Teal’s trip abroad! (part d’eux)

Just got back from Phuket! It was a week of constant drinking and partying. I think I took at least a year off of my life from all the shameless debauchery…LOL It’s a very booming tourist kinda town filled with Farangs (Thai word for us Caucasians) from all walks of life. This mayvery well be the entertainment capital of Thailand. It’s extremely colorful and vibrant, lots of older men looking for love and young women looking for money.

I spent most of my time in Patong beach, a very popular entertainment and nightlife area and also a spot hit hard by the Tsunami. They’re still rebuilding near the beach and I’m told that practically all the buildings on the beach-side are newly rebuilt. Such a terrible tragedy.
I’m back in Chumphon for a few days of recuperation and then off for Bangkok and on to the Philippines. Looking forward to checking it out to see the differences in culture!

Well, it’s been nearly a week and a half since I arrived here in Chumphon, which seems like along time in a quite little town like this. I never planned on staying here, but the people that I’ve had the good fortune to run across have kept me wanting to stay longer. They are some of the most genuinely nicest people I’ve ever met, thier english is minimal and my thai is BAD..lol, but somehow we manage to communicate and have a great time together.

I’ll post some photos on my Yahoo photos and send them out to everyone. You’ll notice some pictures of me with my new Thai friends. We got together two separate nights and had a Thai style BBQ, very nice and great food!! I’m trying a lot of foods that I never thought I would before! All in all, having a great time. It will be tough leaving this place, just so many nice people!

My diving experience was kind of a let down. I spent two days in the pool and classroom learning theory. I felt comfortable and all was going well. On Thursday we took the dive boat out to the nearest island, about an hour off shore. On the first open water dive, we dove to about 10 meters, I was cool, but having a problem equalizing my ears. Finally got equalized and when I got to the bottom, I don’t know why, but I just started hyper ventilating and my heart was racing! We surfaced and took a break then went back down. The same thing happened! So, I gave up for the day and just snorkeled the remainder of the day. That’s it for now, maybe I will try with a different instructor later. I was talking with some other instructors and they mentioned that my dive instructor was wrong in not having any kind of line to descend with, I guess that’s the proper way for the first dive.

Heading to Phuket tomorrow for some more beach scene and nightlife. It should be good! Then I head to the Philippines April 5!! Take care.

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