I am now back in Bangkok after spending 3 days on Ko Chang - one of the islands in the east. Very nice. We stayed at Lonely Beach as another of the volunteers Elsa used to work with was on vacation there with some of her family. BEAUTIFUL beach - oh my god! Nice white sand, no wind and crystal crystal clear water with just the perfect temperature. Mmmmm - can understand why some people consider this paradise.

But one of the reasons for me to go to Ko Chang was to try scuba diving - unfortunately it usually takes at least 3 days to get you open water diving certificate and I only had two days available (since we arrived thursday morning half an hour after the divers went on their trip for the day, that day was 'lost'). But the guy at the diving place was very nice and we came up with a solution for me to get a scuba diving certificate in one day instead on2 days - so thursday night I sat and watched DVD's from 6 pm to 8:30 pm and took 3 short tests and then Elsa and I went out on a boat on friday. All the equipment on and me in the water - and boy that was uncomfortable!!!! Phew - I am used to breathing almost exclusively through my nose and now I had to do it using the mouth instead - at first I thought I was suffocating and I was very nervous and - admittedly - quite freaked out to begin with as I had my 'confined water dives' (normally in a shallow swimming pool) at open sea only hanging on the a line attachin the boat to the bottom of the sea. Nasty. But then the instructor took me down under and after convincing myself to relax and breathe slowly and deeply using the mouth I then completelylost myself - WAUW!!!! It was so beautiful and the breathing suddenly came naturally and I was busy oggling at the wild life underneath the water!

We then did the 'confined water dive' exercises sitting at the bottomof the sea and I did them all perfectly the first time and the instructor was very proud of me and praised me:) Hooooorrah!!!! These exercises included breathing under water without the mask on and then putting the mask back on and emptying it for water (I have contact lenses so I had to keep my eyes closes all the time), changing to an alternative breathing source in case one looses their regulator and free flow breathing in cases where the regulater brakes and just lets air air continually and one has to breathe sort of through the water - good fun and I was proud I didn't panic. So rather than having to do 3 dives that day I finished my course in only 2 dives and got my certificate and a great experience! Can't wait to try again! The only side effect for me was that once I got back onboard the boat after the dives I felt extremely dizzy and disoriented and wondered how was spinning the boat so violently but this passed within 30 minutes - and nothing since, so yeah!

Today I will go to my third fitting at the tailor where I am having a suit and 2 dresses made - hopefully it will fit perfectly now so I can bring it with me to india tomorrow, otherwise Elsa will pick it up and take it home with her. Otherwise Elsa and Joe (from the rafting in Pai who came to join us at Ko Chang) are moving on towards the islands in the south tonight and then I am on my own in Thailand for the first time - uh uh - and tomorrow I fly on to India. I have really enjoyed my stay in Thailand and I def want to come bak - right now the grubbyness of India does not appear so appealing but then again I am very excited to see how the volunteer work will be and if there are any young people in thecamp for me to interact with and how working with children will be for me - can I be an authority figure and actually manage to get respect??? We'll see....