Good afternoon from ko phi phi and good morning to the uk (about 5am uk time).
First of all I must address the grammar issues addressed by some in my blog. I blame this first of all to my more basic iPhone and the annoying autocorrect on this blog site, also I often write when I have a beer in hand. I will strive to address the issues of course for any few that continue to follow my adventures.
Anyway enough of that. I am catching up on my blog from Monday to Wednesday, I would love to say I know the dates but it's easy to forget when your away. These 3 days have actually been really hard work and very stressful. This is due to the fact that Tina and I paid to do our 3 day padi open water scuba diving course. Like any Tarantino film I will give you the ending before telling the tale, we both passed yesterday which is a right touch!
All the days consisted of paper exams and tests. I was probably slightly naive to think these would consist of just jump in there, have a swim about and then say what fish you saw. Obviously not the case, had to calculate depths with surface time (how long you should spend out of the Water before diving again), pressure as you go deeper, nitrogen in the body and so on. I actually felt like I was back at school revising for exams. It also doesnt help your nerves when you have A-star student Tina thriving on this. It's like when you are doing an exam and you are sat next to someone who finishes about half and hour earlier than you and you can't work out why you are so slow. Nonetheless the fact that I didn't touch a Chang beer for 3 days and had early nights meant we passed the exam (just let you know before I checked this autocorrect had the sentence as 'I didn't touch a Chang beer for 3 sausages').
The dives themselves started initially in 'confined water dives' which is basically near shore in about 3 metres depth practicing using your lungs to maintain buoyancy. Other such things as removing your mask under depth and putting it back and clearing it. The scuba jacket itself had so many gadgets it felt like I was batman of the seas and we had to learn how to set it all up and put it back together. Our instructor was a French guy called misha, who looked like a surfer dude or the caveman from California man but was very good with us.
Day 2 consisted of going into depths of 12 metres where we carried out all of these skills in open water and the sea bottom. Unfortunately for me the 7am start mean I dressed quickly and when it came to putting on my wet suit I had to strip to boxers. Nothing quite as liberating as walking around a busy dive boat with just boxers on trying to take things seriously. Anyway we go to see hawksbill turtles, morray eels, various fish and coral. It's difficult to enjoy the dive though when you are constantly preparing on the instructor giving you a signal (which I could never remember) and then you had to carry out a procedure. Anyone that knows me knows that I don't do well at being told what to do or carrying out the instructions to the letter but we got through. We were shattered after the 2 dives but had to watch a video after for further learning. I fell asleep midway which didn't help bit to my defence it was an American made video which as you can imagine was way over the top. They made sweeping statements like- "Fact= people who dive have more fun than regular people". What nonsense, I felt if it was an English video it would say "Fact- Ipswich fans have more fun, than regular people", now that's a real fact!
Anyway the last day we had 2 dives to complete at 18metres with things like following directions with a compass underwater (I know Ed or moss maybe surprised I passed this given that I can't even direct most people to coddenham), taking the scuba gear off and back on and hovering underwater (david Blaine has nothing on me with this skill). The last dive i was told we
Would be going to 18 metres with black tip reef sharks. Just say I need my nerves, I instantly wanted to visit the toilet but sadly it's an empty hole to the sea, meaning anything I put in everyone would see coming out of the side of the boat. I held my nerves despite the jaws music suddenly becoming a theme in my head. We did the dive well and after a while I became more calm and enjoyed seeing the sharks. I still don't like the signal for sharks underwater which is a fellow diver putting hands to his eyes to signal look then putting hand to his head ina shark fin position. I in return wanted to signal to my bottom and then a flushing toilet motion but I though it maybe lost in an Anglo-French way.
All dives were completed and we were advised while floating on the surface (still in shark waters) that we had passed. I saved my high 5's and splashing about until we got away from shark waters. We both had a huge sense of relief and we are now qualified to dive around the world. My first real license, I should have asked him if he did driving licenses but I would probably only mean I could drive tuks tuks.
Anyway we were supposed to go out on a big one after but was so tired slept most of it. Missed out on seeing an instructor become a divemaster. They have to a drink which is basically a large snorkel from the 2nd floor of a bar down to the 1st floor where he sits. They then fill it with all different spirits, tobasco etc.. And they have to drink it, brutal! I did wonder if this could possibly be a new thing in the coddenham county club when I get back though. Moss and Ed I'll leave you To set things up for my return.
We have got some underwater pictures and really nice pictures but Tina is waiting to get them onto here so I'll keep you posted.
Moss I need more information than Ipswich are s***, I expect proper match reports.
Anyway moving to railay today on a boat for a couple of days under Chris marais recommendation so looking for some chilled days on the beach.
Robbie c out for now.