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Right, so I finally left phi phi with a huge smile on my face as I was sick to death of the place. Got the ferry nice and early, with the sun beaming and the sea calm. Good start, I thought. The boat was packed so as soon as we reached the pier near patong, it was pure chaos. Eventually I squeezed myself into a minibus heading for kata beach, which ended up being a good hour away. Compared to the cramped busy streets of phi phi, kata was bright open and fresh. There were quiet areas to escape to and good bars if you wanted to be social.
The place I stayed in was called rumblefish diving centre and it was amazing!!! I went there due to the good reviews on hostel world as I heard it was a good hostel whether you were diving or not. It was clean, comfortable and the people there, both staff and fellow travellers, were friendly and welcoming. The day I got there I looked into doing the open water diving course, mainly out of curiosity. Next thing I knew I had paid for the course and I had a divers manual to study before being tested. And I had to do it all in 2days. that night, 2 of the girls from phi phi came over and stayed I the dorm so it was nice to have some company.
The first day was 3 hours in the pool just getting used to the equipment and doing several emergency procedures underwater. Then, after some good padthai, we did two beach dives, the first with a couple who wanted a taster dive, and the second just one-on-one with the instructor. The visibility wasn't great so I didn't see to much but we caught glimpses of lion fish and scorpion fish. I had found my favourite new (and expensive) hobby. That night I went over some section questions in the book and I was so tired I hit the sack early.
Day2 of diving and I got up nice an early for a boat dive, off a small island an hour away from kata. I got kitted up and we headed off down the pier with 2 other experienced divers and another open water learner from Italy. It was incredible!! The water was so clear and it made it so much less stressful when you were under. We lost a mask within the 1st 5minutes if being in the water but other than that i was in my element. The corals, the genuine and artificial, took my breath away. We saw puffer fish, moray eels, and rays. Could've stayed there all day but this little thing called air stopped us so we eventually came back up and made our way back. Passed my exam, followed by an awesome night of watching football and drinking which is when I decided I didn't want to leave. Stayed an extra night to be able to chill out another day and get a massage and do a bit of shopping before going down to Malaysia. It also meant staying with my friends for an extra night as they were leaving the day after. So I booked my flight for the day after (having bought another ticket) and organised my taxi to the airport. When it came to leaving I was gutted as I didn't want to go. You never know, I could go back one day.
Arrived at the airport on the 18th January in good time, checked in my bag, and settled down in the departure lounge all ready to go back to Malaysia. That's when all the trouble began.
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