29th November 2012

Well well well....

Both of us completed our courses... and got to have a day off!!!  Its a good thing for me really as I have barely been out of the water this whole month.  My foot rot has returned (although at the moment, it is under control and no where near as bad as before)... 

The rain is still continuing... its bleak, damp, cold and miserable... Nothing is dry... the smell of damp is everywhere.... welcome to Monsoon...

The first lightning storm came this morning, with a big whopping bang, which sent Jen diving for cover... quite amusing !

So, the day will be spent watching Eastenders episodes and doing UK work... while trying to keep my foot dry... maybe I'll do some xmas shopping too..!

x

SD

27th November 2012

Hello guys.... We are not ignoring you!

Apart from working back to back courses, we are also in the middle of a wicked Monsoon...  It has not stopped raining for over 7 days... Everything is wet......

The rain has caused issues with power and also internet, so bear with us..!


Much Love

x

SD

17th November 2012

It took us 2 days to get back to Koh Tao, arriving back on the afternoon of the 13th.

No rest from the travel, both of us were called in to work immediately. I had 20 minutes notice before having to jump into the the pool and teach people I had not previously met.

A very long and tough pool session, with one person dropping out due to panicking every 30 seconds... it left me feeling pretty low.

The next couple of days taken up with Open Water dives with the remaining students also was tough... especially when one of the students (hungover) decide to bring up his breakfast forcing me to end the dive early...

The course was completed last night, and Jen finishes hers today. I would like to chill out but sadly I am being roped into so many things with UK work, diving, and eco stuff... that I can't imagine a rest for the next couple of weeks...

But, we only have just under 4 weeks before a nice UK visit.... which I think we are both looking forward to.... the only one getting some chill time, is the cat that visits us.... not sure what it was listening to though!

11th November 2012

We did not have any internet for the past couple of days, so I shall have to recap the rest of our vacation....

More diving, every day of course.. Seeing a range of different marine life and having plenty of fun..

The island is quite basic, and the only option other than the horse and cart taxi is a bicycle.. Mine was especially retarded!

There is very little in the way of lights once you come away from the beach, so its quite handy to carry a torch as the bikes don't come with any lights at all. The torch is important because of the extremely large potholes that will swallow you up if you don't spot them.

One night, we managed to get lost and instead of a 10 minute bike ride to our villa, it took us an hour and a half to finally locate our place... after riding around half of the island... Believe me, I was not the happiest bunny... my broken toe still hurts and was bloody sore after that... so was my butt seeing as the bike suspension is non existent!

We met up with some friends from Koh Tao who have moved here.. Jace and Nick were videographers on Koh Tao, and now they are the only ones on this island.. bit of a niche market for them, and I think its working out quite well for them. Then there was Mike, who just recently left the instructor team at Crystal to head to the Gili islands. We had some good meals and nice chats, and ended most evenings by heading home to swim in our pool before an early night.

Our last night however was different. We had pizza at La Pirata.. stunning food.. I cannot remember having a pizza that good.. they import all their ingredients from Italy, and the chef is Italian... what more can you ask for?!

12 people turned up for our last meal.. Koh Tao people plus the dive school manager (Edwin) who we seemed to get on with very well. We all ate our pizza, drinking Bintang beer (gives you a nasty headache even if you only have a couple). We also had Nutella pizza for desert... I will certainly not be having that ever again... far too sickly for my liking.

Meals over, Mike had a bright idea to head to Sama Sama Reggae bar to have the local specialty. Vodka Joss. Vodka shots order and a packet of stuff in our hand, the challenge began.. You start by shaking the packet of Joss (basically a sherbert form of Red Bull). Next you open the packet and pour the contents into your mouth. then pour in the vodka... swish it all around, and swallow.. It feels like you have just poured acid into your mouth...

Several shots and more beers later.. I looked at the time and was stunned to find it was 4am !!  It was time to go... we were getting up at 7am... We rode our bikes to Jace's house to pick up our cases, and take them to our villa to pack... needless to say it was a rather difficult task considering the amount of alcohol we had consumed... Eventually we got home, and went to sleep about 5am.

Waking up... was painful.... and the journey back to Koh Tao began....

7th November 2012

So far, of course.... its been dive dive dive!!!  We might as well make use of the time we have.

We are diving off a small boat called "Louise" most days... The dive centre is called Blue Marlin Dive. A pretty good outfit...

Usually a dive at 9am and then another at 11:30, then time for a spot of lunch... The minestrone soup is particularly nice!

Then its back for another dive to say hello to some of the turtles and rays and all sorts of marine life..

Then its usually a beer or 2, before getting to bed for an early one...

Same tomorrow... its a hard life ;-)


x

SD

4th November 2012

Hi guys from Gili Trawangan.!

Well, the journey started with a wet and rainy departure from Koh Tao... Luckily we managed to board the ferry during a brief respite.

Then to Samui, and short flight to Kuala Lumpur where we stayed at a tiny hotel due to the flight connections not matching up.

Early the next morning, it was time for a 3.5 hour flight to Denpasar, Bali, staying another night again on the mainland because the ferry times did not match up. We stayed at a guesthouse organised by our friend called "Swastika"

Bali doesn't seem to be our cup of tea... Far too busy, full of cars and bikes... very much like Koh Samui... we were glad to settle down for the night ready for the ferry early the next morning.

Waking up, gear packed, we were picked up at the guest house and transferred to Pedang Bai port where we jumped on the 2 hour ferry over to Gili T.

Upon arrival, Jace (our friend) was there to meet us and we jumped on a taxi (horse and cart) to our villa.. 

To say our villa is a luxury is an understatement...we even have our own private pool !!!  Jace really sorted out some class digs!

 Unpacking, we squeezed an afternoon dive in with Jace, just off shore at some Biorocks they have here... all very nice... after that it was a few beers and an indian curry before bed.

Today, we booked 3 dives... the first was "Turbo Point". So named due to strong currents, we were taken aback by how strong they were. Unable to swim against the current, we had to try and hide behind boulder corals to get some protection from the onslaught... I was working so hard that in 10 minutes I had a massive headache... Eventually we descended deeper and got some better conditions. It was a great workout for the morning.

After that, it was back to the dive school, and out for another dive after a short break.. This dive site was called Sunset... lots of turtles.... no sharks (which are regular here)... again very nice.

For the final dive, we were going out on the boat when it accidentally hit another boat causing some damage, so we hopped off and dived just offshore again... awesome..!

Back to the house and a quick rest before we head out for dinner on our bicycles as their are no motorised vehicles allowed on the island...


x


SD