Hello all,

I cant quite rember where I left off but I think it was on Kho Samui right before I left for Kao Tao. Well here goes. It all started off great when I arrived there were the usual touts trying to entice you to stay or dive with them, but that only lasted the first few minutes. I managed to find a great place to stay where the jungle surrounds me. I have my own private bugalow 10 feet of the ground with a king size bed, private bathroom with shower where the floor is covered with river rocks (kinda like a little zen garden). There is a private balcony looking into the somewhat tamed jungle landscape. I also have a friendly Gecko that spends a few hours every night cleaning my room of mice and bugs he is about 14 inches long. The people that work there are very relaxed and and have become fairly good friends despite the language barrier... The menu is large and very tasty but you must always be wary of the mouse terd peppers...

After setteling in and renting a motor scooter I cruised the town interviewing the many dive companies. The prices all seem to be the same which I dicovered was due to there being sub standard dive equipment in circulation due to heavy discounts five years ago. This led to an intervention and standardized prices which are still a hell of a bargin. I secured an advanced dive class for the small amount of 175 american dollars. With 17 dollars for each additional dive after the course. I also managed to work a certian amount of housing allowance into the deal... The instructors and dive masters at Asia dive were right up my ally and I had a great time diving with Ali currently a dive master from England that showed up about 8 months back and decided he would be an instructor before he left. He is nearly there and in all reality could have been there months ago if he did not put off taking the tests. I had been snorkeling around the island and managed to come across some amazing reefs allong with a 7 foot Black Tipped Reef Shark who swam a little to fast for me to catch, but that did not stop my trying... I also managed to get down for two dives before my course was to start. I saw many of the same creatures that I hald allready been chaseing around for several days while snorkeling, however, there were also many great schools of fish the baracudas were a little intimidating as while snorkeling I was constantly followed by them but the clown fish managed to set my nearves to ease.

I had managed to cover most the roads on the island even those that resembled hilly dried out stream beds with a little 125cc scooter I was actually quite impressed with where I had gone with it. I rarely had to drag it up any hills. But now the time had come to experience those same winding hills on a proper 250cc Honda dirt bike. The going was great for the first 20 minutes of having a proper amount of power under my control. However, it soon went to my head I was just getting used to the bike and was having a good time popping wheelies and turning the obsticals on the back road trail into jumps. This was when I crested a fairly steep hill with a very little trail going up it. I was fealing a little cocky after conquering the hill and decided to ride a whellie over the top of it. The terrain cought me off guard in my celebration and snuck some very soft sand right at the landing point of my front tire. I asumed I would do a good bit of rolling down the other side of the hill, however, to my suprise I slid only as far as the bike. This was due to my foot being crushed under the foot peg. I looked at my ankle at the funny angle it was planted at and feared the worst, that it was broken. My bike had not maged to sputter out yet and gas was spilling out of the tank. I pulled it back up with all the adrenilin I could muster just as it died. Luckily It fired back up, but then again the terrain back down to the town would still require a fair bit of skill to navigate. But atleast I would not have to wait out the rare chance someone else would travel this trail again today. The navigation would have to take place without my back brake foot. But on the possitive side my other foot was still free to shift gears. I was able to put it into a low gear on the way down that acted as my back brake and gentely feathered the front. But this was not the best of Ideas seeing as it was 41 degrees C and the bike constantly overheated and died. This forced me to keep my speed up which would be my only chance of gettin back. After a good bit of riding and a whole lot of the mantra "Please God Dont let it be broken". I made it back to my bugalow where I hoped to my room packed a good book and a change of cloths "incase i was at the clinic awhile" and then over to the man that ran the place who quickly brought me to the nurse who made my day. She was kind and quick with the stitching I was and as I still could not feel my foot it really did not hurt much. Except of course when she had to break the wounds all the way open to clean them. It turned out that it was my lucky day despite my stupidity of riding in sandals, shorts, and a tank top. I had no broken bones!!! I did manage to get a nasty sprain to go allong with the stitches on my foot and knee. But other than that just a bunch of surface scratches. The locals around here allong with the farangs (forighners) that have spent any amount call it a Koa Tao Kiss. I am not the first to recieve this kiss and am far from the last...

As I was saying before this was right before my advanced dive class was to begin. The feeling of euphoria that erupted from me after discovering my ankle was not broken was quickly squelched when I came to realize that I was in one of the greatest dive mecas of the world. Where I would remain for another week as I healed enough to pack my bag out. With no chance of gettin my feet wet. On the bright side I have been crutchin my way around town building up some good arm steangth. Mabey I will able to put it to use if my ankle heals enough to Kick Box in Chaing Mai.

Well that was a couple of days ago and all is healing pretty well except my ego of course.

Thanx for reading,

Jeremiah