Day 21 - I am now an ADVANCED Open Water Diver!! Lol!

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Kate had a new group in today so we had to do our dive at 9am. Good job I didn't go to the party after all!

We headed out to Shark Point to do the Underwater Naturalist course which is basically a treasure hunt of fish and coral. I had a slate with loads of fish and coral on and had to point out the things around us and identify them. The current was so strong down at 22m that at one point Kate and I had to hold on to the coral to stop ourselves being dragged away and over the edge of the nearby basin. It was a really tough swim to get higher up the coral and above the current. We were knackered but exhilarated! We stayed down for about 45 mins but started too get cold and headed back up. I was so tired I couldn't kick myself out of the water and onto the boat! There was laughter all around as one of the boat boys grabbed me and launched me up onto the side - I have so many boat related bruises! Kate and I headed straight to the front of the boat, got out of our wetsuits and down to the serious business of sunbathing while we waited for everyone else to surface! My tan is fading rapidly with all this time underwater!!

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the island in my newfound status of Advanced Open Water Diver!!!!!! I have had some really tough decisions to make today. My ferry is booked for tomorrow at 11.30 back to Bali where I am meeting Joey for the night and then flying back to Singapore on Thursday with the intention of meeting Kasper in Malaysia and travelling through to Thailand. However, I really want to stay here and do my Rescue and Dive Master courses which would take about 6 weeks. It's just about doable. I think I want to stay because I know everyone and am comfortable, which probably means that I should go! I know I'll regret it if I don't go, but I still want to stay !!! Bugger.

I am getting real cravings for western food now. It's just not the same here. I miss cheese, pesto, cheese, chocolate (although I have found the best brownies on the island - Coco's for those travellers out there!), cheese, proper bread - all the bread here is loaded with sugar so is more like brioche (sp?) than real bread, cheese, real orange juice, cheese, pickled onion flavour monster munch, cheese, decent wine. God I am making myself hungry!!

I had my first hot shower for 3 weeks yesterday!! At first, cold showers were good in this heat but the hot shower today was bliss. I would give almost anything for a freshwater shower though. All the showers since Singapore have been saltwater of varying strengths. You can get freshwater showers in hotels, but they are expensive. Roll on Singapore on Thursday - I might stay in the shower for an hour!!

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