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Published: July 14th 2006
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Hello again!
Well you know that trip back to Koh Tao in order for us to chill out and de-tox a bit? On the day after the full moon party, everyone who was staying at Coral decided to move on to Koh Tao aswell so unfortunately there was no escaping the party lifestyle for another few days! We were staying at Mae Had village which is just south of the main town called Sairee. Sairee is where everybody goes for the parties. It's quite interesting in that there is a party every night, but each night it is at a different bar and the bar owners seem to have a mutual understanding of this and are only open late on their particular night. It works really well as it ensures that every night is a busy night and you're always moving around so you don't get bored of always being at the same place.
Decided to go for a meal one night and tried a place called 'Papa's Tapas'. Everyone ordered their meal (which wasn't too cheap) expecting a really good feed. For example, I ordered meatballs and was hoping for a decent portion, instead they brought out a
plate with a grand total of three, yes three meatballs, a slither of sauce and a sprinkling of cous cous. I was distraught! However saying that I did feel better when Kiwi Paul's Scollops were served. The meal consisted of four 1p sized blobs that looked more like a bird had taken a crap on his plate! It was hilarious - I was going to take a picture, but thought that might be seen as a bit disrespectful!
The Advanced diving course was excellent. For your advanced you have to do 5 dives, 2 of which are compulsory (navigation and deep dives) and then you have to choose another three. We chose Peak Performance Bouyancy, Night, and Multi level. The first dive was the navigation dive. This taught us how to use the compass, the second was the Peak Performance Bouyancy where we worked on perfecting our neutral bouyancy (floating at the same level underwater and using our breath to rise or sink). The third was a night dive where we descended at twilight and after around 5 minutes it was pitch black underwater. This dive was amazing, as we swam around for a while with our torches switched
off and when you wave your hands around or disturb the water the phosphorescence (sp?) glows up and looks like glitter. It looks great as the person in front of you looks like they have glitter falling from them as they swim. We then did our deep dive which goes down to 30 metres. This was a great dive, however the visibility at 30m was really shite. Once down there you could literally only see an arms length in front of you. It was still a great time however and the main thing is that we are now qualified to swim to this depth on our own. Also it was good that we experienced these conditions so that we know what to expect for the future. The last dive was the multi level dive, where you start at a certain depth then gradually work your way shallower. This allows you to stay underwater for longer. This was my favourite dive of the lot as it was really relaxing - just swimming around for 55 minutes looking at fish and coral.
The next day we decided to leave Koh Tao for Koh Phi Phi to meet up with a bloke
we met on Koh Phangan who's gonna travel Cambodia with us. Koh Phi Phi is where they filmed 'The Beach'. We booked a night boat which was even more of an eye opener than the previously mentioned night train. You go below deck and it's basically a shelf about 4 foot off the ground with a number of matresses all about 2 foot wide laid down side by side. You have to lay there shoulder to shoulder with whoever is next to you. Now if it's a fit bird it's a bonus, but unfortunately some Thai bloke laid down next to me and proceeded to knee me, elbow me fart and cough on me throughout the night which was really pleasant! The sea was really choppy too as there has been some quite stormy weather lately so for the whole journey it was like being on the pirate ship at Pleasurewood hills. The other thing that really reassured me that we would be safe was that one of the dive boats had sailed out a couple of nights prior to re-fuel and sank due to the stormy weather!! Oh well, we lived to tell the tale so it's alright. Surprisingly
Sairee , Koh Tao
A storm is brewing enough I managed to get a decent amout of sleep. I think this was mainly due to the Irish couple next to us giving us some Sang Som to help knock us out! After 8 hours, we arrived at Suratthani, caught a short taxi ride to our coach and a very entertaining 2 hour journey across the country ensued. The bus driver serenaded us the whole way by singing along to his favourite Thai song (which he had on repeat). Once we arrived in Krabi caught another boat for 3 hours then arrived at Phi Phi. This is a truly beautiful place, cant wait to explore, but for now I need to sleep. Every time I stop still or sit down I feel like I am still on the boat bobbing up and down, it's a nightmare!!
We are going to go to a bar tonight called the Reggae Bar that has a Thai Boxing ring in the middle. They have Thai fights throughout the night and at the end they invite all the westerners up to give it a try, offering 2 free buckets as a prize. That should be very entertaining, seeing 2 extremely drunk macho men
Road
An average road on Koh Tao (hence the high number of moped accidents!) get up to prove their manhood after a few too many drinks. Although I suppose it's better there than out in the street afterwards. Mum, before you ask, I certainly will not be doing it, I have too many injuries already at the moment, I don't need any more!
Well that pretty much brings us up to date. I understand that the weather isn't too great over there? Well if it's any consolation it's not too shit hot over here. The rainy season is pretty much here, and also there have been some typhoons somewhere in a neighbouring country and the repercussions of this are hitting us at the moment hence the choppy seas. I say this, but I am still sitting here at 6pm in nothing but a pair of shorts and flip flops! It's a hard life eh?
Take care everyone, and thanks to all that have written comments, it's great to hear from you so keep em comin'
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Charlie
non-member comment
NOT FAIR!!
I'm so jealous, what an amazing time you are having and you look great hun! Life here is raining and busy as usual...keep letting us know how your getting on! Take Care, luv Charlie x