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Published: December 16th 2008
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Well, it had to happen sometime, and it finally did. I got robbed. Robbed, but not mugged! Gotta look on the bright side--it happens to every traveler at some point, no matter how cautious and savvy. The only thing taken was my cell phone, so it was not the end of the world. And that cell phone was apparently just begging to be stolen, after it's narrow escape on Khaosan Road in Bangkok.
Despite the violation of the sanctity of my purse, Kyle, Courtney, and I enjoyed another glorious weekend in Ko Chang. We had off school on Friday for the King's birthday, and Kyle and I took advantage of that by hopping an evening bus to Trat (4 hours) after school on Thursday, both still sporting our king shirts. Courtney met us at the bus station in Trat and took us to her little apartment and also to look for some food before settling in for the night.
We got up EARLY so that we could get a songthaew to the pier in time to catch the first ferry, so that Courtney and I could make it in time for our scuba pick-up at 9 AM. Everything went
totally smoothly in the morning and our plan was seamless. Courtney and I got picked up as scheduled and Kyle headed down to Lonely Beach to secure lodging and begin her beach time.
I was glad to get back in the dive game because I actually had a couple dreams (nightmares, really) about forgetting what I was doing. Strangely one time I awoke from one of those dreams and my ears hurt for that whole day. Well, apparently I didn't need to worry about myself, but rather about our divemaster! Our first dive was nice and clear, with the usual pretty coral and fish. The neatest part was that a woman went with us who has a business making scuba videos and she filmed us while we were down there and then screened it for us on the boat. The video turned out really well and was set to the perfect music. Of course it was too expensive to consider buying, but it was neat to see, nonetheless.
Our second dive was bizarre, in part due to terrible visibility. There were five of us plus the divemaster. Things started off awkwardly because 3 of us were down at
the bottom (very deep-- my gauge actually said 20 meters at one point, which is really deeper than we are supposed to go!) and the others were nowhere to be seen. But since visibility was so bad, they could have been very close by. It was impossible to tell and very eery and disconcerting. We clearly needed a whale shark to come around to clear up some of that plankton. I half expected one at any moment to come lurking around in the dark water, which would have caused me to poo my wetsuit (sorry, but true).
Finally everyone reconvened and we started swimming, but it was virtually impossible to enjoy the dive because it was so hard to see! At one point the divemaster paired me up with the German girl as my buddy, which was strange since I'm usually always Courtney's buddy, but you can't very well argue when you're underwater, and I thought perhaps he did it because Courtney's ears were giving her trouble. The next time we paired up, though, Courtney and I were back together. After struggling around for the amount of the dive, the divemaster motioned us to go up for a safety
stop. My buoyancy was too great, though, and I was unable to stay submerged for the whole safety stop. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get the bends, but I felt annoyed for some reason, anyway, thinking that if Per had been there he would have grabbed me by the fins and pulled me back down. Well, when we surfaced, we were short one person--the German girl. It seems that somewhere along the way the divemaster had completely forgotten about her. My theory is that he was actually mixing her and Courtney up the whole time and somehow forgot that our group was 5, not 4!!! Although the divemaster appeared cool as a cucumber on the surface, I hope that he was at least a little worried underneath. The rest of us certainly were! We had quite a little swim back to the boat, too (in which Courtney and I got chastised for talking too much and not swimming enough), and luckily when we got back the German girl was already on the boat. What a relief!
The first night on the island was rather low-key (due in part to respectful observation of the king's birthday), but
Saturday night was a whole other story. There was a "half-moon" party in front of one of the restaurants on the beach. This is where Courtney and I (stupidly) had our purses with cameras, phones, and wallets. I don't know why I even took all that stuff out with me. It's just force of habit, I guess, since we started living here and are not truly traveling any more. Well, of course we couldn't hinder our dance moves on the beach dance floor, so we had to get rid of the purses. We hid them (oh-so-cleverly) under the deck of the restaurant. Of course I didn't leave my wallet in there--Kyle had a bag that she wasn't going to relinquish and I asked her to hold it. Then I went back a second time to take my camera out (sooo glad that I did). But I left the phone in there since it was really not all that valuable and I didn't want to overburden Kyle with my stuff. Well, when we went to retrieve our things, it was obvious that our bags had been rummaged through. A bummer, to be sure, but I wasn't really surprised. I knew it
was the risk I took, and I was just glad that I saved my nice camera from the fate of my cell phone! Lesson learned. Lesson refreshed, anyway. Dance moves are important and need to be considered ahead of time when choosing what to bring out with you at night.
Sunday was a nice day on the beach and then back to Chonburi via Trat. We went to eat delicious Indian curry at this cute little restaurant that Courtney knows in Trat, called Cool Corner. Unfortunately the delicious dinner made us miss our bus and we had to buy another ticket for the next bus that didn't leave til 9:30 PM (getting us in to Chonburi at 1:30 AM). The funny part about getting to the bus station in Trat from the restaurant is that Courtney had had someone call for a moto-taxi to take us to the station, but they didn't show up. Coincidentally, some farangs had just been dropped off at a guest house across the way by a songthaew, so we asked the driver if he would take us to the bus station right away. He said yes, but then proceeded to enjoy some whiskey with
his friends on the side of the road. I re-iterated that we were trying to catch the bus that left in less than 5 minutes, and to his credit he put the glass down and jumped in the driver's seat, peddle to the metal the whole way to the station, but alas, not fast enough. We did make it in time to hear people laugh at us for missing the bus, however. But that's usually always available, I find.
Another great weekend, despite the usual transportation snafus. There's always a way home, it's just sometimes long and inconvenient. We are soooooo lucky to have these mini-breaks every weekend in paradise. It leaves me feeling completely rejuvenated and ready for another week of school, even when we end up getting home much later than anticipated!
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Courtney
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hahaha i forgot about those idiots jumping rope with the fire! how many people did we see burn themselves? hahah wow..