So I've just finished my first week at work and am starting to settle into a routine. Since my last blog I have been spending time in the yellow and red section and as people start to recognise that I am supposed to be there and getting me more involved, especially in emergencies!

One of the Malaysia students, Creski, has been great at translating for me during the last week and it makes all the difference to the experience. I did however feel a bit like a celebrity on Friday as all the student nurses finally plucked up the courage to ask if they could have a photo with me! Despite all the flights you see coming and going from KK there is a distinctly low number of tourists around and some locals do tend to stare (although they then smile back when you smile at them).

On Friday night the prospect of dinner alone was somewhat unappealing. Instead I spent the evening planning my week off between elective placements and booked some diving for Saturday. However at 9 o'clock two girls from Cambridge University (Emma and Nadia) turned up fresh from their flight from Dubai and wanted to know where would be good to get some food. Suddenly I was hungry and after recommending the good restaurant a couple of doors down they invited me to join them. It was great to have people to chat with again as the boys had left to go off travelling on Thursday. Even though they were tired after their flight they wanted to know how I was finding the hospital and the city. We then headed back to the hostel as the restaurant was closing discussing the woes of placements as they are being sent all over home counties (commuting from Bury St Edmunds to Stevenage for a GP placement is not practical).

But onto the exciting stuff: DIVING!!!

I booked 2 days diving with Dive Down Below who are based in KK and arranged a pick up at 8.10 Saturday morning. After collecting me and a few other up, the seven of us got on a boat at Sutera Harbour (beside the luxurious five star hotels). A 20 minute boat ride later and we arrived at the dive centre based on Gaya island and were friendlily welcomed. I was impressed! They weren't the cheapest of the dive centres but their all inclusive policy and good reviews as well as being recommended by the hostel had swayed me to go with them, and it was worth it! I booked two days of diving (£130 with 3 dives each day) and they chucked in the review course for free. There was cold water, hot drinks fruit and biscuits provided as well as clean toilets and showers. The building was nicely set out and the people very friendly.

Since my last dive was August last year I had to complete a skills review before going on the leisure dives. This included practising clearing my mask, recovering and clearing my regulator, demonstrating buoyancy control and sharing air with a buddy. Luckily it all came back to me quite quickly and after 10 minutes I was able to begin the open water dive. We swam around a coral patch seeing lobsters, flatfish and many other brightly coloured tropical fish.

I was slightly disheartened by the other diver's comments of empty sea beds with a few lone fish, after they arrived back from their open water dive. But instead I was treated to an amazing experience with shoals of hundreds of fish, healthy coral, starfish and even the rare treat of a frogfish! The visibility was great and since I took my new underwater camera, I was in my element.

After the dive finished we headed back to the centre for a lovely buffet lunch of chicken curry and a rest before heading out to just off Sapi Island for the final dive. This time seeing stingray and pipe fish before having cleaner shrimps 'clean' my hands. I almost wish I had come purely for the diving but my second day of diving next Saturday will give me something to look forward through the next week!