I wasn’t limited at all by depth or anything. So thanks to everyone here who suggested that.
I dove in a group with three other divers and a guide, and I liked that it was the same group throughout the whole trip, although I was fairly intimidated at first since they were all much more experienced than me — they’d all traveled and dived extensively around Asia and one was a Divemaster. I was concerned that I would run out of air and make everyone surface early every time. I did run low on air during one dive and was escorted to the surface by another guide, so after that I was extra focused on maintaining good buoyancy and actually kept up really well with the more seasoned divers. My guide and the other divemaster in my group remarked that my skills were on par with someone who had logged a lot more dives than I have. I also got my Nitrox certification while on board.
Visibility was wonderful (20 meters?) and there were a couple challenging dives with some strong currents and narrow areas to swim through. But hands down, the absolute best moment was when I learned first hand what it means when something appears “out of the blue.” Literally two minutes into our first dive of the last day, just as the group is reaching the planned depth, we look up and see the giant flapping wings of some Manta rays that appeared out of the blue and circled the group for the entire dive. One swam right over my head, just a couple fin kicks away, and I can honestly say it was one of the greatest moments of my life. I was so moved by the experience.
Thanks to everyone for your help. My plan turned out great for me, since I got to maximize the amount of quality diving and skill building I could do while sticking to a strict budget.
Now how and when can I go back??!?!