So time to update after the long 4 day weekend (Buddhist holiday!) Left work early last wednesday to meet up with Hannah, Kirk and Travis on Khao San to hop a bus south to the island of Ko Tao, located near the more famous Ko Samui in the Gulf of Thailand. The journey there was impressively long. It took us only 12 hrs to get to Krabi which is technically further away but closer to 17 to get to Ko Tao. An incredible amount of just waiting around on the bus in Bangkok and then after getting kicked off at 3:30am in Chumphon at the bus station and then on the ferry waiting for it to leave. Arrived around 11am to find a super low tide such that the ferry couldn't get to the dock and a number of small boats had to be sent out to retrieve passengers. Residents on the ferry said they'd never seen it so low.
Once there we were met by a saengtaew from our resort booked in Bangkok - the Coral Grand. Hopped on and met a mix of fellow international travelers on internships with IAESTE. Turned out that one of them happened to be a mechanical engineer from Purdue! Bryan something who is gonna be a senior and an RA at Carey. In all my travels this is one of the least likely places to run into a purdue engineer..
Got checked into our rooms - pretty nice for the deal we were getting - then had a quick orientation session for the 3.5 day PADI open water course. Our instructor Paul, from New Zealand originally, was a great guy and had some absolutely hilarious stories. Finished with watching a video on scuba diving and then spent the evening chilling out on the beach.
Friday we had a morning filled with instructional videos and a couple of quizzes. I learned a few things, but I think overall they make it so that you'd have to have no common sense to fail anything. Our group ended up being the four of us plus a really nice Norwegian couple a few yrs older, Lars and Elizabeth. Afternoon was our 'confined dive' which most people do in a pool but we got to do out in the ocean! Admittedly we were only a few meters deep, but it was awesome to be learning the basics while fish were swimming around you. Learned all the gestures, mask clearing, buddy breathing and emergency surfacing techniques. Although I've scuba-ed once before it's so much better to know what's going on and control things like bouancy.
Saturday we finished up the classroom work before heading out on the first of our real dives. First about 12m deep at twin peaks and then 10m deep at Japanese Gardens. Incredibly awesome! My ears took too long to adjust, but it gives me good incentive to stay down once I get there. Hannah and I use up a lot less air then the boys so we could theoretically dive for much longer then the 40min each time our group was doing. It's hard to describe properly really, but being able to move in 3D provides a lot of entertainent. Saw lots of bright tropical fish, of which I know few names.
On Sunday we were up to get in our last 2 dives at 6:30am. First one was 18m deep at Liam Tien. That's nearly 60 feet underwater! Way too cool. Saw a great trigger fish that looked as if it would attack at any minute. Unfortunately no sharks... Surfaced to find a rain storm just coming that we rode out in the water since it was so much warmer then the air at that point. The next dive was only 14m deep at a site called King Kong. Overall scuba diving could be a very addictive hobby - just wish my ears didn't get quite so messed up from it. Back at the resort we had a mad rush to get packed, check out, take our final exam and fill out paperwork. But at the end all of us were open water certified!
The journey back doesn't need describing other then the fact that it was LONG! At least the bus was much nicer... except for the fact that at 3am it blew a tire. I guess the sparks and tire changing at least provided entertainment. Got back to the city at 5:30am, went home, went to work! A long day needless to say, but at least that evening I got to meet up with Alan and Joyce Welch with a last dinner before the head back to the states this Wed. Caught up on all their adventures and they were even nice enough to give me the name of a good guide at Angkor Wat... Only a few weeks away now!
THE BEST WAY TO SPEND $20 - Hannah and I had girl bonding time last night and went to a massage place near where we live. Splurged and got the 1 hr aromatherapy oil massage... freakin awesome. And that was only $18 - it's bumped up to $20 because we got dairy queen blizzards on the way back to the dorms. Bad addictions to go home with ... can't afford either there!
No comments:
Post a Comment