I know this is late but thought you would love to hear about the rest of my adventure.
After 2 night buses, a boat ride, and a day in Bangkok, I finally arrived in Koh Tao. Now my vacation of diving can begin! I met a lovely girl Erin from Cali, and Ian from Auz, and decide to become roommates!
We walk around looking for a dive center to sign up with expecting them to be not nearly as abundant as they are. Now the task is deciding with company to go with. Finally Crystal Dive Resort is it and I start my Advanced Open Water the next day. It was great. I chose 5 specialties and one was a night dive. I absolutely loved it! The sun is setting, giant stride entry, torch in hand, a completely different dive experience awaits. Slowly it gets darker and the only way to tell where you are going is fro
m the torch lighting your way. Again I feel a completely new sense, I am in a new environment, different then the ones I dived in that morning. The aquatic life is different, the bio-luminescence are like glow bugs, and before you know it is time to surface. You poke your head out of the water and view the most amazing starry sky staring down at you. It felt like the whole world was watching around you. Hooked yet again on this incredible sensation.One day off to lying in the sun and study for the next 4 days of courses. I had decided to do 2 more courses,
Emergency First Response and Rescue Diver. I have heard nothing but great things about the RD course. Well before I know it, it's the last day of the RD course. Final scenarios are intense. We had to rescue overboard panic divers, find missing divers, deal with unconscious divers underwater and on the surface, get them up the ladder and continue with CPR. What a rush!! From the moment we stepped foot on the boat till our instructors Justin or Alex said cut, we had to be on our toes ready for anything to go wrong. It was by far the best course. It taught so much hands on learning, and it made you learn skills which might be necessary someday (little did we know we would use them sooner then we thought).Over the course of the 4 days with academics and diving, the 6 of us divers became close and soon became known as 'The Rescue Team or Rescue Divers'. If one of us signed up for a dive, the dive shop soon knew the rest of us would follow shortly behind. We had a great time diving together or relaxing on the beach during the days, meeting for drinks at half 8 (silly Brits have be talking like them), going for dinner at the usual Yangs or Puks, and continuing on before becoming knackered and hitting the hay. Mini golf, or crazy golf as it should be called, one night, visiting other beach bars, or just laughing the night away was a common occurrence with us, before having to part ways. There is something about Koh Tao that has me longing for more. For some reason it reminds me of Waskesiu back home...a little place of paradise!
Next on the list Koh Lanta for some more diving. Here I stayed in my first actual bungalow on the beach. The whole bungalow was made of bamboo, there was a bucket and pail to bathe yourself, and a bed with a bug net over it. Now this is the real deal...aha even the rats who like to steal my food...I should really know better. 2 dives at the most amazing Hin Daeng. I think my eyes were bugging out of my head because of how good the visibility was, the colourful red coral, black tipped shark, huge moray eels, and millions of brightly coloured fish! I definitely know I am going to come back to Thailand and dive soon.
Malaysia for a day to do a visa run and then off to Koh Phi Phi. This is the island horribly destroyed by the Tsunami 2 years ago. Here I climbed the viewpoint to see the whole island and take in everything. Then for some bright idea I thought it would be a great idea to run the stairs to the viewpoint the next day. What a smart idea that was considering I hadn't done any physical activity since I left home, and of course 4 days later I was still paying for it. I only spent 2 days here enjoying the beautiful beaches before heading to Krabi to meet Erin again.
She was in Tonsai, the climbing mecca of Thailand. Not only was it great to see her again, she had already established a group of friends so I already had a little group of friends. Tonsai is another piece of paradise!! You are surrounded by magnificent rock karsts jutting out of the sea, beaches, sunsets, all while enjoying the easy going lifestyle surrounding rock climbing. I met the most magnificent people who were amazing climbers. Our days were spent either on the rock or on the beach, and nights were always full of an adventure or ten!It was by far the hardest leg of the trip to leave Tonsai knowing I was going back to Bangkok to go home in 3 days. It was tough knowing I was going to be back in a 'city', a crazy mad smelly busy chaotic city. This trip has surpassed any expectation I ever dreamed. The people, the sights, smells, adventures, laughs, are always going to be with me. Diving perhaps is as close to heaven under water as I will ever get, and combine that feeling with 3 months of fantastic memories, I don't know how I will ever be the same again!
