12th March 2011

Yesterday, while we were diving Mae Haad reef, one of Crystals dive boats went to Chumphon Pinnacle, and saw 2 whalesharks!!!

So this morning, in the hope that they were still hanging around, the boat returned there fully packed with 60 divers including us.



The conditions were not too calm, the sea was rolling well... and after a 45 minute choppy journey, we arrived at the dive site.



Needless to say, no whalesharks appeared, but we saw a decent size school of big boy barracudas.. cool! Once everyone had returned from the dive, we went to White Rock. The journey to White Rock was even choppier! Jen struggled, not quite having her sea legs yet.... but made it.



White Rock was uneventful, some nudibranchs, angelfish, and a sting ray... but Jens camera leaked a little so we spent most of the time worrying about that.. Once back on the boat, we removed the camera and dried everything out... luckily its all okay..

Speaking of things breaking, the throttle cable on the bike snapped last night... so I had to take that to a mechanic in the afternoon... so we are without vehicle at the mo..

We spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing, then at 7pm, Jen went to a clothes swap party with Tracy, and I chatted to Carsten at the Crystal Bar.

Tomorrow, Jen starts an Open Water Course! It was a bit of a surprise to get one so quickly... but great...

x

SD

11th March 2011

After a terrible nights sleep for some reason or another, we headed down to Crystal around 8.30am, ordered breakfast and met up with Nathan and some Marine Biology students over from Koh Phangan.

This morning, we dove Mae Haad reef, off the longtail and assisted in putting down some 5metre cross transects. This didn’t take long at all so, Simon, Nathan and I left the group and swam over to Junk Yard to see what additions had been made and to see the Sea Hares (really large Nudi branchs/sea slugs) which have appeared in the last couple of months due to the abundance of algae growing on the sea bed. It didn’t take long before I spotted one ..oh my goodness, I wasn’t expecting them to be so big. It was about the size of my fist.

Apparently the numbers have declined in the last month but I think we saw at least half a dozen of them on the dive. Apart from the new sea life, puffa’s , batfish to name but a few, the coral nursary’s we’d put down before we left, are doing extremely well. I think we’ll soon be doing some transplanting!!

After a 65 minute dive, we headed back in to shore, washed out kit and went home for a shower. I had intentions of mailing people but promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours while Si did some UK work.

Around 7pm, we met the Crystal crew and started dance rehearsals which went pretty well seeing we’ve missed 3 sessions ..as I think we’ve mentioned it’s a medley of the Village People tracks ..really annoying when you’re humming them whilst diving ;-D

Rehearsal over and done with, we headed out for food and beer to the ‘soft’ opening (I suppose that means, not quite finished) of ‘Vibe Lounge" ...which used to be Dirty Nellys but is now under new ownership. ‘VIBE’ used to be a cool beach bar down in Sairee but had to close do to landlord issues .. anyway.. a few drinks later it was bed for an early nite..

x

Jen

10th March 2011

After a 13 hour solid sleep, we woke feeling pretty refreshed,

We started the morning, with a swim in the hotel pool and then headed to Zest for breakfast. 2 Cappuchino coffees and some scrambled eggs on toast and we were off to the dive school. We grabbed our kit bags and got ready to jump straight back on the Eco wagon.

Nathan, and a few of his students, were heading out on Crystal 1 (the smallest of the fleet, beside the longtail) to Hin Fai (Bio-Rock) to mark some 1 metre square quadrants and some settlement plates for a study a university on the mainland has created.

Being back in the water was bliss, and no equalising issues... which is great news.



Two dives later and we were back at shore.... a quick change of clothes and straight to dinner. Jenny had a Thai Jungle Curry, a spicy soup kinda thing, I had Pad Thai Tofu.

After munching through a tasty dinner, we headed over to Nathans house to catch up on the dance moves for the Underwater festival in a couple of weeks. We ended up just gassing and drinking Green Tea... but rehearsals are tomorrow, so Jen and I need to keep up as we have missed out on 3 sessions!

Before bed, we nipped to Crystal for a quick drink and to meet up with people we hadn't caught up with... another early night! Nice!

x

SD

9th March 2011

So folks... Now I am awake finally... I can update the post.!

At Bangkok airport, we went to bed, and both were awake at 1:30am... Jen stayed awake watching naff movies until 4am, and I stayed up messing with the internet, seeing if I could get BBC iplayer to work outside of the UK.. I did, so Jen will be happy to keep up with all the Eastenders stuff.

At 7am I woke Jen with a cuppa, and we had breakfast before shooting back to the airport for our domestic flight to Surat Thani (southern province).


On the short flight to Surat, we were served with sandwiches.. mine were veggie of course, and a very strange mixture of cream, green beans, and carrots... needless to say, I left it.

Landing at Surat Thani, we were going to get the bus to the town centre, but it was pretty full, and we were not travelling light, so got a cab.

20 mins later and we were at the ferry. We bought at tickets, and starting thinking what to do for 12 hours, before the boat left.

Surat Thani is a town that supplies the islands with various food, building materials, bikes etc. So shopping here was not very fun... we stopped after an hour as there was nothing to see. I then had my hair shaved at a barbers and we returned to the boat, to watch the loading of cargo on the boat.. its amazing how much they fit on.




The waiting around was tedious, Jen bought some fruit from a market stall, I bought a couple of beers, we watched Monday's episode of Eastenders.. snoozed... that was it.



Eventually, 11pm had arrived, and the boat started off. Most people went to sleep. I watched a couple of films, snoozed a little, and watched the sunrise from the back of the boat. The journey got quite choppy for a couple of hours, but thankfully, no one was sick.

So, we arrived on Koh Tao!! YAY! 3 days of travel and we were shattered... and still wearing the same clothes (Yuck!)..

