Open water certification
Trip Start
Jan 29, 2008
1
16
32
Trip End
Mar 04, 2008
Ko Tao,
Thailand
Saturday, February 16, 2008
For the morning dive we went to Chumpon Pinnacle which is by far the best of the three dive sites I've been too. There's just a lot more life going on down there, and it is deeper. We went down to 18m but it goes deeper than that. The only problem today was the visibility. It wasn't great.
In the afternoon we went to Twins, where we were yesterday afternoon, and got to 15m. The water was beautiful just like yesterday.
After class I found Cindy and Robert. While I was diving they managed to secure us one triple bed bungalow at the nice resort
Walkway through our resort
. They tried to get two separate rooms, but I guess there was some confusion at the front desk where they didn't want to waste two rooms when they thought there were only two people. So when I got back to the bungalow I went down to the office to see if they happened to have a free single bungalow and it turns out the bungalow right next to Cindy and Rob's, which is actually 2 singles, was free, so I scored that.We went to celebrate my certification at the yummy kabob place we went to last night, but the grill wasn't on yet and wouldn't be for a couple hours so I just had a burger and they had appetizers, holding out for the kabobs.
We decided we needed a massage. We haven't had any since Bangkok so we are way off our mark of averaging one a day! Robert didn't want to go to the same place he went to yesterday that SH had sent him to, he wanted to try something new. So we walked all the way down this busy road that looks like a pedestiran street but has a lot of people passing you on scooters, that goes the entire lenght of Sairee Beach and possibly to Mae Head. We passed the recommended massage shop and kept going before finally turning around and walking to the other end of the street, way back past our dive shop and past where we had started. We finally went inside this really nice looking spa for our massages.
There were only two girls working so I went first so Cindy and Robert could go together. I had a bit of a burn from being on the water all day so I got a sun burn treatment. The problem with that, I didn't realize when I went in, was that I had to leave this dark scrub on my body overnight
My bungalow
. Since I was wearing a little tiny spaghetti strapped dress, I rushed back to my bungalow to put on long sleeves and pants to cover up the mud-like substance all over my back, chest, shoulders, and legs. In the meantime, Cindy and Robert were getting a 1.5 hour massage. I went back for them at about 10:00pm and we tried again at the kabob place. This time we didn't get any service so we left without even having a drink and decided to hit the coolers at 7/11 instead. I decided to go see if our new friends at the bar down the beach wanted to join us and ended up drinking my 7/11 coolers there because it takes a long time for drunk people to make decisions. By the time I left the bar with the guys and got them back to the patio where we were supposed to meet Cindy and Robert, they were already in bed. But we did take awhile, because we stopped at 7/11 on the way to the bungalows to get some water. SH's friend also wanted condoms, a zucchini, and a rubber mallet, but I wasn't going to willingly put any of those items in his possession so I just got water for them.So much for drinking on our bungalow patios! Instead I went back to the bar for more drinking with the fun locals. Then SH took me on a little bike ride around the island to show me where all the stuff he's been telling us about is actually located. It's nice to have a guide and a chauffeur to entertain me.
Cindy and Robert's bungalow
We also stopped at one of the pancake stands and his friend there made me the most delicious "pancake" ever! I think it is really more like a crepe, but not. I guess it is somewhere between a crepe and a pancake. But they load it up with pretty much anything you want, like bananas and chocolate, nutella, eggs and cheese - there are a lot of choices. And it is superb!
We went back to Sairee Beach and stopped in at his friend's restaurant, Papa's Tapas, so I could try Beerlao, which SH claims is a really good beer, maybe even better than Moosehead. Well Moosehead isn't that great so I figured it was certainly possible. I tried one at the restaurant bar and it turns out he was right, it is a very good beer!
The restaurant was closing so we went back to the beach bar, Lotus, with some of the guys from the restaurant and partied with the locals late into the night.
