Day 16 - Found Nemo

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The scuba course was absolutely amazing. I was extremely lucky to have finally found the diving shop that I did, because Clowey was an amazing instructor. The open water scuba course consisted of a 2 hour DVD, two morning class room sessions, then one confined water dive, and 4 open water dives. The classroom work was short and to the point, we flew through the material and were always done early. The first confined water dive was pretty fun, clowey was teaching us all the basic skills, like finding your regulator if it's bumped out of your mouth, filling your mask with water then emptying it, taking your mask completely off for a min then putting it back on. So we were under water for 2 hours in water about 2 meters deep.

So after passing the skills test, the next afternoon we were ready for our first open water dive. As we all know I am a pretty hyper active kid with lots of energy. Well diving is pretty much the opposite of that. You take long slow breathes, you rarely use your arms and just kind of float around kicking your feet. Well I am normally pretty good with trying new things, but when I went down into the deep water I was really starting to freak out. I had eaten some delicious spicy Thai curry for lunch, and as most of you know I am a fast eater. So as soon as I reached the depth of 12 meters I started feeling nausea, then I got these huge pains in my stomach and felt like I was going to throw up. I started to get kind of anxious and then started breathing way to fast. So I give the not feeling so hot single to clowey and tell her I want to go back to the surface. She shakes her head says no, gives me some funny hand singles which I had no clue what they meant then she put her hand on my shoulders and started giving me this deep deep stare. It was almost mesmerising, she started showing me how slow I should be breathing, and after about two minutes I felt perfect.

The rest of that dive and the next three were absolutely amazing. In the first dive we found a Nemo fish, Nemo had a wife and three really small babies. Within the three dives I saw so many different kinds of fish, I saw a puffer fish, blue spotted sting rays, angel fish, trigger fish, and so many more that I didn't know what kind they were. The one diving site had monstrous schools of fish, I am taking thousands of fish swimming all around you. I think the coolest part of it all was the coral reefs. These rock hard structures have so many colors and are filled with so much life. In the last dive we had to do a quick test of the skills we learned but this time sitting on the bottom this time 18 meter below the water. I passed with flying colors, I even got a regulator kiss from Clowey at the end of the test. So Hot, hahaha Our last two dives were filmed by a videographer that use to work at discovery channel, we did a military theme for our film, the DVD premiers at the local pub at around six tonight.

Here's a bit of a funny scary story, Mom you might not want to read this, but last night I was reading in my room at around 8:30 at night. I hear some noise and I look up and there is a hand halfway through my window trying to jimmy it open from the outside. So I think to myself what the heck is this guy trying to do. After waiting a second or too I open my front door and look over and there is a Thai man standing there. As soon as he sees me he is scared shitless turns around falls down 2 meters worth of stairs, pauses a second to recover then heads right into a barb wired fence then into the woods. It really was a odd situation, and in a way I was lucky that I home or I might have lost some of my things. I told the guest house owner he was really shocked and said this has never happened before, but you really can't believe anyone.

There is a strip of tiny dirty huts where lots of thai construction workers live, I figured it was someone from there. Part of me was extremely pissed off and wished I would have grabbed the guy, but then again I have seen some of the places that the poor Thai are living, and I just felt really bad for the guy, and in the end I am just glad I didn't loose anything. Well my time in paradise is over, I have my ticket booked for tomorrow afternoon, I am taking a boat bus combo to Bangkok, then a 12 hour train ride up to Chain Mai. All in all it's a good 30 hour trip, should be fun.

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Comments

[Joep Diening]

Congrats on Getting Certified as a Diver!
Lieve Jos, What a great experience to be able to dive under such excellent circumstances- especially with an experienced diving instructor like Chloe. She obviously knew whay to do when you felt uncomrtable at 18 metres! To see such marine life all around you is truly magical. My scuba diving course was done with the Canadian Navy in the Victoria,BC harbour where visibility was about 3-4 feet and the water was filthy in comparison. We used have to take ear drops after the dive to make sure that we did not get any fungus growth in our ears. However, it too was teeming with all sorts of marine life. Your next adventure sounds interesting. Why did you chose to go there- what will you be seeing there? We are so glad that you are having a great experience. You might be in culture shcok when you get back. In the meantime, enjoy your travel and continue to keep an eye out for yourself. Heel veel liefs, Mom and Dad

[crys]

beautiful
your scuba diving experience sounds breathtaking. i wanted to try it in Turkey, but we didn't have enough time. instead we bought cheapy goggles and floated around looking at minos...but after you have described it so well, id love to try it out too. maybe we'll go and meet Chole and she can teach us too! ah, dreams. good luck on your return to Bankok and your next adventure. thinking about you.