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Published: February 16th 2006
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Ok, so we have realised that it is not just our nearest and dearest who read this blog thanks to some random e-mails from people of the world. Just for the record, we are really quite respectable citizens who do not habitually pee in canoes or eat testicles for a living.....(looking back it appears to be mainly Lara who has disgraced herself for your amusement....so not all things change then).
Anyway, we arrived down South again and for a change Ko Pha Ngan was cloudy...but not for long. Cheered itself up very respectfully and we scored ourselves a lovely beach bungalow on Mae Haad, a quiet beach in the North West of the Island. Thanks to Mummy Orr for our travel hammocks as they were promptly put to use on our balcony for snoozing and evening study....(yes we do not just lie all day in the sun and do nothing!)
The purpose of going back on ourselves was to hone our diving skills. Well, Lara had finally plucked up the courage to properly do her Open Water......at least she said she had. Although our little lala has become rather brave over recent months, and despite her promises I had
little faith that she would actually breath compressed air under 18 metres of ocean for significant time periods. So, we booked her on before she could change her mind, and never one to lose face, she completed it with flying colours and is now a qualified scuba diver....in fact I can't get her to stop now! (read on....)
It was not actually as bad as I had feared. I was a bit depressed about the prospect of studying, although it was fairly easy going and its not often you get to study whilst sunbathing on the beach (especially in Ko Pha Ngan!). After the class and pool work it was out into the open water. It is actually pretty weird breathing underwater but it's a case of do or die (well your lungs may explode) so doing it comes fairly easily. The worst bit has to be the skills. I hate opening my eyes underwater, and getting water up my nose is a big no no, so to achieve it in the pool was one thing - we had to take our masks off underwater and put back on, flood your mask and then clear it and swim without
a mask for 1 minute underwater. However, not only had I got over this in the pool, I had to do it all again 18 metres down under the sea. My instructor had pretty much got that I was shit scared and so saved it until the end of each dive as a surprise and at the end of each day would say thats it. This was actually a pretty good thing as I would have bottled it otherwise. But, when you are 18 metres down you cannot get out of it. I have to say I was pretty impressed with myself. After scoring 100% on the test we were set loose in the Angthon Marine Park literally in the middle of nowhere. The experience of learning to dive has reminded me a bit of India...I hated every minute of it, and as soon as I was under I counted down the seconds until we would surface...but I did it and looking back it was really great. Although the diving was not as great as the Maldives it was pretty cool...literally. At the end of each dive I could feel neither my hands or my feet (and I thought Thailand
was tropical!). By the time we left Ko Pha Ngan I was pretty sure I would not really pursue diving with much enthusiasm.....
So, that was Lara's tail of woe and hardship (boo-hoo). My Advanced qualification required extremes of presure and concentration that have been lacking for so long I thought I'd become a thicky. I had to do 5 dives, all with different skills. A thirty metre deep dive, to prove I wouldn't get "Narked" (pissed on the high pressure Nitrogen). God knows what would have happened if I had experienced Narcosis, it seems a dangerous experiment. Maybe I would have offered my regulator to a fish....its been done before. Navigation with a compas in poor visibility. Standing on my head and swiming through hoops for buoyancy control. Calculating boring pressure shit. And the best, photography...very useful I trust you'll agree (all the underwater photos on this blog were taken by me).
So, next stop Ko Phi Phi (again). Well, if Ko Pha Ngan was to learn how to dive, the break in Phi Phi was to be just that. Five days on the beach in guaranteed hot weather to chill before the next 3 month jaunt
though Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Japan. In fact, no relaxing will be had until sometime up the East Coast of Australia as it will not be warm weather when we arrive in Melbourne.
Well that was the plan. Andrew had always intended to dive the wreck of the King Cruiser between Phuket and Phi Phi, however, having now dived 3 days consecutively here its safe to say that Lara got the bug....Not another chest infection but actually started to enjoy her diving. So we ended up diving The Wreck, Shark PoInt, Anenome reef, Maya Bay, Bida Nok and Bida Noi.
It was amazing. On our dives we saw 6 reef sharks (in one dive), a turtle, lionfish, banded sea snakes, leapard shark, giant clams, moray eels, puffer fish, blue ringed angel fish, some of the above you will see below. ALl of the above and lots more which we cant remember appear on the DVD that we bought of our diving adventures. So mums you can watch us underwater after you meet us in Australia and take home the DVD. It is way too precious to post.
The rest of the time on Phi Phi was spent
in the sun it has tp be said and we partook in a fair bit of eating and drinking too. It is really hard not to treat that place as a holiday...oh and we had some more massages and pedicures. Safe to say onwards to Cambodia with a strict budget in mind.
So the last few blogs bid farewell to Thailand and we will be sad to drag ourselves away after almost 2 months (a 3 week overstay!). Highlights we hear you say......
Well although mummy orr you will hate to hear this we have hires a few more mopeds since we last told you we wouldn't and have loved the freedom bombing through the hills on a bike gives you. So much so that I think we are both going to do our licenses when we get back...I am pretty sure Lara likes the thought of wearing leathers and flicking her hair when she takes off her helmet. New Years Eve had to be pretty special. Phi Phi was just amazing and learning about the Tsunami from teh locals was pretty incredible. Stroking tigers and elephants in Northern Thailand. The history of Kanchanaburi. Learning to cook....the list
goes on.
I am not sure whether there are more 7-elevens or temples in Thailand but we will miss those. We will miss hearing "massa?"yelled at us from every other shop as we walk along the street, oh, and we will miss the massages we decided to take them up on. We will miss hearing the national anthem at 6pm every night. I am not sure we ever told you about the confusion Lara had at Bangkok station. I left her for 5 minutes to get some food and by the time I had gotten back by standing up at the wrong time she almost gained Thai citizenship! In her defense all of a sudden the few thousand thai people around us had stood up and started singing and bowing and she stuck out like a sore thumb, did not understand and decided to join in.
DOWNSIDES - there weren't any really. Long haul bus rides, chest infections, and prostitution but on the whole we loved it and there has even been talk of living here.
So, leaving nothing but bubbles we venture East into Cambodia.......
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