The Catamaran journey back to Ko Phangan was horrific with people being sick all over the place. I felt fine for entire journey although a couple of times I did think the boat was going to flip. This was by far the worst weather I had seen in Thailand and its flaming typical its on day I am on a ferry!!!! Went straight back to Sea Sunset Resort and Joel decided to head back to his old accomodation. Staff were surprised to see me back again! I hired a motorbike and went down to Masons where I found Matt and Andy (english guy who has spent last five years in Oz). I had e-mailed Matt from Koh Tao to let him know about diving and turns out he had been telling Andy in pub about it and a dive instructor on Ko Phangan had overheard and left his number for me to give him a ring on.

Next day I went to Chaloklum on bikes with Matt, which is north of the island. Here we had a wander and had some fantastic fresh seafood in a restaurant here. Phoned Don the dive instructor whose number I had been given and arranged to meet him that afternoon in Masons. Rode down met Don and we talked through things. He confirmed he had taken a diabetic out on Open Water course before and went on various diving websites to confirm to me what he was saying about diving with diabestes. This tallied up with research I had already done and Don just told me to go to Dr surgery in morning to get the all clear and then we could begin the course!!! Things were looking on the up already! I went to Dr in morning and he took blood pressure and looked in ears he then said to me 'asthma yes' I said no Diabetes. Oh he said no problems, no problems and proceeded to sign the form off to allow me to dive. AWESOME, my diving will proceed the following day........Spent rest of the day reading book Don had given me and completing questions.

Next morning I went to Dive School and met Don, watched videos and went through answers to questions. After lunch headed to pool and did some basics here. Had to swim 8 lengths of the pool which was by far the hardest part as I had not done any swimming like that for a long long time!!!!! Really enjoyed practical stuff in the pool and cannot wait to get out on boat now!! Saw Don in Masons that evening (yes the masons is now my local, like a true englishmen I have found myself yet another local!!!) and he told me he was thinking of cancelling dive for tomorrow due to weather and leave it for following day. I was happy with this if it meant conditions would be better and proceeded to get laroped at the Masons before heading out with Andy and staff for food and then myself and Andy went to a bar further in town where we spent rest of night.

Next day I went into classroom to finish off academics and take exam, all passed no problem and now eagerly awaiting the real mcCoy in the sea!! Myself and Don managed to convince Andy to do a dive with us as well so up at 7am next morning and went to load car with kit. Then head to pier where we got a seatran ferry to Koh Tao. This was a tourist ferry which allowed people to snorkel and dive off so very very busy. Got kit set up and off we went. My first giant step into the water was horredous and ended up slipping and going arse over tit plummeting into sea below. Floated to surface gave the ok and was then met with a lot of laughter from the crew, whatever as long as Im keeping you entertained guys, haha!!!! Went down to 12 metres on this first dive and just practised with manouvering etc. Then re-boarded ferry after 50 mins in water and were taken to 2nd dive site. Had lunch provided on board and feasted a little too much on the curry provided and ended up a little bloated!!! On second dive I did all the skills required like flooding the mask, taking mask off, and signalling no air and taking out regulator and sharing buddies reg. All completed with no problems and started to feel more and more confortable in the water. Not a fantastic amount of fish to see at these sites but the coral etc was awesome sight!!!! Andy loved his 'Discover Scuba Diving' dive so much he told Don he wanted to proceed to Open Water same as me and was therefore going to come out on second dive to Sail Rock with us. I agreed therefore to delay second days diving for a day to allow Andy to do some academics.

Spent next day lazing on beach lobster tanning it up and as per every single other night went to Masons (only soft drinks mind you since diving in morning). Got picked up at 7.45am next morning and headed to Chaloklum (north of island) where we boarded a proper dive boat this time for our journey out to Sail Rock. 1.5 hours later we arrived at sail rock and off we went again into water. Awesome awesome dive sight with literally tons of fish. Really cant describe everything seen here and anyone who has done diving will know what I mean, truly is fantastic fun. The second dive we did the current had picked up and made for some difficult conditions espeically when at times we were swimming into it (unsucessfuly at times). After this second dive I had completed my Open Water Certification and am now a Certified Diver!!! I am totally hooked and have already planned to spend longer on the island to take in some more diving whilst here.........

Next three weeks was then spent doing some additional diving at sae dive sites on Koh Tao and Sail Rock to acquire some specialities on my certification. I did a couple deep dives down to 30 metres, and on one of these I did get a slight sensation of Nitrogen Narcosis. This feels like getting p1ssed but all you have to do is reduce your depth slightly and you back to normal, all with no hangover!!! PERFICK. Anyway didnt need to come up as it went after a few seconds, strange sensation mind you 30 metres underwater not being able to function properly!!!! Also did a couple nitrox dives, and I am now officially hooked on diving. I can now see why Steve was telling me before I came away how awesome it is. I just want to keep diving now, and hence the reason all other plans for Thailand are out the window and I have now decided to spend time up until I have to dpeart to meet Andy in Oz here on Ko Phanagan island.

