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Hello again from Koh Lanta - I say again cos I just wrote a really long update and manged to hit a button and the entire screen vanished along with my blog entry. Hmmm slightly annoying but hey ho.
I am so happy I don't know where to start :-) Koh Lanta is starting to get sunny now, the island is filling up with tourists, the dive boats are getting busier, the beaches have been cleaned and the waves are calmer and there is such a chilled atmosphere everywhere it's just so cool. I love it here.
So much has been going on since I last signed in. The bungalow is wicked, so cool. Gene has achieved more in one day off work than I did in 2 weeks of doing nothing when we first arrived. We have a personally designed bamboo shelf system created by Gene, a big TV and DVD and collection of movies to watch inclyding Entourage which is highly addictive! We have fairy lights, a balcony, cool Thai neighbours, a fab gay bar called Rosies at the top of the road with a fab owner called Rosie (funnily enough) who is adorable and looks out for us a lot.
But best of all - we have a kitten called Sayang which is Malaysian for 'Sweetheart' because it sums her up so well. She is SO cute :-) We went to Krabi a few weeks ago to get bits for the bungalow and ended up waiting for hours at the ferry terminal to come back to Koh Lanta....we wondered to the shops and out popped Sayang sitting sweetly while her brothers and sisters went mental around her. For me it was a must that we have her!!! I didn't think Gene would go for it but he started to sign the deal by saying she is adorable and if we get a kitten (speaking hypothetically at this point) it must be like her (as in healthy, full tail, gorgeous and cute). He then fully signed the deal by saying he had seen her before and fallen for her then. I think he knew at that point saying no to me wasn't really an option as I had developed the equivalent of 'puppy eyes' for Sayang and when he asked me if I wanted her there was no way I was saying no!!! So we got here home with us and haven't regretted it for a second!
She is mega cute though can be a total minx at the same time. Anna you will know what I mean from your kittens in New York a few years back. They have SO much energy....and the condition on which we got her was that I clear up all the mess etc and feed her and take care of her. All good. Until she got sick...and started going slightly mental and bleeding a lot. It was scary - I spent a day on a bus to Krabi with her totally not wanting to be in the basket and clawing at my chest and neck the entire way. I took her to the animal hospital and the boys there fell in love with her - they held her up in front of a picture of different cat breeds and insisted she was a Californian Speckled which apparently is a very good breed. Anyway it was hilarious after seeing the vet and being told she has to take loads of medicine to get better (this bit wasn't funny at all) - the only way back to where the minibus left was by motorbike. Imagine the scene - me with cat basket with wailing cat inside it on back of motorbike - her cheeks were full of air and looked like a cat on a rollercoaster you know how the air fills and pull syour cheeks apart!!! She just looked me in the eyes the whole way and made it perfectly clear she hated me immensely!!!! So funny. Bless her she soon recovered though and after the 4 hour trek back to Lanta was back to being soppy again.
I've completed my rescue course now so am officially a Rescue diver. The final scenarios that take place on the boat in front of all the customers were hilarious. You have to spot an unconscious diver at the bottom of the sea and bring him to the surface and give rescue breaths and CPR etc which was all fine and easy enough. But just as we finished dive number one and had sat down for lunch you could hear cries of HELP HELP HELP from the water at the front of the boat (not a small boat either). I had to jump in with snorkel and mask and bikini on and swim like hell to get to this guy just as he descended into the water with his scuba gear. Gene was watching and I spotted him and shouted quietly I thought "you laugh and you die' but apparently the whole boat heard - oops!! My partner then arrived and went down to get him while I kept an eye on his location etc from the surface. we got him to the surface, did rescue breaths etc...and then the fun began when we tried to get him on the boat - our victim was not a small man at all and we couldn't get him out!! After bruising my legs to b*****y (still there now 2 weeks on) we managed to get him on and bring him back to life. I later found out he had added 6 kilos of weight to his weight belt and had hidden an extra 4 kilos in his pockets so we wouldn't find it. b******!!! Very funny though.
So I started my Divemaster course on Tuesday of this week and am LOVING it so much. It's hard work and a lot to learn but it is really challenging and I am learning so much. So far I have done 2 dives with skills at bottom of sea including swimming upside down which I discovered I can't do. I can however swim the right way up, do a turn in the air and swim upside down through a plastic square. Cool. I managed to avoid seeing the banded sea snake (deadly) swimming between my legs while I sat on the sand waiting for my turn to swim....otherwise I would have been waiting for the others at the surface. What else....we've done skills in the pool a lot where we have to get good enough to demonstrate them underwater to student divers. That should be fun - not. I'm getting there. Today I had to give a 5 min presentation pretending I was telling my other DMT guys about this cool dive we were going to do in Borneo and what we would see and drawing a map etc. Then this pm I just finished my 800m snorkel test in the sea....I hate snorkelling but it was ok to be honest and I didn't get any waves break over my head whic was my main fear. I was slow though and only got 2 points out of 5...which means I need to get decent marks for my 400m swim test and 100m tired diver tow. I did the 15 min float the other day in the sea with the last 2 mins with my hands in the air - was easy as a girl but the guys on the course struggled a little. It's really good fun though and I am very excited... Next week we get to map a dive site and then assist the Instructors on various dives and student diver situations too.
What else....oh yeah Gene stood on a scorpion which scared the hell out of me, and has made me much more aware of walking bare foot outside here. I also heard the guys comment on seeing a cobra by the dive shop earlier today!! Great.
I had a motorbike lesson last week...hmmm...needless to say I am not worthy of being on the road just yet. My first attempt at pressing the break ended in me continuing to rev the bike and driving off the road at what felt like high speed but was only first gear. I am not in a hurry to learn anymore anytime soon. Mum have no fear I will not be on the roads until I feel 150% confident!!!!
That's about all I can remember at the moment. I am spending my one day off (this sunday) until 18th Nov sat on a minibus without air con doing a visa run to the Thai/Malay border. Fun hey! So if anyone wants to call me feel free - be great to hear from people.
Mum & Claire - I promise we will speak this weekend. Miss you both lots!!!
Take care everyone and keep in touch, I'll add photos soon I promise. xxxx
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