Woke up this morning very early and started cursing the room. Hot, stuffy, moldy, and mosquito-y. We packed quickly so that we could get out of there sooner. I used the 10 minutes of internet before the van came to pick us up and took us to the ferry. What an organized chaos. They had us stand in line where they stickered us (pink for Ko Tao) and had us get our "tickets." We showed them the recepit and they gave us our "tickets"- little slips of paper that were collected at boarding. When we got on line and moved onto the boat where our luggage was also sorted according to location. Then we sat in air conditioning for 2.5 hours as we zipped to other islands on the way to Ko Tao. They had flatscreen TVs at the front of the boat so I watched a little In The Hole and America's Best Dance something...
When we docked in Ko Tao, we grabbed our stuff and were immediately bombarded by taxi drivers. We found the driver from Big Blue Diving Resort and climbed into his cab (like the ones in Chiang Mai but this one was blue and said Big Blue). We got to the resort, checked in, filled out paperwork, and checked in. Then we got our keys to the bungalo.
The bungalo was also special. The room had one bed, a toilet where you can shower at the same time and where the flush is a bucket filled with water and a scoop (you pour the water into the bowl and hope for the best), a mosquito net over the bed and a fan. It will be fine for 4 nights except that it is next to a trash heap and you can feel every spring in the mattress. The redeeming factor is the hammock on the porch. If not for the mosquitos, I might sleep there.
Aftter we dropped off our stuff, Yo headed to the water and I took a nap. Two hours later of not really sleeping, we went for lunch (pizza) and then into the water. It was a great temperature and if you swim out about 20 meters, you find coral and some great fish. I was glad that I brought goggles. Then I sat in the sun for a little to dry off and into the hammock for the rest of the afternoon. It is funny that the resort next to ours is called Davy Jones (This Pirates of the Carribean).
I started my scuba course at 5pm.
The class made the decision to learn SSI, not PADI because it was shorter, cheeper, and had less HW. We were told that the reputation was the same in the dive world. I figured that since I am just doing this for fun. it does not much matter. We watched the DVDs for ch. 1 and 2 and then found Yo. I went to the room to get long sleeves and we went to the resort restaurant for dinner- a not-so-romantic candlelit dinner. So wish that Ari was here.
After dinner, we walked to the 7-11 and I got a breakfast fruit. Came back to the room and was showering when the power in the whole resort went out...then I dropped the soap...
I spent 2.5 hours doing the study guide sheets and reading the first three chapters of the book. I think that I will get more excited tomorrow after being able to touch, try on and enter the water with the equipment.
As I was doing my homework, I heard this hissing sound and looked to see a little lizzard on the wall inside. Yo got it away but I hope that I will sleep ok knowing that it could come back.
No comments:
Post a Comment