Wreck diving
Today we’d be scuba diving at some sites around Coron, all of them would be shipwrecks. Both Mat and I were looking forward to these as we’d been to wrecks before, but never inside. We went to the dive shop, got kitted up, and went to wait on the boat with the rest of the folks. Before long we were all friends as we got on well with each other. We shared experiences and stories, which made for a really nice day. It took around 2 hours for us to reach the first dive site, neither of us felt sick, which was a good sign.
We went with Amphibi-Ko Resort for our scuba diving in Coron, they’re on the main road and are proper sound dudes.
The first wreck was a seaplane tender, a sunken Japanese vessel from 1944. It was just over 30 metres deep and once we reached the bottom, there was an opening for us. So we swam inside and took a look around, it was pitch black, so we had torches to help us. On the whole, it was a really cool experience, you just need to be careful as it’s easy to bang your tank on a doorway. It was a huge ship, and we got to see the artillery, the engines, and huge amounts of coral growing on the deck and outside of the ship. I was thoroughly impressed with this first dive.
Buffet on the blue
After the first dive, we went back up to the boat and set sail for the next dive site. When we arrived, we anchored the boat and had our plentiful buffet on the deck. Wherever you go, you usually get the same sort of food, but that’s fine by me because these guys know how to cook. Once we’d chowed down on our food, the second dive got underway on another Japanese war vessel. This one was 26 metres deep and seemed to be in better condition than the first. The water was also clearer around here, so the overall experience was better. We got to swim inside the ship again, which was pretty wicked, and more amazing corals on the ship, proper top notch.
Check out these dives we did in Koh Tao, Thailand, that was amazing too.
Our third and final dive was at another ship wreck, but this one was pretty shallow, and we weren’t able to go inside. It was still wonderous to swim around it, I thought there was a reef wall but it was just the corals growing on the side of the ship. As the site was shallower, the colours were more vibrant, which made the corals really standout. The marine life was pretty cool to, plenty of different fish and creatures living in the corals, not many living inside though. Neither of us had any idea the diving in Coron would be this spectacular.
Return to shore
Once everyone was back off their third dive, we began our journey back to Coron. It took an hour to get back and everyone just chilled out and talked for the duration of the trip. When we got back to shore, we said farewell to the others, they made an already good day even better. Mat and I went back to the hostel to relax, and we talked to some of our room mates. It really is cool being thrown together with random and interesting people in your room like this.
As we left to get food, there was a huge tarantula on the toilet seat, and Mat had gone in the bathroom and locked the door without noticing it. I didn’t even know it was there, so I was crying with laughter as he was screaming, trying to get out of the bathroom. We tried to get it to move, and despite not being afraid of spiders, you just never know what these tropical beasts are capable of. At a café, I had chicken and pasta, and it was absolutely delicious. It really lived up to the best pasta in town claim. We went to the shops for a few bits afterwards, then retired to our room as we were both knackered.
