More Shark Fun

(written on 01/09/09, posted on 13/10/09)

Wake up late, well...later than my recent 6am forays out of bed. I’d planned to have a day off and go up to the viewpoint. But it’s cloudy. The weather hasn’t been great since I got here. Everyday people tell me not to go to Koh Tao as the diving is better here. Some of the bigger dive sites are closed due to the season but it does seem great here and I’ve loved every day. Other divers tell me Koh Tao is dull. Apparently there is lots of sand and not a lot of coral or variety in the sites. If I want to leave it has to be soon although I’m being kept here by great diving and I can’t say I mind!

As it’s cloudy and I ordered a dive computer I go and book more dives in for this afternoon. I go back later and I’m rewarded. A new instructor, another B, tells us that if we find a Leopard Shark on the sea bed we’ll creep around behind it and do an army crawl slowly to get closer to its side. This is exactly what happens and we as we do this, we’re maybe 1m within touching distance. I can see everyone grinning. On our second dive, B points out a Black Tip. As I’m at the back this time I miss it. I keep turning around in case it heads back round the opposite reef. It does and I’m rewarded by a 6 foot Shark swimming past. I’m now beyond chuffed.

As I have my dive computer and don’t seem to be going anywhere fast, I stick myself down for the three deep dives tomorrow. As they say in this part of the world, ‘Why not?!’

Naked Expats and moving swiftly on...

(written 28/08/09, posted 06/10/09)

R gets up at 6.30am due to spending the whole day yesterday asleep on the bus. She tells me one of the other guests has been wondering around unashamedly naked. I go cautiously to the showers and see a man now in a loincloth. It’s M from Somerset, who’s been in early retirement in Thailand forever. We get chatting to him and he’s lovely and enjoying being aimless. May move on soon, may not.

For some reason I’m excited this morning. I think it’s the prospect of my last two weeks on a beach and I’m hankering after some time alone too. R goes off to buy shoes and I need to back up photos. Again. On the net I find out another reason to be excited, my VSO placement in Delhi has been confirmed! After a failed placement, an semi-offer that wasn’t suitable, one delay due to visas in what is essentially a run of bad luck, I now have a bona-fide confirmation with leaving date. Woohoo!

R and I have beers over lunch to celebrate before we part ways. I’m sad to leave her as I reckon we’d have lots of fun. Time to go though…ferry it is. Raining out on the sea which comes as no surprise. Phi Phi looks great when the ferry docks. A tiny set of alleys where the locals and tourists mi together. I find a bungalow which has been my little dream so I head off down the narrow, car-less streets in search of one. I reach the beach on the other side in a few minutes which confirms for me how small this island is. Bungalow sorted, I unpack and within two hours have eaten, had beers and booked diving for tomorrow. I couldn't walk past all these diving shops without stopping. I'm very excited so go to bed early to prepare for my first dive in over a year.