Blogs from South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 886

Since my last blog I completed my Advanced Open Water SCUBA course after 3 more dives... each better than the next. Night Dive: 1 hour after sunset. Was pitch black out. 6 of us descended to 60 feet, torches in hand. At first it was totally nuts, but I quickly got accustomed to using the torch. The coolest part was when we all turned off our lights and waved our hands in the water causing the plankton to autoflouresce green! Wreck Dive: This was like something straight outta a Cousteau episode from my youth. We followed this buoyed line down... not seeing anything.. all of a sudden there was this HUGE ship lying 100 on the sea floor. We went through the engine room, captains quarters and bathroom swimming through school after school of fish Anemone ... read more

Last night I fell asleep to the sound of the frogs in the nearby woods, and woke to roosters and the sounds of thai children playing. I'm really enjoying the location and simplicity of where I am right now- For $6.25 I get my modest 12 foot square room with oscillating fan, queen size bed, multitasking bathroom (shower + toilet) and 2 windows with screen. No ants or mozzies (mosquitos) yet, hot water or A/C. The walls are made of stained and thatched bamboo, and thin enough for me to hear the guy coughing next door. Plain, simple and clean. Makes you appreciate everything we have in the States, or helps me to understand all the materialistic nonsense we unnecessarily surround our lives with. No TV, no cell phone, no car... but yes of course I ... read more

On my quest to find Nemo I signed up for the Scuba lessons that were offered by our hotel. Prices were pretty standard throughout the island, and it worked out to be about $300 to do a 4 day open water course. There was theory with some American drongo video's that they had spiced up with attempts at humour such as splicing in the frame: 'fact: divers have more fun than regular people'. There were only three of us trying to find Nemo, Me, Jessica and Constanze (off my tour). Jessica was from Amsterdam, and came as a bit of a shock for little old NZer me. She was loud crass, and extremely funny. She introduced me to the concept of "Lachen voor weinig" (includes a lot of hoicking that you can't pick up from the ... read more

Yesterday I took it easy, and why not? I'm on vacation- right? I woke late and blogged, took a nap and vegged. In the evening I hit the market again and broke my fast with a home cooked meal prepared here in the internet cafe: Panang Chicken (red curry and cocunut, WICKED spicy), Tom Yom Soup (Chicken and fish broth with lemongrass and some heat), and fried Thai vegetables. I got a mini cooking lesson as I watched them prepare it, and used my handyman skills to help them to fix a fan that had fallen off the wall. I also got to try some Boppy? (friend cococut pancakes). Dessert was this crazy dish- vegetables (corn, kidney beans, sweet potatoes) cooked in coconut milk until thick. Later that evening I took a car out to Patong ... read more

Hello everyone, We arrived in Satun just over the Thai border and got a major shock! There was a festival on in the town called the Vegetarian Festival. It's a buddhist festival that involves acts of self mutilation!!! One minute we were strolling down the road with our backpacks trying to find out how to get to Krabi, the next we were seeing a parade of men with metal skewrs pierced through their faces and pretty much every part of their body, others with machatties, saws and axes slicing their faces and even lips (giving themselves a chelsea smie!). It was totally surreal, blood everywhere, we were thinking what have we left ourselves in for!!! We knew nothing about this festival before arriving there but we've read up a little bit about it since and discovered ... read more