Well, you may have noticed that it has been quite some time since my last post, and so much has happened over the last fortnight, that I don't even know where to begin! I can't remember everything with my usual clarity, so I'm going to have to resort to some bullet points - which is good for you, dear reader, as this would otherwise be one of the longest blog entries on record!
After Bangkok, I headed off to Kanchanaburi for a couple of nights. It was a great little town and I stayed in a lovely little guesthouse with a pool. I met Stephanie on the way there and we had a great time at Erawan National Park, where we walked all the way up to the 7th level waterfall, before coming back down for a swim! That afternoon, we rode along the Death Railway and visited the "Bridge Over The River Kwai" and it was great to see a little more of Thailand.
The Bridge Over The River Kwai
On Sunday (9th), we visited the Thailand-Burma Railway Museum, which was very informative and put a lot of the previous day's sights in to context. It was then time for a quick lunch before heading back to Bangkok. I'm so pleased I had a few hours to kill, it gave me plenty of opportunity to part with more cash on Khao San Road... I don't need any more t-shirts!!!
The bus journey down to Chumphon was OK, but OMG, the ferry crossing over to Koh Tao was honestly the worst boat journey of my entire life! I was alright at first, as I'd been napping, but the sound (and smells) of everyone else throwing up roused me from my slumber and I very nearly joined their club! The sea was incredibly rough, it made the Scillonian Ferry look like the Swans at Alton Towers!
It was absolutely bucketing it down when I arrived at Mae Haad Pier, and I was glad to be quickly whisked off to Buddha View Dive Resort, where we were quickly checked in and handed towels! After a good few cups of tea, I felt much better and quickly got to know the other guys from the Open Water course: Justine (UK), Paul (UK), Giuliano (Italy), Elin & Jostein (Norway) and Jeremy (Australia).
We started the course on Tuesday morning where we met our instructors, Jesper (Denmark) and Lizzie (UK). It wasn't long in the classroom before I was thinking to myself "I want to do what this guy does for a living!" We had great fun, even before we had made it into the pool that afternoon. It was still raining, which in a way didn't matter as we spent well over an hour underwater without surfacing, yet I don't think I've ever been that cold in my entire life! It was so good to get out!
On Wednesday, we went out to sea for our first dive - it was fantastic and once you learn how to scuba-dive, it becomes second nature. On Thursday, we took our Open Water exam in the morning (only got 2 wrong, damn it!) and then had two more great dives, and another two on Friday morning (during which we were filmed, so I am now in possession of an absolutely hilarious DVD)! It was a little sad to finish the course, but not too much so, as the Buddha View gang had already convinced me to do the Advanced course as well! So roll on Saturday, more diving!
The Best Open Water Group... Ever!!!
On the Advanced course, I dived five more times:
- Deep dive to 30m (but didn't get to see the whale shark there!)
- Navigation Dive (visibility was bad and I forgot how to use a compass!)
- Night Dive (we had 4 out of 6 conditions where you shouldn't night dive!)
- Underwater Naturalist (where I took a camera, but forgot how to operate it!)
- Underwater Photographer (where the lens fogged up after I'd figured it out!)
So, by Sunday afternoon, I became a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver! On Monday, I booked a fun dive in the afternoon, as I really needed to catch up on sleep after four 6am starts in a row. But, would you believe, I was wide awake again, so I got up and had breakfast. There, I met up with Giuliano and his friend Riccardo, who had been taking the Emergency Rescue course. They were waiting for a taxi to take them out on a fishing trip. So, Emma, the voice of reason, has a personality transplant, packs a bag at lightning speed and jumps on their taxi to the pier, leaving a cloud of dust and many apologies to the dive staff in her wake!
Well, I have never fished in my life before, and it showed! But luckily, after a while, I caught a little tiddler that had to be thrown back in, as it was too small to eat! Eventually, I mastered the knack and by the end of the day, I'd caught 11 fish, many of them big enough to hold on to! After getting back to the resort (and realising that we all looked like lobsters after a day on the deck!), we gave most of our haul to the kitchen staff and barbecued plenty of snapper and trevally for dinner. It tasted so good, even better for having caught it, cleaned it and cooked it ourselves!
And then it was Tuesday, Happy Birthday to ME! I had one of the best birthdays ever - in the morning, I went out again for two fun dives and so it was great to be able to take a leisurely pace and not worry about crashing in to the rest of the group! The visibility had greatly improved, and I saw so many different fish, it was like being in another world. That afternoon, I was robbed by the Thailand Postal Service (£30 for 3kg Surface Mail?????????) and later met up with the guys at the resort for a few birthday drinks! I had dinner with Team Italy again, and was so surprised when they said they were treating my to an Aloe Massage on the beach. I probably should make it clear at this point that we went to a proper massage place and they weren't actually offering to do it themselves, LOL!
So after an hour, we were all so relaxed that I assumed we'd all just crash for the night. But no, off we jumped on a scooter to Mae Haad. Half way there, Riccardo spotted a little Mini Golf place and made a quick u-turn! In the end, we found tenpin bowling there as well, so we opted for that instead. When I say tenpin bowling, what I mean is a little lane in a wooden shack, where a guy sat at the end to rack up the pins, and then rolled the bowls back along a track to us at the start! I won the first game hands down, but was completely slaughtered in the second. I would like to point out that I had nearly polished off a small bottle of rum at that point, and I would have won both had I been sober!
It was then back to the resort for a few more at the Eazy Bar, in one of the most chilled out bars ever. It was a great end to a great day. So, it was really hard this morning to tear myself away from Buddha View and all the great people I've met there. I've never felt so welcomed in my entire life, absolutely ALL of the staff are great and I'll never forget the support I had from Lizzie, Jesper, Perry (NZ), Darren (WARRINGTON, UK!!!) and Charlotte (UK) - thanks to you all, so so much!
So now I am in Chumphon for the night, and I have absolutely no idea what my next move should be. There's not much to stay here for, but I don't know if I should head over to Koh Phi Phi (which is beautiful, but will bleed me even drier after all the diving extravagances thus far), or take the train directly into Malaysia. I'm really at a loose end and soooo tired from all the scuba, I just can't think straight!
Watch this space...
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