We caught a taxi to the Koh Tao Regal hotel (sounds better than it is) and got showered and changed. Then hit the pool for some exercise. Then off to Zest for breakfast, and meet Nathan and family. Lots of chit chat later, Nathan gave me a lift to pick up my motorbike...

It would not start, and I pushed the bike to the nearest mechanic... knackering!. The mechanic checked and noticed there was no fuel !!! It must have either leaked, or evaporated... who knows... anyway... a little while later, and my bike is running.

Returning to Jen, we had a couple of hours snooze and head out to dinner.. just a quick Thai bite.. which was delicious.. Jen had Pork and Ginger.. I had Tofu Red Curry.. both meals were very good.

Off to the Crystal bar, for a quick hello... and we retired for a 13 hour kip.... I need it.

7th March 2011 - The Journey Back

So, slighty over 3 months after arriving back in the UK, we left the farm on the sunniest day since we had returned... was the bad weather following us or something??!

We were dropped at Heathrow by Charles and Rosie (thanks guys!) and after a slightly tearful farewell by the two sisters, we checked in.

14 hours later, we arrived at Bangkok airport, and after a bit of wandering around, we found the shuttle bus to the hotel.

After check in, we went to our room, and I immediately got on the internet to sort some work stuff out, while Jen went to the gym (good girl!). We both met at the pool bar, before going back to our room, showering, and sitting in our dressing gowns.

Jenny wrote an email to her sis, and then we hit the hay ready for another flight in the morning.

10th February 2011

Today was the final visit to the hospital to discover the results of the CT scans.

Upon arrival, we waited patiently, and nervously! Eventually, we were ushered into the top dog.. My 1st thoughts were "Uh Oh, looks like he will discuss surgery..." but he told me that I was not in need of surgery!!

We went through the CT scans, looking at my brain (which is apparently quite low in my head!) and airspaces throughout the skull. I have pretty large frontal sinuses and no permanent damage from the reverse block suffered last year. I do however have a significant size polyp in my maxillary sinus (cheek area) which is big, but not causing equalisation issues.

So, to cut all the jargon short. I will have to take a nasal spray for a few months and see how the climate affects me in Thailand. With the weather and geographical location here, it exacerbated my symptoms, so theorectically... some warm sun and sea should do me the world of good.

So, plans are afoot.... more we have confirmed exact dates...!!!

x

SD

3rd February 2011 - The Chamber

Well, the day had come to test myself.

I only had 1 week remaining before visiting the specialist, and having a feeling that the news would not be good, the only way I could prove it to myself was to do a "dry dive" inside a Hyperbaric chamber.

It just so happens, that I knew of the London Diving Chamber, buried deep inside St Johns and Elizabeth hospital in North West London, and booked it up a week ago.

Jen and I hopped on the train, and after a couple of hours we were standing in the reception. Being nearly an hour early, we waited around for a while for the remaining 4 people to turn up. The operators put on some DVDs (ones that I had made! Strange coincidence!). While we were waiting, the usual dive medical forms came out.


At this point I would like to stress that I would strongly NOT recommend that anyone follows this as advice. Please be truthful on dive medicals.... my circumstance was a little different and I certainly was aware of the risk I was taking doing this.

At least 5 of the questions had me thinking YES, for example, "Are you on medication?" , "Do you have problems with your sinuses?" etc. Knowing that answering YES to any questions would mean disqualification from the dive, I chose NO. I realise this could have had serious implications for my health... but my thinking was this..... What better way to test your diving fitness than in a dry enviroment inside a hospital.... far safer than the ocean!




So, medical declarations over, we changed into our scrubs (blue hospital uniforms) and were briefed about our depth, bottom time etc. We also did a timed test to circle as many of the letter "L" on a piece of paper... this would be compared to a test that we would do at 50m.

So... anxious.... I stepped into the chamber with Jen and 4 other dudes....



Ear defenders on, we the chamber started to pressurise... Initally, the discomfort was evident.. Equalisation without water is far more difficult. Everybody, not just me, was equalising like crazy... It was very hard on the ears and after literally dozens and dozens of equalisations and what felt like an age... we were at 10m.! What an effort that was!

Anyway, after everybody gave the ok, the pressurisation continued, with the equalising getting less and less intense. All was okay, until I hit 42m.... then the I ran into a Narcosis brick wall...

For non divers, see here for an explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_narcosis

I was feeling slightly panicky, nauseous, my lips were numb.... but focus focus focus was what I was telling myself. We finally hit the 50m mark, and I was glad... the feelings would not get any stronger. Then someone spoke... and due to the pressure... it sounded like a squeaky mouse... That made everyone burst out laughing, and took my anxiety away immediately.

We completed another timed test, while laughing, and then the supervisor started to ask questions about Boyles Law... the guy next to me (the geekiest guy I have ever seen) spoke in a ridiculous voice with the most scientific answer ever... Jen looked straight at him and burst out laughing again... very amusing.

Just before heading back up, the guy threw a plastic cup in the air, and we watched in amazement as it slowly fell to the ground (due to the air being so dense).

So, bottom time over, it was time to go up...

Because of the air density, it was very hot, but as we ascended on our way back to 12m, the air began to become less dense... it got very misty... and bloody cold!

At 12m we put on oxygen masks and breathed 100% O2 for a few minutes as part of the staged decompression schedule, then up to 9m and more breathing O2. Finally, up to 6m and breathing normal air.

Although my ears were squeaky, the air escaped and no symptoms showed. This is good information that I can show the specialist on Thursday.

Post dive, Jen and I went to a very nice (and cheap!) Mexican restaurant called Lupita (near Embankment)... I would definately recommend it..... especially those gorgeous Mojitos... perfect for apres dive!

Roll on the specialist on the 10th of Feb and then plans can be made.!

Much love

SD