I don't think this title makes sense grammatically. Forgive me - Hopefully you'll understand the idea by the end of the post.
Also, I talk a lot about a video in this post. I am working on getting either some or all of it on the blog - I am not super computer savvy so we'll see how it goes. No promises.
Day 5 of my vacation began at 6:30 am. Our final day of diving for the OWD course. I was so excited to go diving again, not nervous at all. Especially because on our final day our group was filmed! By now getting our stuff on the boat and the routine once we were on the boat was old hat. I took a motion sickness pill for good measure and off we went! Once we were on the boat our videographer took video of our planning session (in which we all mimicked dolphins - though I can't remember why), us putting our gear together, doing buddy checks, getting "punched" into the water (I'll explain in a sec), and then once we were in the water he filmed us a few times swimming by and playing games and such. We also filmed the intro to our film (in which we did an embarrassing catwalk). Once we were at Chumpon and ready to get in the water, Ant told us he wanted us to fall in backwards and he would "punch" us in. Everyone else had done this entry yesterday but I had decided that feeling sick and going backwards were just not for me. Usually I hate going backwards on anything but entering the water backwards was really fun! The oxygen tank kind of cushions your fall and it felt like landing on a pillow. Once we were in the water we dived down. All of us were more successful at equalizing and descending took much less time. Chumpon reef was beautiful. We saw a much wider variety of fish, including bearded scorpion fish, trigger fish, snapper, damsels, anemones and yellow tailed barracuda. The only problem was that as OWD divers we could only go down to 18 m and you can see that there is more cool stuff deeper than that. However, overall the dive was awesome.
After we got back on the boat we took care of our equipment and then ran up to the second deck where we all took turns jumping off the top of the boat. So jumping off high things isn't really my thing. I'm not afraid of heights per say but its one thing to be up high on something solid and another to willingly jump off said height. That all being said, I'm in Thailand and I was learning to dive and jumping off a boat just seemed like something I would regret not doing. So I got up there and almost everyone else had jumped at that point - some people had already come back up for a second jump - and I stepped back a few steps so I could get a running start. I started running and as soon as I got to the edge I looked down, saw the water, realized it was too late for a do-over and over the side I went! I didn't hurt myself at all - but the pause I took at the top is not only visible on the video but it made for a rather ungraceful jump. Oh well!
Our second dive was at Green Rock. This time, for our dive off the boat Ant told us to try doing a 007. That meant we were essentially supposed to flip off the boat - so you start facing forward, head first, tuck under and hopefully end up landing on your tank. Well, for those who have ever seen me a) try to do gymnastics and/or b) dive, I'm sure you can imagine the results of me trying to do a 007. However, I did try (again, I thought I might regret not trying) and the results were an epic fail. It was pretty funny and luckily it was all caught on video! (Actually, when the video was screened that night I got quite a few high-fives for my 007 but I think its safe to say that I will never be a successful gymnast or diver :) After we got in the water we had to do some skills - just buoyancy and taking our masks off and putting them back on. After we performed our skills to Ant's satisfaction we just messed around. We tried doing flips in the water but I'm guessing you can guess how successful I was at that given my previous attempt at a flip. I was successful at taking my fins off and putting them on my hands which looks kind of cool on the video. All in all it was a really fun last dive.
After we got back to the resort we updated our dive logs and then we all went to lunch together. After lunch Megan, Taye, and Jeff were booking ferry tickets because they were flying to Bali on Friday. While I was with them I thought I'd book a ferry ticket too since I didn't plan on spending more than 4 or 5 days in Ko Tao. After that, I'm pretty sure all of us took a little nap, I certainly did, and then around 6 we all met up again at the restaurant to watch the other groups' video before watching our own. For a while after that we just hung out at the restaurant with the other dive instructors and divers. Every night at Big Blue is celebratory because almost every night a new group of divers gets certified but its definitely more interesting/fun when its you who's getting certified. At around 10 Frankie and I rounded up anyone who wanted to go to the Ladyboy show with us. What is a Ladyboy show? Thailand's version of a drag show. They are pretty popular in the south and it was a lot of fun to go to one. But I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.
