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Team AWESOME!
We were often split between Team Canada and Team Austria, but in total we were plain awesome.
(l to r: Erin, Me, Amy, Alex, Bettina, and our instructor Emmy) As you all may have gathered from the last update, the three of us fell -with a splash- in love with scuba diving. There is an inexplicable freedom and serenity to being able to breathe and explore underwater. Me being fairly quiet anyway, I lapped in the silence. Amy and I decided to extend our certification, and after 5 more dives became PADI Advanced Open Water Divers (now only 51 more dives until we're Masters!). We did our advanced with Alex and Bettina, the two Austrian girls who were in our first class. Turns out Bettina is from Innsbruck, which is pretty my favourite town in Austria, so look who has a new European connection!! We also did the course under Emmy again. She is certainly an inspiring person. She came to Koh Tao just like us, to do her open water... four years later she's still there! Her ease and playfulness underwater definitely made her an awesome coach, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it wouldn't have been the same without her.
In our advanced course, the dives were much more open ended. We did navigation, multi-level (planning for various depths without having to surface), deep water (up
On the dock of the Bay...
watching long tails float all day? to 30 meters), a night dive, and a fish ID dive. The night dive was pretty cool as you can imagine, but we had pretty murky water conditions, unfortunately, so some of the more experienced divers with us were dissapointed... not us though! My flashlight kept flickering out, so every couple seconds my line of vision would be thrust into darkness... a little scary when sea urchins emerge at night! This was a true test of our control and buoyancy as we swam quietly in and amongst rocks. We didn't see as much nightlife as we had hoped, but the best part by far was the phosflorescence (sp?) that shone off our fingers when we blocked our lights. Emmy motioned for us to cover our torches, and the inky blackness of the water suddenly resembled the night sky as it erupted with millions of star-like organisms. I had been looking forward to seeing phosflorescence waaaay back since the days of exploring tidal pools on Vancouver Island... siiiigh...
Anyway! Another great dive was our deep water dive. We went to a site called the Southwest Pinnacle, obviously situated southwest of Koh Tao. It was our first dive not situated near
Sad to Leave
Waiting for the boat off of Koh Tao :( some sort of large rock formation.... until we got beneath the waves. Our dive took us to explore an underwater mountain! (or so it seemed). First we went to the very bottom, about 27 meters, and sat there getting used to the new depth. It was interesting because we could see nothing but sand in every direction, and tumbleweeds of black sea urchins that littered the floor like ominous landmines. Then we made our way towards the pinnacle, swimming in a spiral up it. The pinnacle was completely covered in Magnificent Sea Anenome, which waved in the current and glowed in the sunlight like a great African plain (think: Sting, "Fields of Gold"). Really made me wish I had had a camera! Buuut I was too cheap to rent an underwater one, so that's what I get (I will have to try painting it sometime....)
Needless to say, diving has totally opened a whole new door to what I'm capable of, and of goals for traveling- diving in Australia, or Egypt, anyone?
Koh Tao wasn't all dive and no play mind you (hah). The night after we finished our first certification, we went out with all our new diving
Wading in the Streets
Not mentioned in blog:
As Amy and Erin were leaving, it began to pour torrentially. The streets were flooded in about 40 minutes, and the water came midway up our shins. For reals. mates to town- Chopper's pub for beers, Lotus Bar for dancing, finally to top it off at The Castle, a techno-rave club. I think between the dry air of the scuba tank and our previous late nights, I wasn't feeling 100% up to raving, so I walked back to our hotel, Amy and Erin to follow about an hour later. I'm not sure if this was going on with Erin too, but the next morning she woke up with a wicked sore throat and bit of a fever. The day after she couldn't even swallow, let alone speak. After determining she probably had a bit of strep, Amy and I set out to a local pharmacy where we found some Amoxycilin, the miracle drug that had finished off my own plague of strep back in April. Sure enough, after a lot of rest and drug, Erin is back to her old self- just in time for shopping back in Bangkok!
We arrived back in Bangkok yesterday, and though technically it was the girls' last night in Thailand, Erin and I were both completely dead and fell asleep pretty much on arrival to our hotel. The three of us set out this morning with a mission, which requires some back story, so get comfy.
As I mentioned in earlier posts, at the beginning of our trip, Erin and I came across the travel agency V&V, where this smiley little woman named Lidia was our agent. Through her we arranged all of our stops through the south. We were hesitant to arrange this without Amy, but it did take care of all of our accommodation and transportation for the trip, so we decided it was worthwhile. However, as we set out on our travels, we came to see Lidia was not as reliable as we had so naively assumed. Over three times we called her to adjust arrangements for our island hopping- each time getting her assurance that it was taken care of, and each time getting to our destination to find no call had been made. This was extremely frustrating, especially for me as I somehow was designated as her main correspondent. By the time we got to Koh Tao, we thought we had heard the last of her- until the front desk had no idea of the "1000B each certification deposit" we had paid to Lidia back in Bangkok. Through the travel agent there, we learned we had to go visit her back when we were in Bangkok to get our deposit back. So this morning, with much chagrin, we called Lidia to arrange a time to meet. She said 5 pm at the office, but that would not do as Erin would be heading to the airport by then. So we agreed to meet at 1. We arrived at the office at 1, and lo and behold, where was Lidia? We inquired and the manager there embarrassedly explained that Lidia had been fired the day before because she had received so many complaints! Frankly I was relieved- she DEFINITELY deserved it, between the lack of service and the inexplicable exorbitant amounts of cash she kept requesting we fork up during out trip. Plus, I really didn't want to see her again. The agency kindly paid us the 3000B back and apologized. The whole Lidia escapade had certainly caused unnecessary tension among our trio, and so this conclusion was really the best way to end THAT uncomfortable chapter.
Now we're back on the backpacker's hub of Khao San Road, where Amy and Erin are getting in all the bargain shopping they can before they leave tonight. I'm actually very sad to see that this is the end of the road for our threesome. This trip has certainly tested and strengthened our bond, even after the year of separation of university. But more than anything, I'm excited to be setting off on my own. Tomorrow I'll leave for Ayuthaya and then North, Chaing Mai and beyond.
Wish me luck!
love
Emma
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Gaby
non-member comment
JEALOUS!!
hey emma, its so lovely to read about all the exciting adventures you are having. Love reading all your blogs!! thanks for being so descriptive, its like im there with you. its like youre paiting with words-beautiful!