Another week has passed and after finishing the Padi open water wendy and i spent a few days just checking out a bit more of the island. We took a walk across the other side of the island to a litlle bay called Hin Wok bay. It was a 40 minute walk from sea level to just over 300 metres and back down to sea level on the other side (the island is only 3km by 7km). As it wasnt the easiest place to get to with a 45degree incline/declin in places there was no one else there when we arrived so we had a bite to eat then ventured into the water for some snorkling. It was stunning! We only went in up to about chest deep water and there was nearly as many fish as i had seen on some of the reefs i had dived!

After a couple of days of little walks and nice meals i decided it was time to get the PADI advanced course completed so that i can dive to 30meters. Unfortunately the wind had picked up a bit, although it was still warm, so when i went out for my first dive it was blowing a steady 5-6 with nice rolling 2-3meter swells. This also meant the visibility was severly reduced and by the time we had got to 28 meters the visibility was down to less than 1 meter which freaked me right out and nearly sent me darting for the surface! fortunately i got my instructors attention in time and we stopped for a minute to get myself back together... apparently this is quite common even in clear waters due to the onset of nitrogen norcosis.... other than that the course went sweet and all units were passed with no problem. I have loads of photos of all sorts, unfortunately no whale sharks or other big fish but i did see a massive school of barracuda, stunning!!

Today we took another walk over the island to Laem Thien bay to do some more snorkling and when we got out one of the dive boats had just come in and he asked if we'd snorkelled about 30meters to the right of the bay (we hadn't) as just off the pinnacle the deepth drops off and there are loads of sharks up to about 1.5meters! lucky he told up this when we got out or we may not have gone in!

We're going to spend another couple of days here then we're heading back to Koh Phaghan to find a place for 10days or so so we are set for the full moon party on the 7th!