The taxi was nice enough to bring us directly to our resort so we didn't have to walk from town in the rain. We arrived super early in the morning but the couple who owned Cliff Cottages were immediately accommodating. They promised us the first tent that opened up after check out and invited us to have breakfast and relax in the hammocks overlooking the gorgeous little cove and the sea beyond. The tent we were finally placed in sat on the edge of the cliff sideand had a truly spectacular view. It came equipped with a mattress, electric enough for a couple of lights and a fan, and a cooler filled with ice and some comp bottles of water. Unlike some of the other tents, ours even had our own personal hammocks out front. It could not be more perfect.
Once we were rested on day 1 we took up the offer of free kayaks from the resort and went on a 2.5 hour ride along the coast. Sufficiently tired, and also because I was fighting a cold (my 2nd one in about a month- kids are gross), I went to bed around 7PM and slept for about 12 hours. By the morning I was actually feeling much better, so Christina and I went to talk to the owner of the resort and dive shop, Sean, to see if we could sign up to do some diving. I had been filling Christina's head with diving stories for the past few days so she was eager to do a discovery dive. Even though it was only an hour before the boat left Sean worked some magic and got Christina set up with a DSD experience and me with 2 fun dives. The dives were incredible, as I knew they would be. The first was a wreck dive, and we got to actually swim through the ship, which is always cool. The second dive was at a reef, which was also beautiful. The visibility was great, and even through we didn't see anything spectacular or big like a shark or turtle, just being below the water again was magical. I was actually a little disappointed that we didn't see a whale shark because apparently the day before the divers came across one at one of the locations. Oh well. My divemaster, Ben was great and really patient. Because I was still getting over my cold my sinuses were giving me trouble on the way down, and even under the water I was constantly having to equalize and was getting headaches. I was trying to take it as easy as possible, but the others in our group were pretty eager and were all over the place. Ben did a great job though wrangling us underwater and still showing us everything the locations had to offer.
It was another early night for the weary and sickly travelers, but we didn't care because the weekend was turning out just beautiful and completely relaxing. We were sad to leave the next morning, but both vow that we will make it back to the island at some point. Christina did really well in her discovery dive and may go back to get certified. I am also throwing Koh Chang into the ring as a place I may return to get my dive masters. I was talking to Sean and he said he may have an opportunity for me to work at the resort while I am getting my certification with them. Either way, if I go back I would definitely stay at Cliff Cottages again, and I found Sean's diving company, Scuba Dogs, to be fun, safe and professional and would be happy to dive with them again and possibly even get my certification with them. So, we'll see!