Had to get a ferry to mainland on 7th August and head over to Burma. Both mine and Andys visas were about to expire so we had to head over to Burma to get renewed. Went for couple beers in town prior to getting on our nightboat to mainland and here we met, three of the dive crew (Becca, Harley and Will) from my dive school and also another dive school in Haad Rin. Slept for boat journey and then woke in morning as we arrived at mainland where we were transferred to mini bus. We then had 2-3 hours to Ranong where we got stamped for departure and jumped on a long tail boat to cross the waters to Burma. We boarded and to begin with the journey was quite calm however we then left the little stream we were travelling on and ended up out in the mouth of the ocean. The waves were terrifying and kept crashing over into this tiny little wooden boat. For anyone that doesnt know what a longtail boat is have a look at picture above and you will see. Out in a ferousious ocean in this with a 15 year old local skippering the vessel does not fill me with confidence and to be fair I was bricking it!!! We made it across got stamped paid 10bucks and back on board for return journey. Whilst in Burma there was people offering you everything for sale since it is so much cheaper then Thailand and so much poorer. Maybe would of been nice to stay a bit longer in Burma to see some of it, but I think an advanced visa is required to allow this so back to Thailand we went.

Back on minibus we got and had a longer journey back to a differant ferry port. Once here waited for ferry and then boarded and had a few beers on journey back to celebrate our sucessful visa extension (yeah right, any excuse for a lager!!).

Anyway to cut a long story short the next three weeks were spent doing a few dives, chilling out tanning up on the beaches and many an evening spent in Masons (sorry did I say many I meant to say every) with Andy, and Stuntman and Simon (two english guys out here fighting Thai Boxing stylee. Followed on some occassions by Harveys bar (which surprisingly enough was owned by a guy called Harvey.... who was from Aberdeen). Ended up getting to know a lot of the expats and even some locals quite well and ended up feeling like a proper local living out here. To be fair though I could definatley get on with living out here, its so laid back and easy going and relaxed whcih is why lots of people choose to be dive instructors here and not Koh Tao. I have been told by a few they could make more money on Koh Tao but then they would not have same lifestyle. Fair Play sounds like my idea of a job and a nice way of living!!! I had always planned to just come to Thailand to relax and spend time on the beaches rather then travel hard around it so not disappointed that I ended up seeing so little of it. Plus always an excuse to do it again if did not see parts of it first time around hey?

On 23rd Aug it was finaly time to leave the island. I was totally gutted and really did not want to leave. However my flight to Brisbane from Singapore was on 26th and had to get down to Singapore which was going to be a lengthy process!!!! Said farewells to everyone in bars night before and Joe from resort took me to ferry terminal at 6.30am. Staff here had been so friendly and helpful. Anne had sorted my ticket out for trip to Singapore and on numerous occassions Poo (not sure on his full name to be honest, but this what I called him!!). had leant me his motorcycle when I had been diving and therefore given my one back. Will deffinatley plan to head back to Ko Phangan at some point in future as it truly is a relaxing place and an awesome place for diving!! Got my ferry at 7am followed by a bus from ferry port to Surat Thani which took 1 hour. After this transferred to mini bus for 5 hours to Hat Yai (south Thailand) where I then changed onto another minibus which took me over border into Malaysia and down to Panang. I was dropped off here and when presented my ticket for next bus they told me I had missed it and handed me my money back!!! You what pal, I have no idea where I am and I need to get to Singapore for flight.......... Ended up after an hour of waiting and not knowing what was going on being put on a full bus and having to sit on the floor at front of the bus...... Lucky I was only going to be on this bus for 12 hours hey!!! Had a very uncomfortable sleep on floor of bus which was not good!!! Slept all the same mind you so could of been worse! Once at bus park, transferred to another bus which took me to border, got Malaysia exit stamp and back on bus which then took me to Singapore entry border, here got entry stamp and then had to wait for antoher bus to take me into Singapore city. Got on here and dropped near metro station. Then got metro a few stops down line to my accomodation in Chinatown where I had spent a couple nights a few months back when I was last here!!!!

Phew, what a journey, a total of 28 hours after I left my accomodation in Ko Phangan I arrived at my accomodation in Singapore, and god knows how many buses!! What a journey but roll on Austrailia now.

Really going to miss leaving Asia behind after spending over 7 months here I really have become attached to the place and am now going to have to learn to speak correct English again rather then the broken form I am now speaking to Asians (and westerners a lot of the time, not realising I am doing it!!) to make it easier for them to understand. Still will be good to get to Oz and undertake many of the activities myself and Andy have planned here, since a month of lazing around Thailand has now passed I am now ready to get moving again!!!