A quiet corner of Koh Phi Phi offers those with enough energy the perfect spot to master diving and yoga

Don’t tell anyone, but I didn’t see that turtle. It seems every diver in Phi Phi that day saw the harassed reptile, apart from me. Divers congregated on the spot using underwater sign language to direct each other to the sluggish beast and by the time my group of five reached the spot, the water was full of fins and bubbles.

I was too busy trying to stop my ears from hurting and not colliding with another human to see what all the fuss was about.

“Wasn’t that turtle beautiful?” I was asked earnestly on the surface.

Koh Phi Phi provides an excellent, secluded place to learn to dive, away from the crowds that often choke the waters around Koh Tao in the Gulf.

Giant puffer, trigger, flute, clown, banner, trumpet and butterfly fish (some species seem to have been named purely to enable divers to use simple sign language to represent them) as well as stingrays, leopard sharks, Moorish idols and eels slip between cities of coral.

Lunch is taken in the shade of startling limestone rocks that rise from clear waters in a hundred shades of blue too shallow for the larger boats to reach.

For the uninitiated, diving really isn’t tough, even for a poor swimmer. As long as you blow through your squeezed nostrils regularly to relieve the air pressure on your ears and make sure you’re breathing through your regulator and not the snorkel when you drop below the surface, novices should face few problems.

There are many more snorkelling than diving deaths because of the rigorous safety drills used by divers. Snorkellers are more likely to be swept out to sea by currents or decapitated by jet-skis.

Jon, our patient instructor, explained that most diving accidents involve professionals who ignore the safety procedures or take unnecessary risks, while novices are under constant supervision.

Diving felt more disorientating than dangerous: During my first dive I wanted to hang on to a boat’s anchor that was attached to the seabed to counter the peculiar feeling of weightlessness and root myself to one point.

A more minor stress of diving is learning to avoid using the dreaded words “flippers” and “goggles” rather than “fins” and “mask” and giving the thumbs up to say all is well underwater, when it actually means ascend to the surface. Getting this wrong not only marks you out as a rank amateur among the seasoned pros, but also cost my two fellow students and me a beer at every repetition.

My classmate Martin said “flippers” so many times (“an irritating dolphin, not a piece of diving equipment”, Jon told us) that an extra crate of beer had to be ordered from the mainland.

I fell victim to this harsh regime only once when I gave the thumbs-up when shown a written instruction during some deep-water tests, to which Jon gleefully replied with his own unorthodox diving sign: A hand tilting an invisible glass of beer to his mouth.

My supremely thorough open-water course was run by Blue View Divers at the Viewpoint Resort at the quiet end of Phi Phi’s Loh Dahlam Bay.

The island’s centre is still a jumbled building site as large resorts spring up to replace those washed away by the 2004 tsunami, so the Viewpoint is an oasis of calm. The eco-friendly school is involved in reef restoration, limits its group sizes, uses a traditional longtail boat and supports the post-tsunami reconstruction of the island and its dive sites.

Blue View seamlessly runs diving courses and expeditions in conjunction with a vigorous yoga week that is also based at the hotel, and the two activities complement each other well.
Yoga instructor Michelle takes her classes for three hours a day and holds the evening class on the beach in front of the Viewpoint so her students can enjoy the sunset as they stretch into strange pretzel shapes on the sand. There’s also meditation in the sea before breakfast. The slow yogic breathing improves a diver’s ability to get the most from the air tank and stay underwater longer.

Also, the warm waters and tropical heat ensure that the creakiest of skeletons is at its most floppy and relaxed for the yoga. All the stretching in turn helps anyone interested in taking part in the island’s excellent rock-climbing opportunities – if they have any energy left.

Find out more about Blue View Divers at www.blueviewdivers.com or yoga courses at www.yogatraveller.com.

William Baldwin
Special to The Nation