13/04/2010
Wow, its been two weeks since my last update, I cant believe how quickly the time goes when you are doing nothing  Katy and I are set up in our little bungalow on Koh Pha Ngan island and i am so settled i even bought a hammock for the verandah. So much has happened in the last 10 days or so. I have completed my PADI dive qualification and 4 open water dives in water so warm it was like taking a bath. I saw moray eels and clown fish and zebra fish and even a massive trigger fish. I hated the course as it re-inforced my fear of water but now that it is over i feel a little safer in the ocean and a little more in control. Katy spent two days learning how to make silver jewellery including stone setting and moulding the silver from scratch. She has created some beautiful things. We have been eating out alot as the food and drink bill each night is less than £7.5 each, well within our budget. There are no real laws here about motorbikes and so i’ve hired a scooter and we use this to get around the island. Not a problem as it’s much easier to drive than my old 750cc Suzuki and we are both wearing helmets and i’m driving slowly (the BP health and safety police would love me). Today was fun as its Thai new year and the tradition is to take the day off, wear red and white paint and then to drive around soaking anybody you can find. We bought a water pistol in the shop and i drove us slowly around the island while Katy soaked every person she could find. We drew the limit at soaking a little baby in a pram but managed to sneak up on a whole bunch of Thais soaking people from a truck and got them as we went past. We laughed alot today. Ended up by going to the beach as we were so wet we might as well swim anyway. Katy tried out some ear candles to see if it helped with her ear crackling but apart from shooting flames into the air for 10 minutes they didn’t seem to do much good. Looking forward to taking a Thai cookery class later this week and maybe a visit to the Ang Thong National Park (if i can find time to fit it in between snoozes). Love to all. X