ok quickest of blogs as I'm of drinking to celebrate, but firstly - I forgot to mention in my last blog that in Angkor Wat I went on a hot airballoon ride, which was good, expensive but another tick on the old checklist.
Was still ill the following day so didn't make it to the floating village with Mez, but she said it was really good.
Left for Bangkok the following day, wasn't that long a bus journey to the border but the bus journey after the border seemed to take forever. The passport control was just a lengthy as the Vietnam/Cambodia one, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Only had the one night in Bangkok, was there for the riots, but didn't really see anything. To be prepared though Mez and I left early for the airport the next day, and lucky for us, we managed to make it to the right airport first try, unlike in Shanghai. The arrival in Phuket however was a bit of a disaster to say the least. We had arranged to have a pick up from the hostel that we were staying at, as it was basically the same price as a taxi, without the hassel, or so we thought. Laura, Mez' friend from Oz was meeting us at the airport, her flight was due to arrive before ours and as this was her flrst time leaving Oz she was just going to wait for us. So . . . arrived and Mez went off to find Laura, over an hour later, the pickup guy having gone back to sit in his car, left me holding the Meredith Barter sign. I held that sign like a pro, having never met Laura before, and only with a description of a white girl with curly brown hair, I flashed that sign at any foriegn girl that passed. As it turns out, she wasn't arriving til 9 at night, not the 2 in the afternoon that somehow had been communicated. Oh well, we left without her and Mez collected her later on in the day.
Phuket - we went on an island safari, were I got to sit on a water buffalo, ride a ox drawn cart, and best of all got to ride an elephant. We also went to a show there where a baby elephant stood on my back, giving me a massage, much cheaper than the ones Mez and Laura had paid for earlier in the day. Following day we went on a cruise, I know me and water generally don't get on to well, but I was fine, and we got to see many of the island surronding Phuket, which included the famous James Bond film set, of I believe "the man with the golden gun" but I very well may be mistaken. Also went canoeing through caves where we had to lie flat on our backs to get through, and they had bats in them, also the three of us tried our hand at canoeing, truthfully, Mez and I should have learnt from last time with our kayaking skills that we shouldn't be trusted. Lone behold, the three of us needed rescuing, was an experience all the same.
Got a boat to Ko Phi Phi, which is where I am now, and booked myself onto a three day open water course. Was imense to say the least, first day I just learnt my skills for underwater and how to use all the equipment, but on the second and third day, we went on proper dives. My first dive I was rather nervous and so didn't really take to much in, was consentrating to much on continuing to breath, but the second dive was much better. I was basically in the "finding Nemo" film set, with nemos, anglefish and TURTELS!!!! amazing, my second day of diving consisted of an ok dive to begin with, but once again the second dive of the day was much better, I got to see a leopard shark up close, you just can't put a price on that. Mez and Laura weren't interested in doing this, they clearly missed out.
Just because I've finished the dives, it didn't make me qualified, I had homework to do everynight, and I've just finished my final test, which the swat that I am, got 94% in, go me!!!
So since i've been unable to drink, as there is a strict "don't drink and dive" policy, it is going to be a heavy night and living it up large in Phi Phi. Oh almost forgot, someone decided the other night that it would be a wise idea to take part in the flame thrower show, and for a shot of vodka jump over a skipping rope that was on fire. Nope don't worry, that wasn't me, it was Mez. She know has lovely burn marks on her ankles when she missed the jump and hit the burning rope, somehow she still hasn't regretted her descision. As for me, I HAD been doing really well not burning, not just with the skipping rope, but with the sun. This has gone VERY down hill whilst scuba diving, and I now have lovely burnt arms, but only the bottom half, no amount of aftersun seems to be cooling it down. Hopefully it'll turn into a lovely tan soon enough.
Tomorrow we are heading to another film set, the beach. The cruise also allows us to cliff jump, and snorkel with sharks, both of which I'm very excited about :D
till then