Again, why are we up so early?
Oh yeah, DIVING! There are very few sports ill sacrifice my slumber for, but, as much as I don’t like boats, diving is awesome!
Rave Dive
Now I’m doing “proper” dives. Open water is just all the basics your need to physically dive safely. The advanced adventurer diver course pushes you to do more. The idea being you are more independent and confident in the water and with your surroundings.
Open Water Diver
Omg its early. Up at 05:30. Kit store at 05:45. Forgot my mask, so legged it up to our room and back. Collect kit at 06:00. Remember to take pills and emergency poop. Boat at 06:15. Sunrise.
Food Makes Me Happy
This morning started as yesterday; met at the cafe on the beach for a briefing. This time I made sure we ordered some breakfast. I don’t do well without food. Must have food.
Currently Diving
The dive training started today with a briefing meeting at 8am in a local cafe. We were told not to eat breakfast before as we could order there. Great. Except we didn’t. So I started to lose concentration and get a bit hangry (hungry-angry) by the end of the 2 hour session. I just had to have some food so Ricardo and I went straight to a cafe. He was a nice chap, who’s had a similar life path to me, in so much as he came straight out of college, got a job and now quit after 5 years to travel a bit.
Shit Culture
Koh Tao is a significantly smaller island than Koh Pangan. There is really only one town spread along the major bays beach. I imagine it was historically 2 towns but now the resorts and bars have filled in the middle. After our relatively hard night out (my definition of going hard on a night out has dramatically changed since dancing elephant) we slept in late. Phil slept longer, maybe some jet lag, so I went for breakfast.
Ko Tao Transfer
I’m meant to stay another night at Dancing Elephant, but Haad Rin is a ghost town now. Those who hadn’t already left yesterday, were recovered and leaving today so I figured I may as well go too. The next place on my list was Ko Tao an even smaller island north of Ko Pangan, famed for its exceptional scuba diving. Here is where Mike learnt to dive and then spent several months as an instructor for Mojo Divers.
Wobbly Ladder
For getting in at 5am I actually got a really good night’s sleep. After 4 days of hard partying everyone was knackered so slept really late. I’ve definitely discovered that I’m more of a get up and go person than anyone else on this island. After breakfast at 2pm, I asked if anyone was up for a walk out to a view point, to which the only response I received was “hummph..”
Full Moon, Full Throttle
Today was a much bigger day than intended. You’d think I would have had enough of motorbikes by now but it’s just the best way to get around. Especially on the tiny, congested roads on this island.
Rat BBQ
There wasn’t really any sleep to be had so I got up again. People were getting in after us and in even worse state so the dorm was full of noise. Noise ranging from packing bags to spewing into bags. Maybe I had 2 or 3 hours if I’m lucky, but today is a chill out day so I’m sure I’ll be fine.