A big thank you to Ceri Duff, IDC Candidate Dec 2010, for sharing her story. I have decided to Break this into two installments, IDC and IE – she writes nearly as much as she talks!!!!

Choosing Scuba Cat Diving in Thailand as the place for us (Ceri and Bruce)  to go for our IDC took us some time. But it’s like the simple dive instruction – plan your dive – dive your plan.  We researched a few places but after my partner spoke to Sarah, he was convinced that this was the place to go.  Ok, talking to other old pros helped but there was something about the way Sarah seemed relaxed and well NON SALESY that we liked. So come 1^st October we booked it all, sorted out the flights and our countdown began………

Arriving in the busy resort of Phuket was a hot, humid and strange feeling.  This was to be “home” for the next few weeks, and by the time we got to the center we both wanted to jump in and cool off.

Sarah met us, introduced us to Christophe – our Course Director and we headed off to the Star Orchid to meet the hotel owner, his wife and beautiful little Elizabeth, their year old daughter.  Our room was comfortable, shower, loo and enough space to store our luggage. (Two BIG Mares bags, with our diving equipment and clothes for three weeks).

Christophe

And then we got some great news – have the rest of the afternoon and evening off, we start at 8:30 tomorrow. As we laughed, Christophe gave us a sheet with a schedule, a piece of paper showing how to tie knots and two red pieces of string.  God. Homework on night one!

So as we Scottish do, it was off for a beer and some lunch, and to practice our knots of course!

Patong is a friendly place, and it is indeed the land of a thousand smiles. Night clubs – yes, Bars – yes, touts selling T shirts – yes, massage parlours – yes, ladyboys – I think there are some at night but cant recall seeing them – night time was study time, but the guide books don’t tell you about the friendliness, and politeness of the Thai people. They make the town worth visiting.

Next morning we travelled the 25 metres to the ScubaCat dive “school” area and we met our fellow IE Candidates. An American, Canadian, Spaniard, Frenchman, German and a Finnish guy.

Trust me to pick the IDC with no other females.

Not to worry, they treated me like a guy, although there were several whispered conversations in the morning about who did what and where!!  We managed to speak together and found out that we had mainly one thing in common, a passion for diving, which was shared by our “teacher” Christophe.

Each day we knew where we were to be – 720am for pool sessions, 7:30 for days on the boat and an 8:30 start all other days. No days off, and we could study as much – or as little as we liked in the evening. Christophe was an excellent mentor for the course, but the added benefit to us students was that Sarah was on hand in the evenings.  I had one bad day doing mock exams, and after chatting through my feelings with them both, they agreed I could resit the paper downstairs in the coffee area.  Right on the street, the guys trying to be quiet but failing miserably, and a beer in hand. Sarah laughing in the background at some of the stories – maaaaaassssssaaaaaaaaggggggee being shouted often. But I resat that mock exam – with Sarah making sure I didn’t cheat, and scored over 90%. It was the noise I needed.

Classrooms/Bar!

Pool sessions were fun. Teaching eight students how to teach is no mean feat, but with the help of Gerry and Andreas we managed the sessions quite quickly. Just in time for a lunch break – try the Irish bar down the road for Penang Curry, then back to work. But that’s the thing, yes it was hard, it was difficult but we all helped each other, and no-one ever said no to any request for help………….

………..To be continued