Boxing Day and our first day of the Open Water scuba diving course! Today we met our instructor, Wayne. He seems like a really nice guy who took up diving about 3 years ago. He is Canadian and our classroom sessions go well and he is easy to understand and very patient with all our questions! The afternoon we spend in the pool learning about our scuba equipment and doing some water skills. Going underwater and breathing for the first time was very strange a...

Merry Xmas! After a little lie in and watching Moonlighting on the tv we checked out and went to find the dive place so we could finalise the paperwork to start our Open Water PADI tomorrow. It cost 300Baht to get from Karon to Patong! (£6 and much more than we are used to). Once we eventually found our way to the dive shop the lady there was very lovely and also helped us find a closer and quieter hotel (cheaper too = bonus!!). The rest of Xmas day was spe...

Holey Moley!!! Our air conditioning here is soooo loud! It literally sounds like a plane prepping for take off. - Even with ear plugs you can still hear it clearly and if you turn if off you can then hear a whirring fridge like noise. So, needless to say it wasn't the best night of sleep. - That said, it became very apparent when Rob woke up that he hardly slept either. I say very apparent because when I grinned and waved to him he humphed and pulled the co...

Having gone to the tourist office to arrange travel to Kou Tau for Christmas and our SCUBA diving course on the 26th Dec, we were dismayed to hear that it would take a bus, boat, long waits and a taxi! - Approx 14 hours all in all. If we then wanted to head to Malaysia, rather then return to Bangkok, it would take another 24 hours :( So, after a quick discussion and a little breakfast (one thinks more clearly with sustenance right?!) we decided to cancel our Sc...

Today was our worst journey so far. Seriously, you think you cover all the bases when you ask questions about your ticket and then 'bam', whatever you were expecting is never the reality you actually experience. Rob and I thought hard about taking the fast bus (transit van) as it meant an early start, though decided that the benefits of saving 3/4 hours by coach and also the guide to help us through the VISA process on the Cambodian/Thai border was worth both t...