And here I am, back in Khao Lak, after the longest trip EVER. Eleven hours from Brazil to NYC, to hang out at the Debre-Foster family household for a couple of days. Then another 16 hours from NYC to Hong Kong (went over the top of the world, literally, which was quite cool!), then another 4 hours from Hong Kong to Phuket, and a little over an hour by car from Phuket to Khao Lak. Four days later and I'm still jet-lagged. My body has no idea what is going on, I go to sleep at 8pm and wake up at 3am. But all in all, I'm happy to be back, happy to be here. This is exactly where I'm supposed to be...
Life in Khao Lak is nice and quiet. It was good to meet up with Koen again after six months and to meet his girlfriend, Ploy. We've already gone through most of the theory, what the course will be like, and what's expected of me. I've also met everybody from the Similan Seven Sea Club office, which is where Koen works and where I'm doing my divemaster training. Other than that, I've met a couple of new people, caught up with some old friends (including Andy over at Walker's Inn), and just basically chilled out. Khao Lak is small, you can pretty much cross the whole thing in about 20 minutes of slow walking. There's not much to do, and I like it that way. A normal day consists of heading down to Surf Drinks for breakfast, hanging out and chatting to people, going through some theory, having some more food, going out for a couple of drinks and heading back home. I haven't seen a television in days, much less turned one on. I've caught up with my reading, and am slowly catching up with my sleep and getting over my jet lag.
I also bought a full new set of equipment, and can't wait to try it out. New BCD, regulator, fins, and most important, a new dive computer! It's so pretty :-) Also got a transmitter thrown in the deal for free, which can be connected to the first stage and tells me how much air I have right on my computer. Nifty. I spent the day at the shop putting it all together, testing everything out on a baby tank. Felt like Christmas :-) The only things that aren't new are my mask, snorkel, boots and SMB. I've basically spent all my money, but who cares? The whole point was to finally be able to get comfortable with my diving equipment, so I don't have to worry about what goes where and how quickly the BCD inflates and deflates, things like that. Plus, it looks so shiny!
Tomorrow we leave for my first liveaboard of the season, four days and four nights on the Peter Pan. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I haven't dived since Malta, and that was back in early August. This is the longest I've been out of the water since I began diving, and I can't understand how people manage to stay dry for months and months between dive trips... I can't wait to get back in the water :-) Richelieu Rock, here I come!
Life in Khao Lak is nice and quiet. It was good to meet up with Koen again after six months and to meet his girlfriend, Ploy. We've already gone through most of the theory, what the course will be like, and what's expected of me. I've also met everybody from the Similan Seven Sea Club office, which is where Koen works and where I'm doing my divemaster training. Other than that, I've met a couple of new people, caught up with some old friends (including Andy over at Walker's Inn), and just basically chilled out. Khao Lak is small, you can pretty much cross the whole thing in about 20 minutes of slow walking. There's not much to do, and I like it that way. A normal day consists of heading down to Surf Drinks for breakfast, hanging out and chatting to people, going through some theory, having some more food, going out for a couple of drinks and heading back home. I haven't seen a television in days, much less turned one on. I've caught up with my reading, and am slowly catching up with my sleep and getting over my jet lag.
I also bought a full new set of equipment, and can't wait to try it out. New BCD, regulator, fins, and most important, a new dive computer! It's so pretty :-) Also got a transmitter thrown in the deal for free, which can be connected to the first stage and tells me how much air I have right on my computer. Nifty. I spent the day at the shop putting it all together, testing everything out on a baby tank. Felt like Christmas :-) The only things that aren't new are my mask, snorkel, boots and SMB. I've basically spent all my money, but who cares? The whole point was to finally be able to get comfortable with my diving equipment, so I don't have to worry about what goes where and how quickly the BCD inflates and deflates, things like that. Plus, it looks so shiny!
Tomorrow we leave for my first liveaboard of the season, four days and four nights on the Peter Pan. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I haven't dived since Malta, and that was back in early August. This is the longest I've been out of the water since I began diving, and I can't understand how people manage to stay dry for months and months between dive trips... I can't wait to get back in the water :-) Richelieu Rock, here I come!
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