During the video and afterwards, talking to Frankie and Ant and other dive instructors I was a little sad that I had booked my ferry ticket. Frankie had decided to do the Advanced Diver course and the way everyone was talking about it I definitely wished that I could too. During the LB show we were talking with another person at the resort and again, talking about the Advanced course made me wish I was staying in Ko Tao just a little bit longer. It wasn't too long after this that I realized there was absolutely no reason, save for the previously bought ferry ticket, that I shouldn't stay a few extra days and do the Advanced Diver course. I had a vague idea of what I wanted this trip to be and one of the reasons I "planned" it that way was because I was hoping to meet some great people and maybe do a little traveling with someone else. So here was my opportunity to do just that and I was letting a (relatively) cheap ferry ticket stop me? I think not! I decided that first thing in the morning I would make sure there was still space in the Advanced Diver course and then I would try and change my ferry ticket (but if I couldn't it wouldn't be a huge deal). Especially because doing the AD course meant staying ONE extra day. That's right - just one. Once the decision was made I felt much better - more relaxed and really happy that I was being so flexible with my plans.
Anyway, after the LB show we went out to some of the bars. I didn't drink very much but I did go dancing. I even taught some people the Waka Waka dance I learned in Zumba at BMC! Don't believe me? Proof:
It was a really fun night and it made me even happier that I wasn't leaving the next day.
The next day I woke up relatively early (it was supposed to be a vacation after all) and reserved my spot in the AD course. Then I went to the travel office and the lady graciously agreed to change my ticket for the next afternoon. So now I was all set to stay and do 5 more dives! I went back to the resort, reading and eating breakfast until it was time to meet up for the AD course. We had a meeting in the morning where we met up with Ant and decided which dives we wanted to do. My group for the AD course was only 4 people - me, Frankie, E and H. There are 2 required dives to get the AD certification, a deep water dive and a navigation dive, and then we got to choose the other 3 from a list of 8 or so. The three all of us agreed on were a buoyancy dive, a night dive, and a wreck (like ship wreck) dive. However, in an effort to actually get this blog post out today I am going to save the stories from those dives for another day.
The last thing I want to mention though is that this weekend (and until Tuesday) Lieke and Kimsha came to visit me in Chaiyaphum!!! Tomorrow (Tuesday) they are going to do a presentation in my classes about Europe and Holland and I am so excited! It is so nice to be able to share Chaiyaphum and where I'm living and where I'm teaching with people who are visiting. I feel so lucky that they took the time and trouble to come up here. Anyway, if I don't get a post up tomorrow its because I'm too busy being happy and having fun with my new Dutch friends :)
Also, I talk a lot about a video in this post. I am working on getting either some or all of it on the blog - I am not super computer savvy so we'll see how it goes. No promises.
Day 5 of my vacation began at 6:30 am. Our final day of diving for the OWD course. I was so excited to go diving again, not nervous at all. Especially because on our final day our group was filmed! By now getting our stuff on the boat and the routine once we were on the boat was old hat. I took a motion sickness pill for good measure and off we went! Once we were on the boat our videographer took video of our planning session (in which we all mimicked dolphins - though I can't remember why), us putting our gear together, doing buddy checks, getting "punched" into the water (I'll explain in a sec), and then once we were in the water he filmed us a few times swimming by and playing games and such. We also filmed the intro to our film (in which we did an embarrassing catwalk). Once we were at Chumpon and ready to get in the water, Ant told us he wanted us to fall in backwards and he would "punch" us in. Everyone else had done this entry yesterday but I had decided that feeling sick and going backwards were just not for me. Usually I hate going backwards on anything but entering the water backwards was really fun! The oxygen tank kind of cushions your fall and it felt like landing on a pillow. Once we were in the water we dived down. All of us were more successful at equalizing and descending took much less time. Chumpon reef was beautiful. We saw a much wider variety of fish, including bearded scorpion fish, trigger fish, snapper, damsels, anemones and yellow tailed barracuda. The only problem was that as OWD divers we could only go down to 18 m and you can see that there is more cool stuff deeper than that. However, overall the dive was awesome.
