WHALE SHARK!!!

So my trip to Ko Tao for my birthday was a raging success!  Not only did I spend an amazing 23rd birthday on a beautiful tropical island in Thailand and get scuba certified, but I saw a WHALE SHARK AND A SEA TURTLE (and lots of amazing coral and fish)!!!!!!

 

Alana, Katherine and I with our amazing scuba instructor Riccardo minutes after our whale-shark sighting!

For those of you who are unaware of the amazingness that is the whale shark, let me enlighten you!

The whale shark is the LARGEST LIVING FISH SPECIES!  Although its name may imply that it is some cross-bread marine mutant, the whale shark is actually a shark, but not a scary one. 

The whale shark shown above resides in the Atlanta aquarium and is not in fact the whale shark I saw in the Gulf of Thailand (although I have seen it in Atlanta).

All I wanted for my birthday was to see a whale shark.  I was told I had only a 5% chance of seeing one!  Looks like birthday wishes do come true!!!!

Happy 2011!  My all your wishes for the new year come true!

-Hannah