99: PADI AOW Certified
March 6th, 2006I’ve finished the PADI Advanced Open Water Dive Course yesterday. It was pretty easy and not too much theory as compared to the Open Water Course. (More hands-on diving)
98: More Dive Training
March 3rd, 200603/03/06
I signed up for the Advanced Open Water Dive Course which starts tomorrow. It allows me to dive deeper than the 18m and also do night dives etc but it was mostly a economic decision to do this than that I wanted to learn new skills.. I was going to do a bunch of fun dives but it’s not much more to do the Advanced Open Water Course which has 5 dives included and it’s quite common for people to do the advanced course right after the basic open water course so why not..
97: First Fun Dives
March 3rd, 2006Did two fun dives today at sites around Ko Tao (Twins and White Rock). This were the first dives after I had finished my PADI Open Water course so it was quite exciting to be able to just dive, float above the corals and watch swarms of fish swim around me 🙂 It’s nice to be able to do that without all the special drills that were part of the open water course dives..
96: PADI OW Certified
March 2nd, 200602/03/06
A few days of classroom learning, pool sessions, open water (sea) diving, buoyancy control, mask clearing, and out-of-air emergency ascents etc plus a sh*t load of PADI manuals reading I now know my dive gear in and out, know about nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness and learned how to use dive tables and how to plan my dives to be sure to avoid them in the first place 🙂 Of course there’s a lot more to it but bottom line is I passed my theory test (98%, got one silly question wrong *bother*;-) and finished all my dive training so now I am – would you believe it – a PADI Certified Open Water Diver!
What it really means though is that I can now go on fun dives to some interesting dive sites and enjoy the underwater views and watch beautifully coloured fish, corals and other marine life..
Exciting!
95: Koh Tao
February 27th, 2006Made it to Koh Tao 🙂
The sleeper train was much better this time. Had a aircon lower bunk since the fan beds were all sold out but it was ok (not freezing as expected). The train left at 19:15 and arrived around 5:30am after 1.5h delay but that was good timing because the bus to the pier for the ferry left at 6am so I didnt have to wait long plus could make use of the bed in the train longer 🙂
The Ferry was a Catamaran and it took about 2h to get to Koh Tao.
Watch a movie on board but didn’t feel all that great towards the end of the trip. Not sure if to blame the sea or the malaria pill that I took without breakfast. Usually its a bad idea to take Doxy on an empty stomach and the few times I did it didnt go down too well…
Either way I might choose a reglar ferry on the way back if only for the nicer boat…
I didnt look around much for accomodatio but chose based on padi course ofers. I stay at Coral Grand Resort, actually one of the nicest resorts on the biggest beach on Koh Tao.
I booked the PADI Open Water course with them for short of 10k Baht (about 150 pounds) and get discount on accomodation, 300 Baht (less than 5 pounds) for fan room (aircon would have been 500 baht but they were fully booked) which is a pretty good bargain I guess.
Already had the first part of the PADI course this afternoon. Three more days and I’m PADI certified.. (scary thought that it goes that quick;-)
The beach here looks fab with nice white sand and turquoise waters..
Just a shame I will be busy with the dive course and wont be able to make use of the beach more that an hour or so at the end of the day..
94: Off to Koh Tao
February 26th, 2006At long last I’m dragging myself away from the comfort of my nice Hotel here in Bangkok (they even have a Rooftop Swimming Pool) and head down to Koh Tao for some diving.
I take the night train from Bangkok to Chumpon and catch a ferry to Koh Tao tomorrow morning which means i should get there about 10am.
Koh Tao is much less developed than other Islands but it is very popular as a dive site
93: Bangkok Activities
February 26th, 2006I mostly relaxed here in Bangkok after my Laos trip but also had a few busy days.
It took me a day to walk around Bangkok for some “admin” stuff.
Decided to buy my Japan Rail Pass here in Bangkok rather than Hong Kong (can only be bought outside of Japan) because I cut the Hong Kong Stay short in favour of some diving in Thailand. The Japan Rail Pass can only be bought at a specific Office in Bangkok.
The same day I also went to the United Airlines office to change my flights to Hong Kong and Tokyo. I actually forgot my plane tickets (left it in the safe at the hotel) but the kind people at UA change the flights without the need to show them the tickets.
Moreover they changed it free of charge which was fab. I was told it would cost 25 dollars per flight or there about..
Two other days I spend mostly on the computer (making use of the fast internet access; Laos was dreadful) to wade through all the Laos photos, send them to flickr and do some blogs. It was quite a shock to the system spending 6 long hours on a PC again..
Other than that it’s rather hot and sweaty here now and I can see that one month down the line it must be pretty unbearable here. Temperatures are 33-35C with high humidity which means you start to appreciate airconditioning:-) If you enter some shopping malls the change of the outside air to the cool aircon air is pretty drastic and almost feels like when you’re jumping into a swimming pool after a toasty hour in the sun 🙂
Still I like Bangkok for it’s convenience. It’s a great place to chill out for a few days after travelling around and I do really appreciate the nice hotel that I am staying in. It even has a roof top swimming pool as I noticed and there is a good Movie Channel (HBO). Feels strange watching TV again after quite a while of TV absence.
There a lots of Starbuck and Starbucks like cafes with comfy aircon seating areas good for reading a bit though I have to say there is a certain reluctance to hag out at Starbucks. Starbucks is something you do back home, here is SE Asia it feels a bit out-of-place.. call me strange but that’s how I feel.
I avoided the big MKB shopping complex this time and went to some other shopping malls.
This place must be heaven for girls who are into shopping (i.e. all of them;-)
I can see why Thai people have such an easy life dressing very well. You get it all here and at a fraction of the European prices. I do wonder why Europe (and in particular the UK) is so crap when it comes to clothes and general fashion shopping. Europe could learn a lot from Thailand. Usually the only scruffy looking people here are tourists (me exluded of course;-).
Went to Siam Ocean World yesterday – magic!
It’s the biggest Sealife Center I have seen sofar and I spent a good few hours there. Very impressive huge walk-under aquariums with local marine life including matas, sharks etc
Can’t wait to see the marine life out in the sea..
92: Laos Photos
February 24th, 2006I have added a whole bunch of photos from Laos to my flicker page.
Use the Calendar View or the browse the individual Laos Sets on the left side of this link but note that the sets are not ordered by date.
91: Thai Cooking Class Pics
February 24th, 2006Look at that, the Chiang Mai Smart Cook School has put pictures from my Thai cooking course on their web page.. Pictures are here..
90: Vang Vieng to Vientiane
February 24th, 2006This was easy. 4 hours on scenic Route 13 from Vang Vieng to Vientiane.
saschas