Apr 2008

All this diving and stuff can be hard work. I have a lie-in and watch a bit of telly. At lunchtime I say goodbye to my new German friends and meet up with Pete to explore the island.

We went for a short walk which turned out to be a bit of a jungle trek for an hour. It was a little tricky walking over hills and planks of wood for bridges wearing flip-flops.

We end up at a bar called Banana Rock, which is a bar on the edge a nice quiet beach it's a great place to be.

The walk back doesn't seem to take very long.

For the duration of the diving course It's a similar routine: classroom study; real dives out at sea and studying in the evening in preparation for a test. We do get enough free time to go to lunch and relax a little.

I bump into a couple of characters from Manchester: Pete and Magoo one lunchtime. They come here every year for a few months. Magoo particularly likes going to the bars in the evening and certain clubs, and has a Thai 'girlfriend'. And Pete assures me he tries not to be led astray by Magoo and his other partying dudes. He says he'll show me around the island if I want. Sounds good to me. We agree to meet up after I've completed the diving course.

All goes well and I pass my test at the end of it. The diving isn't as easy as I would like, especially equalizing where you try and hold your nose and blow to pop your ears while going deep into the water). But I can dive now, which is all that really counts.

I go for a meal with Alexander and Kirsten in the evening. They'll be leaving Koh Tao tomorrow afternoon.

Here's a photo of our group:

I decide to change rooms, so despite the extra cost, I pay for a room that has a bathroom with a shower and hot water. And I have a T.V. too - sorted.

In the morning we have our first diving theory lesson in the classroom. In the afternoon we get to go in the swimming pool wearing our scuba gear. It's quite good fun, but the diving skills don't come naturally to me, so there's little work involved too. There's six of us in the group, five blondes (seven if you count the instructors) and me. We have two instructors. The first one is Daniel, from Austria, who mainly looks after the three ditsy blonde girls from Denmark and Holland, and the second is Wendy, from Holland, who looks after me and a newly wed German couple Alexander and Kirsten. Alexander and Kirsten are about as friendly a couple as you could meet and we get on really well.

Every evening there's always a barbecue right in front of the beach. It's warm in the evening too. And there are a few bars and restaurants along the beach to visit. It takes less than one minute to walk from my room to the beach. It couldn't be much more different to being back home.

I book out of my hotel at 5:00 am. Yes, that's 5:00am for anyone who know me, this is not a typo. I have to be on a bus at 5:30 am to make my way to Koh Tao island (turtle island, but there aren't any turtles there anymore I'm told) where I will be learning to dive. I've finally ditched my suitcase, but my rucksack is almost bursting it's seems. Perhaps I should have got the next size up.

The bus journey is about seven hours. Luckily, I am sitting next to an interesting guy named Aaron from Holland. He works for nine months of the year and travels for three. I learn quite a few things about Cambodia and Vietnam and even Holland. I wouldn't recommend travelling on a bus for this long as it can be a little uncomfortable, but it's easier if you have good company.

Next it's a two hour trip by Katamaran (another vehicle I've never travelled in before) to the island. On board is a guy named Matt from Weymouth, England. He's been travelling for almost two years. Which, by the look of him is the last time he ate. He's been working quite hard to pay for his trip along the way and has done quite a bit of dive training so is hoping to get a job doing this on Koh Tao.

The site if the island as the boat comes in is very nice. It's a great contrast to the city. From the Katamaran to the back of a small truck. This is one of the types of taxi they have here. Again, I can't remember being on a vehicle like this before.

I'm not too impressed by room at the dive resort. It's a little bleak. No hot water to shower with and the mattress has seen better days. Other things around here are a little different too. You must take your footware off if you go into a room, restaurant, anywhere really, even if it's a shop. The exception being 7-11 shops which, incidentally, open twenty-four hours a day in Thailand.

The first lesson in learning to dive involves watching a two hour video in a classroom. I'm falling asleep watching it. Tomorrow the practical stuff should begin.

Today I'm determined to see the Grand Palace. I've been told it's a 'must see.' I get within fifty yards of the entrance and a tuk-tuk driver intercepts me. "It's closed," he says. I refrain from kicking him up his tuk-tuk. I keep walking the fifty yards up to the entrance and would you 'Adam and Eve it ?' It's open !

It takes quite a while to see all the buildings, statues and painted murals of the Grand Palace. I have never seen so much gold, gold leaf and gold paint all in one place. Devotees actually buy small pieces of gold leaf and paste them on to certain statues and then kneel and pray to the statue. I can't imagine that there's any place like it. I listen in to a few tour guides explaining things to visitors, I'm too cheap to hire my own. It seems all men in Thailand are expected to be Monks, for about three months before at a time before they are married. And they can get away with just doing a couple of weeks. Almost sounds like National Service.

I read that Thai people try not to show anger as it is a sign of losing face. They may try and diffuse a situation by laughing and smiling at a situation which westerners might find a little embarassing, like tripping over something for example. This explains why the hotel receptionist smiled when she found out how much I paid for the room, I think.

I've also noticed that the traffic is far more sedate than in India. I've hardly heard a car horn while I've been here and there aren't too many crazy drivers. They still flout some traffic rules and you get three or four people on a moped sometimes, but it's 'normal' here. It's my last day in Bangkok. I probably should have moved on earlier. Also, it's amazing how clean the streets are bearing in mind the mess tourists make, even though it's hard to find a bin when you need to throw things away - very wierd.