You live and learn!

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Today I did my first scubadive, on the bay off Pattaya. It wasn't very well organised. The diving school picked me up an hour late, once we finally got out to sea the water was really choppy (both there and back.) We spent an extra hour at sea looking for the diving spot as apparently somebody had removed the buoys and we needed to find another spot. I was sea sick three times as were other people as the water was a lot rougher than the water was when I went whale-watching in Iceland. The boat ride was really quite a frightening experience. This was my first experience of sea sickness.

The scuba-diving itself was very interesting and I'm really glad I tried it. I learned how to use the equipment quickly and didn't panic. However, I was under the water diving for less than 20 minutes as I got cold very quickly (even with my wet suit on) and my ears were very uncomfortable at the beginning when I went deeper under water because of the pressure. Actually I only went down to seven metres but it did feel like I was right at the bottom of the ocean. I saw lots of marine life including some plants which when you touch them they close up as they are very touch sensitive. I felt like I was Super Mario in the gameboy game Super Mario land. When he jumps on mushrooms under water they dissapear. When I touched the plants they dissapeared like magic and I continued under water looking for the next plant to make dissapear. It was like being in another world seeing so much marine life pass me by and it felt surreal as if I was part of another world or a 3D computer game. It is hard to believe there is so much life under water and so much left to explore.

When it came to my second dive in the afternoon I really wanted to sunbathe on the deckchairs on the boat and not have to go into the cold water again and have my ears pop again. I went in for three minutes but then I told the instructor I was going back to the boat. Also I found the oxygen tank really heavy to carry on my back when I had to walk into the boat and jump into the sea. I guess it takes sometime to get used to learning to do so many things at once, from setting up the equipment, to learning how to equalise and manage the water pressure.

This morning I said bye to my two friends that I made in Pattaya but we will be meeting up in Thailand when our paths cross later on in the trip. I arrived back in Bangkok at 8pm tonight and I am glad to be back at Susan's and rest.

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