Missing… Presumed Having A Good Time

After an amazing 9 dives in 3 days, I managed to get the Bends. I’m not sure if the Scuba Junkie dive shop is to blame, but my instructor most likely is. Frankie, possibly not really a PADI certified Dive Master was the “leader” of my Sipadan dives. He had a group of 7 people of varying skills from 3 newly certified open water divers to some more experienced divers. He was also my dive buddy so I technically was supposed to follow him wherever he went. He went into the cave so I went into the cave. He went to 30 Meters, so I went to 30M. Unfortunately, he has a lot more experience than me and can control his breathing much better than I was able. So I managed to go thru 100 of my 180 Bars of air in about 15 mins in a strong current drift dive with a possible down current at the end of the dive. I still slowly ascended to finish my dive in about 30-35 mins with a safety stop at 5M for about 3 minutes. I didn’t have a watch. When I surfaced with less than 10 Bars left, I had a slight headache, but I hadn’t been feeling all that great anyway so I didn’t think much of it. I did one more dive that day and still seemed alright. I hopped on a bus that took me back past Mt. Kinabalu back to Kota Kinabalu for a flight to Bangkok. After the suggessted 24 (26 actually) hours before flying I got on a flight and really didn’t feel well. I tried to shrug it off with daily massages to sooth my aching muscles, but the symptoms didn’t clear. So off to the Thai Navy Hospital I go to see the doctor. After a few Xrays and a quick check up, Doc says u got the bends and I recommend a Table V decompression regiment with pure oxygen. Unfortunately, that’s a 10,000THB treatment. OUCH! Nothing I can do, I can’t go around with expanded nitrogen bubbles in my body so I get in the decompression chamber for about 3 hours breathing pure oxygen. They bring me down to the equivalent of 20M and there I sit for the next 3 hours with no fish to look at. They should have at least given me a fish book to study. I didn’t feel better right away, but after a day or 2, my headache went away, my dizzy spells cleared, my joints didn’t ache as much, my muscles felt a bit better (after several more massages) and my body returned back to normal. But the doc said that I’m not allowed to dive again for at least 1 month. So much for my glorious return to Thailand to do the diving that I had planned to do 13 years ago on Koh Tao, but didn’t make because I got stuck on Koh Phanghan for 45 days. Ooohhh the backyard bar. I’ve heard from people that were just in Koh Tao that the diving isn’t that good anymore. Much of the coral has been killed by the thousands of divers that go there every year. The running gag these days around Koh Tao is that you see more divers than fish on your dives.

Well after 13 years, I have to say I don’t remember much about Kuta except that it’s very different and built out. I remember a bar with nothing but a roof and the lack of 4 walls. Now everything is wall to wall either hotel, restaurant or shop. Which was quite disturbing, but also very nice. I had a great time in Kuta. The beach was the same with it’s famous never ending surf breaks.

I went out into the ocean to body surf the waves, but after about 20 mins. the lifeguard called me back in. The rip current was quite strong and I don’t blame him for calling everyone in. There were times where I actually had to “swim” quite hard to get back in to shore. So at least the beach was just as I remembered it. Prices seemed to creep up over time, but after 13 years, I can’t really blame surfer’s paradise beach for adding .50 cents (double) for a beer. I actually had far too much Rupiah left before I left Indonesia so I ended up blowing 150,000 Rupiah on a steak and a few beers for dinner on my last night in Bali. I figure the Balinese were hurting pretty bad with all the natural disaters, civil strife and terrorism going on in Indonesia, I felt good for helping out the economy.

I can’t figure out why with all the problems they have why they now have a $25 cover charge to get into the country and then only give the few tourists that they get only 30 days to stay in the country. Wtih 17,508 islands in Indonesia, I could stay there for a whole year and not cover but a fraction of the country. Off to Kuala Lumpur only because it was the cheapest way to get off of Bali. I met a surfer that went to KL just for the day to get a stamp and flew right back to Bali.

Simon Picture Welcome to My Paradise is a song by Steven and the Coconut Trees, a Reggae band from Java. It also describes the time I had on Gili Trawangan. After a 5+ hour boat ride from hell bobbing ... [Continue reading this entry]

On the way to the East coast of Bali, I saw something that really shows quite well how crazy the Balinese are about the World Cup. This was a great place ... [Continue reading this entry]