Despite his nationality, Jacques Cousteau knew what was up.
Four days, nine dives...good stuff. As some of you know, I'm STILL on Koh Tao, and very likely will be for the foreseeable future, save for visa runs. I've taken quite a liking to this diving thing. So far, I've been as deep as 32 meters and have done one night dive, in addition to several other dives. No more sea sickness to speak of, but there were a few dodgy moments (can you tell I've been hanging out with Brits?), what with the 3 meter swells yesterday afternoon; luckily I wasn't the one booting over the side. The visibility underwater hasn't been great, and we've had two rainy days, but being underwater is nonetheless amazing. I just completed my Advanced Open Water course, and will start my Rescue Diver course tomorrow. After that, I'm planning on beginning my Divemaster course, which will take me at least a month to complete. The Divemaster certification requires a minimum of sixty dives, and many schools encourage you to end the course shortly after you complete sixty dives (as all your diving is free while you're in the course). Ban's however, is very flexible, and I spoke with one instructor that did 250 dives in his Divemaster course.
In other news, I continue to be amazed by this country. It's stunningly beautiful when it's not raining, and even then it's not so bad. The one thing I'm not getting used to however is the heat. It was probably close to 90 today, and the humidity was very high...pretty much a normal day. The water temperature is in the low 80s on the surface, and in the high 70s on the bottom. Since I'm in a room without AC, it's a relief that my bathroom doesn't have hot water. Whoever though one would look forward to a cold shower? Sadly, the relief doesn't last long with a room that's 80 degrees; perhaps that's why I look forward to getting into the water every day.
Oh, I guess there's two things I can't really get used to...the food. Try as I might, I can't really get myself to a point where I'm looking forward to eating Thai food. I've found certain dishes that are quite good (I'll surely miss the chicken skewers and pancakes-not at the same time-from the street vendors when I'm gone), but I feel like I'm cheating myself by just ordering the same thing night after night; it does give the waiters a good laugh though. Most of the time when I feel adventurous with the menu, I end up feeling hungry after the dish is served. I don't mean to disparage Thai food, as I'm clearly in the minority, even among westerners. I'm sure the more time I spend here, the more I'll find to enjoy. For now, I'm quite happy that it's easy enough to find a cheeseburger, Snickers bar, or pack of Oreos when I feel like it.
That's about it for now. I hope everyone is enjoying the fall; I'll admit I'm a little sad that I won't get to see the leaves change this year. That said, I do get to swim with reef sharks and barracuda, so I guess it all evens out in the end.
In other news, I continue to be amazed by this country. It's stunningly beautiful when it's not raining, and even then it's not so bad. The one thing I'm not getting used to however is the heat. It was probably close to 90 today, and the humidity was very high...pretty much a normal day. The water temperature is in the low 80s on the surface, and in the high 70s on the bottom. Since I'm in a room without AC, it's a relief that my bathroom doesn't have hot water. Whoever though one would look forward to a cold shower? Sadly, the relief doesn't last long with a room that's 80 degrees; perhaps that's why I look forward to getting into the water every day.
Oh, I guess there's two things I can't really get used to...the food. Try as I might, I can't really get myself to a point where I'm looking forward to eating Thai food. I've found certain dishes that are quite good (I'll surely miss the chicken skewers and pancakes-not at the same time-from the street vendors when I'm gone), but I feel like I'm cheating myself by just ordering the same thing night after night; it does give the waiters a good laugh though. Most of the time when I feel adventurous with the menu, I end up feeling hungry after the dish is served. I don't mean to disparage Thai food, as I'm clearly in the minority, even among westerners. I'm sure the more time I spend here, the more I'll find to enjoy. For now, I'm quite happy that it's easy enough to find a cheeseburger, Snickers bar, or pack of Oreos when I feel like it.
That's about it for now. I hope everyone is enjoying the fall; I'll admit I'm a little sad that I won't get to see the leaves change this year. That said, I do get to swim with reef sharks and barracuda, so I guess it all evens out in the end.
posted by MPW at 6:00 PM
4 Comments:
Not leaving??? I hope she is cute!!
Eh - it's starting to get cold stateside, so enjoy the heat! And after the leaves turn, they fall, and you just have to rake them up.
-Noggy/Duke Duke
Awesome trip so far it seems. I have a number of friends who are super hooked on diving. I've managed to skirt the adventure as I know it will lead to nothing cheap for me. It seems what you are doing is the way to go to dive. FAR cheaper than anything around these parts.
It's funny we had a DiveMaster General position in our fraternity. Did have much to do with water though, just going under. :)
Son of a....
That was me, Jake. Not taht it makes a lot of difference. BTW. We'll miss you at VIR this weekend. :) Dave just picked up the 3/4ton suburban yesterday so he'll be towing his car. At least I get to cram all my stuff in the truck.
Next step. Enclosed trailer. :) No more tents!
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