Blog Number 4, in which Ben mets up with old friends, passes his diving exam and steals a cat........ I arrive in Krabi and look forward to 4 days of beach and chilling out. I find a nice hotel with am excelent view of the sea and rocks pininculars coming out in the distance and it has hot water, air con, fridge and a tv. It was well deserved and a nice treat. I'm not going to bore you with any details here cos I really did nothing of any excitement just chilled out. Which is what i needed before getting the Ferry to Koh Samui. i got picked up at 10.20 - 20 minutes late and im starting to think i'm going to miss my bus. The bloke pulls up in an open backed taxi so i thought it would be nice if i sat in the back and enjoyed the scenery as we made our way to the bus terminal. I couldn't have enjoyed it less and he was driving so fast and over taking on the other side of the road around corners, I honestly thought I was going to die. I had enough of this bloke and slapped on the side of the taxi to tell him to slow down. he cheerily told me that we was running late and that he didnt want me to miss the bus, but i shouted 'thats fine mate but i would like to get there if one F'ing piece !! We arrive unhurt at the bus terminal and I have a 3 1/2 hour journey infront of me on a bus which has a colour scheme straight out of what I can only describe as a LSD Sycodelic nightmare (not that I have ever done any LSD, i had to point that out). I get through the journey and then board the Ferry. Another hour and a half journey and i arrive in Koh Samui to be met by an Old Friend Steve. Its great to see him again after about 18 years but we get on well straight away and its just like old times. We go to his mates place and i check in and then go out in Cheweng. Its a lively town and we meet some of his mates and it all gets a bit messy, I say a bit I mean very messy !! Good night though. The next few days after that are a blur as we kept drinking and then I move on to beach just down the road where more of my friends are staying. I use to work with Simon and Claire at Northern Trust and have always keep in touch. We leave Koh Samui and head up to Koh Tao where we spend 10 days taking our P.A.D.I diving course and our advanced. The diving was fantastic and the coral and the fish were quality. We swam with so many different kinds of fish. Barracuda, trigger fish and clown fish but the best part was on the last dive. There had been reports of bull sharks at a dive site 11k's off of Koh Tao so we headed there and because we was advanced diveres we could go down to 30 metres. The visability was about 20 metres so that was good. We decended and knelt on the bottom. All of a sudden out the merky water 20 metres away comes the biggest thing I have see in my life. Its a 3 metre bull shark. It cruises past us about 2 metres away and disappears then a smaller one passes and my heart is racing. there is one thing seeing a shark in a aquarium but being this close to a huge sahrk gets the old heart racing and the bum squeeking aswell ! Bull Sharks are known maneaters and are known to be more aggressive than great whites but I didnt even thing about this at the time. I saw a cuttle fish so started swimming towards it and went about 10 yeards away from my group, all of a sudden the cuttlefish left in a hast and I thought I had scared it off.....No. What happened was that it spotted a huge shark heading straight towards us both. I stopped dead in my tracks and this shark is heading straight for me. It gets to about 8 metres away sees a fish abouve is and with a flick of its tail it shoots up misses the fish but turns around and heads into the murky water again. We have been on the bottom for our alloted time and have to assend. What an experience and I have definatly got the bug for diving!! That night we all go for dinner with one of the instructors and he notices that there is a cat that belongs to the dive school down the road and they had stole it a few weeks earlier. With that Dave the instructor talks to the waiters and makes a diversion while I walk out with the cat. If Rolf Harris had seen the act of saving this cat and returning it to its rightful owner I would have definatly got a mention on Animal Hospital or if there was a grown up Cubs i would have got a badge for it. Anyway I had made a friend in the cat cos i fed him the next day aswell. I saw him a few hours later and he tried to bite me........end of friendship !! f***ing thing !! I needed a haircut a few days later and got one of the Thai lads to take me to a hairdressers. It was I can only describe as a mecanics office, there was a scooter engine and a lawn mower engine all across the floor and in the middle a hairdressers chair. I couldnt see a qualification from The Ware College of Hair and Beauty but I gave it go. Its not the best hair cut I ever had but it was not a bad effort ! The full moon party was amazing. 8,000 people all on the beach dancing and drinking buckets untill 5am and the hangover the next day was a heavy one. Over the next few weeks I retraced my steps back through Thailand and flew out of Phuket to Singapore, then Singapore to Brisbane and the had to fly from Brisbane to Cairns all in one day. It was a bit of a mission but at Brisbane airport I had Steve Irwins Dad Bob standing behind me when we was queing to board our connecting flight. I immediatley recognised him from the programes and turned round said hello and had a chat with him. He is a top lad and had a photo with him so that was good. Also went on a day trip to Cape Tribulation and saw giant fruit Bats and there was a french group on the bus. One of the french women looked like Jims Dad off of American Pie. Probably one of the best look a likes I have ever seen. Pictures on Facebook very soon Well thats it for now. Im on Magnetic Island at the moment and went out into the hills yesterday and saw a wild Koala. Next Stop Airlee Beach and the Witsundays Island and a two days cruise on a boat. Im sorry i havent been upload any more phots on here but the internets connections are so slow that it keeps failing. Check out Facebook for the time being and I will keep trying. Hope everyone is well. Ben