Joe drove down to Rawai yesterday, along with Kirsten, Sam who works for Paradise Diving, Chris who’s just joined us from good old Brackley, and I. The reason for the journey was simple: a proper English breakfast. We’d heard whispers of a place down south called Enigma where one could purchase bacon which wasn’t just streaks of fat, and genuine British pork sausages. After indulging in a lovely Big Breakfast each, we had the rest of the day to play with, so we caught a longtail boat from Rawai beach over to Coral Island.
It took about half an hour to get there, and it was well worth it. We dumped our stuff on the beach and headed for the shallow (and very warm) water in search of fish. We were surrounded by them before long and we each got a banana to feed them with. I didn’t realise fish ate banana either. The coral was very nice, we rented snorkels and looked at all the strange and colourful fish, laid around chatting in the water, and threw sea cucumbers at each other. What a strange creature that is.
Not much else has been happening, although on the way to Patong the other night, in a minibus, on the dual carriageway, our driver slammed his foot on the brakes to give way for a small herd of buffalo who felt like crossing over. Doesn’t happen every day!
I’m looking forward to this week because, hopefully starting tomorrow, the four of us (Joe, Kirsten, Chris, me) begin our PADI Open Water dive course. It’s a four day course with four dives in a swimming pool, one in open sea here at Nai Yang and then we’ll go over to Similan Islands on the final day - one of the top ten dive sites in the world. Once I’m finished I’ll have a world recognised license to take with me to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. There’s a fair bit of theory to learn and a multiple choice test at the end of it, but everyone knows multiple choice tests are easy: If you notice an equipment malfunction, do you: a) Check it is safe to do so, and ascend to the surface immediately; b) Don’t worry about it, it’ll be fine; c) Panic, flapping your arms around frantically; or d) Try swimming deeper, looking out for any large rocks to hide underneath.
I’ll feel a right melon now if my next post on here announces my failure in the test, in which case you’ll be welcome to add as many smart arse comments as you like.
Live band at The Beach Club tonight. Maybe I’ll have a Chang or two.
February 27th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Good luck with the test. If deans can do it, anybody can.
Thanks :)