3 weeks in..

So nearly three weeks down and I still wouldn't say I am totally used to life here, but I'm definately starting to enjoy it! I've moved into a new place, a little bedsit above a travel shop which is much nicer than my room before, and even has a thai lady who cleans it weekly for me! I'm still loving the thai food (although I am missing my cereal!) and I'm loving my divemaster training. Diving everyday is pretty tiring but I love it and I've seen some amazing stuff already. Swimming alongside stingrays, huge schools of tropical fish, exploring shipwrecks and I still get overexcited when I see nemo!! There is still no sign of the elusive Whale Shark but I am still hopeful I will see one before the end of my time here.

I've had some difficult diving experiences too, a few days ago the weather turned bad and the sea became very rough and visibility awful, I lost my dive buddy and had to surface alone.. To find that I was miles from the boat! Surface swimming in full dive gear with huge waves slapping you in the face is quite challenging! But we were both fine and these things do happen.

I can't believe that it is less than a week until Christmas.. Apart from a few odd decorations here you would not know it was the festive season at all. But I have met some great people here and I'm sure we will celebrate it some how!

One thing which I will miss when I come home is the amazing massages here! I've been having an obscene amount as they are so cheap and SO good! I'm off to have another one now! Ciao.

Help! Help! Unresponsive diver...

.. Is what I have been shouting a lot over the last few days completing my rescue diver course. Usually trying to shout it whilst towing a dead weight diver pretending to be unconscious towards the boat, whilst trying not to drown myself as waves slap me in the face and the driving rain pours down on top of us (sorry.. Is this Thailand?!). Luckily that weather was contained specially for our assessment day and it is now back to lovely and hot and sunny.

The rescue course was very challenging, physically mainly but it was also a lot to remember. We started by doing a basic first aid course (ie a land based one) and then day 2,3 and 4 were spent trying to transfer these skills to be able to do them in water... Easy!

The last day was the assessment and this involved a few dive-master trainees and instructors flinging themselves over the side and coming up with a whole number of scenarios in which we had to 'save them'. This ranged from the 'panicked diver' (a diver having a breakdown on the surface and trying their very best to drown us as we tried to assist them) to the 'unresponsive diver' 10m down at the bottom, which we had to pull to the surface and then tow to the boat whilst resuscitating them and as if that wasn't enough then haul them up the ladder onto the boat. Exhausting! But it was really good fun and I hope I never have to use it but I can see how it is definitely worth knowing. Plus if I teach scuba diving I am bound to come across a few panicked divers!!

So after doing all that I spent most of yesterday lying horizontal on the beach/in a hammock. Not a bad view for a Sunday evening...

Keep calm and carry on

So as I sit here in 'pranees kitchen' waiting for my first ever real Pad Thai (quite scared) I thought I would write a little update on my first few days. I am considering today as my first day.. Because if I took the days traveling and my half a day yesterday into account I might just turn around and go home now!!!

In heathrow airport I bought a Cosmopolitan magazine and flicked straight to the back to read my horoscope (I normally take little notice of such things, but upon making such a change to my life I thought it might give me a bit of guidance) and Virgo clearly read 'Keep calm and carry on'. At that stage I had no idea just how much that would be necessary.

The long haul flight to Singapore was actually surprisingly ok, 12hours of being fed and watered and watching so many films my eyes hurt is dull, but ultimately not awful. What is awful, when you take off half an hour late, knowing that you only have an hour to get your connecting flight at Singapore, and if you miss it there isn't another one until the next day. I spent most of the journey looking at the little clock thing that says: 'Time to Singapore 4.56 hours' etc whilst fretting about what exactly I would do with 24 hours in Singapore with no where to go and no bag.

But thankfully the pilot put his foot down and with a good finishing sprint from me I made it with 5 minutes to spare, and joined the hoards of Aussie blokes in wife beaters boarding Asia's version of easy jet. 

The airport at koh Samui can only be described as a large shed, but is stunning, the sun was out and I was happy. Nearly there. I got a bus to the ferry terminal and managed to get a ferry leaving shortly after. Result. Except OH MY GOD the ferry was one of the worst experiences of my life. And I LIKE the sea. I managed to get a seat up top, and endured two hours of the boat violently rocking side to side bouncing up smacking down on the waves, one by one the passengers went down and the sick bags came out. It was funny for about 20 minutes. 

Luckily, I managed not to vom and, happy days, made it to the dive school in one peice!! The island is beautiful, the weather is amazing and I am starting my diving course tomorrow :) so yes, despite a few culture shock issues, so far no major disasters.

Oh, and they don't have flushable toilets here. They give you a bucket. Keep calm and carry on..

J x