Strawbs1977

It's the penultimate day to begin travelling home today. I have completed my final dives at depth and am now qualified as advanced open water, an certified for using Enriched Nitrox. So, I can now go on live-a-board holidays that offer it. Will look forward to writing that blog and review. On the multilayer dive with computer, we saw a turtle and a shoal of barracuda. Loads of other things, like angel fish, finding nemo fish/clown fish, rabbitfish, sweetlip fish, trigger fish, which are really tetchy buggers. My favourite are the blind little shrimps that live in holes with these other white small fish. they are ace. And last week I wouldn't even know what a bloody fish was. Last night had the best beach barbeque ever. had a blue marlin steak and three massive tiger ... read more

Yesterday, passed my open water course, and now certified. went out with the crew and celebrated through the night. Woke up this morning with bangkok belly, but no handover. had a good laugh. Anyway, this morning signed on for another two courses. Now doing Open water advanced, and enriched nitrox. setting up for a future live on board trip. Can't fault the price. Had a beach barbeque tonight so things are good. Off for some bevvies and have some excellent pictures. will be a long hard travel on monday night to bangkok and a big fly home.......but until then, lets see what wildlife is floating about at 30m depth. been told there are sharks.. WHopp WHHOOOPP!!... read more

Homework done and to the classroom for 0900. Get most of the reviews out the way and then its our first Open Water Dives this afternoon. Dive number 1 at Twins-Koh Tao, entered water at 13:27. Went to depth of 12 metres and was there for 28 minutes. Had a brief exploration with some mask clearing and buoyancy stuff. exit the water at 13:55 with Pressure Group E. Dive number 2 at Sairee Beach-Koh Tao, entered water at 15:35 with pressure group A\. Went to depth of 10 metres and was there for 46 minutes. Many drills taught in the pool done in the open water. Proper ace. exit the water at 16:21 with Pressure Group K. Planning on staying on island until Monday and then going back to Bangkok over night train. Cheaper to ... read more

Well its been a few days since my last entry, so Ill try for an update. After nursing the hangover from hell. Got the night train from Bangkok down to Chumporn. Quality way to travel on a sleeper train. then a bus to the docks to get the Catamaran over to Koh Tao. From there a pick up to the Coral Grand resort for diver training. No rooms so got the bosses room for the night. Big double beds and air con. Started the course at 3pm. Loads of written and much to learn for the open water PADI. But you can fault the cost. And the weather is quality. Koh Tao, has wonderful beaches, palm trees and the typical setting that youd find in a castaway film. If you removed the people and the ... read more

Well I have no idea what day it is, My head is banging and it's so damn hot. Thanks for the air con internet cafes. So those that haven't noticed I'm hungover, last night was the kings birthday celebrations so everyone was out partying. Paid for a few beers but a lot were free. Chang beer goes down well on the night, and a good time had by all. Met some locals and some other "farang" after a session in another band club called TEMPO. Called it a night just after 6am. After getting our bearings at teh pool this morning and getting some food today's plan is to get to the train station for 7pm, and get the overnight train to Chumphon. From there a ferry to Koh Tao. Then a bus to a resort ... read more

as mentioned earlier, it's the time when thailand celebrates the kings birthday. Lucky for up this is also the time people do favours. One of these being to give away free food. So at the top of khoa san road we had free noodles and soup. Also had a ride in a tuk tuk, which is just something anyone should do when here. Its awesome. Booked the train to chumphron and ferry to koh toa. Not the original plan but on a padi course so will plan on looking at things on the way back.... read more

The Beginning The journey started with a drive into Manchester City Centre and storing the car in a secure place we proceeded toward Picadilly Station to get a train to Manchester Airport. At the airport no luggage to check in, the airport was also eerily quiet with no queues to be found so walked straight into the lounge to wait for our flight. Travelling with just a backpack is very invigorating and gives a small sense of freedom. A one hour and half connecting flight from Manchester Airport to Paris, with a lay over, then a 12 hour flight finally arriving in Bangkok. Air France looked after us well, The food was good and a little sleep was had but as you can imagine it was a snoozing only situation with a movie or two playing ... read more

With the onset of another cold, damp and depressing UK December, a discussion commenced not more than five weeks ago with a very good friend of mine, Eilidh. After coaxing and egging on we talked each other into a trip to Thailand. With a short time the flights were booked and our fate was sealed. So two complete fraggles will now be arriving in Thailand on the 3rd December. The fun times will be had by all. Today I have finished packing. It is a small collection of stuff as we are travelling very light. I have set up a couple of gadgets to test for the journey, which I will report on as the journey progresses. I will be having my trusty Nokia N95 8Mb. The main feature newly installed is the Nokia Ovi Maps ... read more