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Published: April 7th 2007
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Hello chilly people, well here it is into the ninth week of my time out from reality. Funny enough it hasn’t gone exactly to plan, I seem to be running in circles of good and bad fortune, usually 15 good days followed by 5 crap. Various cuts, scrapes, viruses, and vehicular breakdowns and such are truly testing my metal. I believe I may be getting more out of this trip than more material for a few good stories. I always said that keeping a grin when things aren’t going your way is the best while traveling but this is pushing it. When things are good here, they are very good indeed.
Sorry but I still haven’t been able to get my hands on the first barbecue pictures that have proof that I can cook and people never perished in the aftermath. We have had a few small cook ups since then, and one large one when we had the debut of the Christmas lights that Tim, Dave (new neighbor) and myself have come up with. Those of you that got to one of my keggers will get the idea, the tiki torches are a new twist. I did manage
to take a couple of night shots to try to show it off.
The first shot is of black tip reef sharks that can be found at the south of the island. They come into, oddly enough, Shark Bay every afternoon at 4pm. I don’t know why we’ve never seen them eat anything but anywhere between 30 & 100 is quite regular, they are never hard to find.
The other three shots are of my first assist on an Open Water course that was so fun that I followed the two girls and the guy taking the picture, through to being Advanced Open Water Divers. A little selling on the instructor’s and mine had a little to do with it as well. Very fun people are barraged with reasons to stay, it makes up for the other Muppets that are running into you all over the reef.
There is a picture of Tim, Charly(Tim’s girlfriend), and I is just a random night but it is our little three amigos group that is pretty much most nights. There are several other lunatics that are in the core group but I’ll save those for another time.
The pictures
of the large Buddha are of a place on Koh Samui where I went for my Visa extension. I had to throw in the odd touristy shot. Funny how when ever I stand back to take those I feel incredibly silly, yet when I get a picture of me doing something clearly stupid it feels oddly normal, there’s probably something in that….
The next set is of Charly and myself getting ready for the last barbeque that we had. Do you like my MAN bike? My big bike had a break down for a week and I had to swallow some pride. Funny thing was that I was able to carry so much more than my other bike at a quarter the petrol. Even the Thai people were impressed with the Farangs and their scooter loading skills. It was actually all Charly, I said it couldn’t be done. The other pictures are of just before the party got started, the bungalows are from left to right, Yorkshire Dave, Canada Mike, and Aussie Tim. I moved out of my old bungalow, now Dave’s, and to the middle one for a better bed, balcony, and sunsets.
The picture of people
on top of the boat is pretty standard for any given day on the dive boat, this day we were off chasing whale sharks but no luck. Of the interesting thing that I have seen here have been, hawk’s bill turtles, banded sea snakes, several types of sharks, pilot whales, great barracuda, and nasty titan triggerfish. On the trigger fish note Koh Tao has a reputation for the most aggressive triggers in the world, it has something to do with the massive numbers of divers and genetic pissy moods. The roll of the Dive Master Trainee, Dive Master, and Instructor is to get in between the fish and students and take the hit. The DMT (which I am) is the first to sacrifice, so I have to race to the fish and get in the way till everyone gets out of the way. Kind of a lousy part of the good deal that I’ve got rolling here. Still my favorites seem to be the large schools of yellow fusiliers and chevron barracudas, and the prettiest of all is the juvenile harlequin sweet lips. It’s about the size of a large mouse and sits on a coral ledge waving back and
forth like it’s in a current even when there’s none, I can watch those all day.
The picture of a large table of people was, for people that don’t “smoke” like me, the poker game to get in on. Made me almost enough money to pay for my bike repairs.
The pictures of Charly and I on top of a mountain is a granite formation known as Fragle Rock, instead of going for a run I’ll go for a hike in the morning up there. The running has taken a bit of a back seat anyway, I’ll get back at it soon enough. On the picture of the town I live pretty much dead center and a little to the right, my bungalow is against the side of the hill hidden from the camera. Find the blue roofed set of three and they are accross from me.
The lizard pictures are of a new type that people are starting to see more and more of. This one got stuck in my bathroom sink, I had to help it out with the wisk brush. Man was it fast, had me jumping around till it finally got out. The
other is of 2 big Geckos that were having a war for a couple of days, I never thought that they would kill each other but one did die. I threw it outside before I found out whether they eat their own. They must eat something more substantial than mozzies, these things are big about 10in long. I’m just glad the fight was over they were making a hell of a racket at night.
The last picture is of me writing this update in my chill out zone in my hammock looking over the coconut grove on an unusually cool and breezy afternoon, a great way to waste a couple of hours. Even though that is the net that recently broke with my ass in it, my land lady and I had a great laugh over that one. Some things you just don't need to talk the same language to laugh together. I believe it is time for a beer.
By the way gossip is welcome…. Send it to my regular gmail account.
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Vania
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Hey mikey!! thailand looks awesome!!! i'm so jealous that you got to see reef sharks! keep up the good work. byeeee.