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Articles Tagged ‘Thailand’

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96: PADI OW Certified

Thursday, March 2nd, 2006

02/03/06

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

Monday, February 27th, 2006

Made 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

Sunday, February 26th, 2006
At 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 ... [Continue reading this entry]

93: Bangkok Activities

Sunday, February 26th, 2006
I 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 ... [Continue reading this entry]

91: Thai Cooking Class Pics

Friday, February 24th, 2006
Look at that, the Chiang Mai Smart Cook School has put pictures from my Thai cooking course on their web page.. Pictures are here..

83: Catching up or the struggle to do so…

Thursday, February 23rd, 2006
Catching up with things uch as posting blogs and pictures is difficult since many things have happened since I last had time to properly blog and post picures in flickr. My blogs are supposed to be my travel diary though find ... [Continue reading this entry]

82: Could have been worse..

Thursday, February 23rd, 2006
I took the night train fro vientiane (Laos) to Bangkok (Thailand) which is a 12h trip by train plus another 2h prior to the train to get and cross the border from Vientiane. The trip was interesting in it's own ... [Continue reading this entry]

76: Off to Laos

Saturday, February 4th, 2006
At long last I'm off to Laos tomorrow. I will travel overland for 3 days to get to Luang Prabang, the old capital of Laos in the northern part. I will take a bus to the Thai-Laos Border near Chiang ... [Continue reading this entry]

75: Chaing Mai Flower Festival

Saturday, February 4th, 2006
Parades, Parades, Parades :-) Glad I stayed on til today, the Flower Festival Parade was worth seeing. Looked a bit like a Carnival Parade with lots of costumes, marching bands and flower cars .. Many dancing girls in traditional or madeup costumes and ... [Continue reading this entry]

74: Reassurance

Saturday, February 4th, 2006
You definitely know you are not at home when you stand in the bathroom in the morning and an Elephant trumpets outside your Hotel while you a brushing your teeth... 8-O Chiang Mai Flower Festival had started...