Khao Lak

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It's Friday evening and I should be studying. Yes, unfortunately, it's true. I showed up at the scuba dive shop and discovered there is required reading. I've got 250 pages to read and they recommend I finish tonight. Hmmm, that may not happen. What time is it? 7:00 p.m. I've got my priorities straight though...I'm online and writing a blog. I did read 25 pages earlier that covered such things as buoyancy, equilization, volume, and density. See, I was paying attention.

I found out that I'm the only person taking this course so I'll get plenty of personal attention from the dive instructor. Safety first! On the boat, there will be 12 or so other people but they're only doing the dives, not the open water certification course.

Anyway, let me back up to last night after my most recent blog...I left the internet cafe and wouldn't you know it, stumbled upon the Washington St guys having dinner in Kata Village, this time with a couple of Swedish girls (Frida and Hanna) they met at the beach that day. So I joined them at the table as they finished dinner. Then we all grabbed a taxi (songthaew actually) to get to Kata Noi beach where we hung out until 2:00 a.m. We had a blast just talking, goofing off, and enjoying the great evening weather at the beach. They've got lounge chairs set up along the length of the beach so it's really nice for relaxing, whether in the day or night.

Last night was really cool and of course, as you can imagine, it was hard to leave this morning. It would have been great to stay at least another day. The guys head to Ko Chang tomorrow. They're going to be staying in Ko Chang for 4 nights and then travelling up north to Chiang Mai. I might be able to re-connect with them in Chiang Mai after my diving course, although Frida and Hanna leave Phuket (returning to Sweden) in 1 1/2 weeks so it would be great to hang out with them more too before they leave. At this point, I'm not sure where I am going after Khao Lak. I intend to do volunteer work in the Khao Lak/Phang Nga area but the timing of that is flexible.

I may as well get this out there...if I ever use these words in my blog, you'll know what I'm talking about. These are words we've been using a lot over the last 2 days (I'm hooked on the term "mass baht". It just makes me smile, don't ask me why):

mass baht: a lot of baht; big bucks
g bath: 1,000 baht ($25)
chocolate: cigarettes (I'm not a fan of those cancer sticks, in fact I've never even tried one, but a couple of the guys can't seem to get enough chocolate)
skoal: "cheers!" in Swedish

Anyway, enough on that...back to today. This morning I checked out of the Fantasy Hill Bungalows at around 9:30 and had no problem getting on the bus to Phuket Town. Once in Phuket Town, it was a little confusing trying to figure out where the main bus station was located. It was about a mile away. I had to repeatedly ask for directions to get there but the local Thai people are really helpful with that stuff. Sometimes they'll even come up to you if you look confused to see if they can help.

I arrived in Khao Lak around 2:00 this afternoon. As expected, the whole bus trip cost about $3. It seems even hotter here if that's possible. It's like Arkansas in the middle of summer. Thankfully there is an ocean nearby, but I'm not in it at the moment, and I'm hot! The mosquitos are eating me alive too. This internet place in Khao Lak has got a decent connection but there's no A/C. Wow, they're playing Lionel Ritchie's "Hello" right now. They play tons of American music down here. Ok, I admit it. I love that 80's song.

I better work on getting the photos uploaded now though. Tomorrow the dive course begins at 9:00 a.m. and I've got some reading to do!

So that's all for now! Look! There goes Dave!

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Photos

Dinner in Kata
Dana, Frida, Hanna, Jake, and Sam (Tyler is hiding and I'm taking the picture)

Dana's lighter
Dana and Frida showing off the purchase Dana almost made.

Men's restroom
Not a lot of privacy in the men's restroom of this restaurant. Dana is letting everybody know where Tyler is.

New digs
Here is a picture of my room at the Baan Krating hotel.

Front porch
Picture of my front porch in Khao Lak. Lots of trees and a little bit of a view of the ocean.

Comments

[Heather]

Awesome!
I can't say it enough! I am so happy that you have this opportunity to go do this adventure David! It sounds like you are haveing an awesome time and I will continue to pray for you and your upcoming adventures!! Love hearing about it and wishing I was there like last year! :)

[anonymous]

love it - love it - love it - gram-mee
This is the best - we are right there with you. Just to give a clue, you know that we are into the food part of the trip. And that we are Trojan fans. Yes, we were there-it was great fun! Our church is going to Thailand next sumemr on a missions trip - great to see it first hand via Dave. Are you keeping a personal journal? Would love to hear even more.