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| Bearded Scorpion Fish Source |
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| Triggerfish Source |
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| Yellowtail Barracuda Source |
After we got back on the boat we took care of our equipment and then ran up to the second deck where we all took turns jumping off the top of the boat. So jumping off high things isn't really my thing. I'm not afraid of heights per say but its one thing to be up high on something solid and another to willingly jump off said height. That all being said, I'm in Thailand and I was learning to dive and jumping off a boat just seemed like something I would regret not doing. So I got up there and almost everyone else had jumped at that point - some people had already come back up for a second jump - and I stepped back a few steps so I could get a running start. I started running and as soon as I got to the edge I looked down, saw the water, realized it was too late for a do-over and over the side I went! I didn't hurt myself at all - but the pause I took at the top is not only visible on the video but it made for a rather ungraceful jump. Oh well!
Our second dive was at Green Rock. This time, for our dive off the boat Ant told us to try doing a 007. That meant we were essentially supposed to flip off the boat - so you start facing forward, head first, tuck under and hopefully end up landing on your tank. Well, for those who have ever seen me a) try to do gymnastics and/or b) dive, I'm sure you can imagine the results of me trying to do a 007. However, I did try (again, I thought I might regret not trying) and the results were an epic fail. It was pretty funny and luckily it was all caught on video! (Actually, when the video was screened that night I got quite a few high-fives for my 007 but I think its safe to say that I will never be a successful gymnast or diver :) After we got in the water we had to do some skills - just buoyancy and taking our masks off and putting them back on. After we performed our skills to Ant's satisfaction we just messed around. We tried doing flips in the water but I'm guessing you can guess how successful I was at that given my previous attempt at a flip. I was successful at taking my fins off and putting them on my hands which looks kind of cool on the video. All in all it was a really fun last dive.
After we got back to the resort we updated our dive logs and then we all went to lunch together. After lunch Megan, Taye, and Jeff were booking ferry tickets because they were flying to Bali on Friday. While I was with them I thought I'd book a ferry ticket too since I didn't plan on spending more than 4 or 5 days in Ko Tao. After that, I'm pretty sure all of us took a little nap, I certainly did, and then around 6 we all met up again at the restaurant to watch the other groups' video before watching our own. For a while after that we just hung out at the restaurant with the other dive instructors and divers. Every night at Big Blue is celebratory because almost every night a new group of divers gets certified but its definitely more interesting/fun when its you who's getting certified. At around 10 Frankie and I rounded up anyone who wanted to go to the Ladyboy show with us. What is a Ladyboy show? Thailand's version of a drag show. They are pretty popular in the south and it was a lot of fun to go to one. But I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.
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| The other OWD group at the honorary "Watch your DVD" table |
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| Dinner that night - BBQ, Yum! |
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| View from the restaurant |
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| Ant and Mikey (one of the other instructors) |
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| Now its our turn to watch our DVD! |
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| LB show |
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| LB show |
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| This was a really excellent rendition of "Halo" |
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| Look! A picture of me! |
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| Frankie |
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| Fabian and Jeff |
During the video and afterwards, talking to Frankie and Ant and other dive instructors I was a little sad that I had booked my ferry ticket. Frankie had decided to do the Advanced Diver course and the way everyone was talking about it I definitely wished that I could too. During the LB show we were talking with another person at the resort and again, talking about the Advanced course made me wish I was staying in Ko Tao just a little bit longer. It wasn't too long after this that I realized there was absolutely no reason, save for the previously bought ferry ticket, that I shouldn't stay a few extra days and do the Advanced Diver course. I had a vague idea of what I wanted this trip to be and one of the reasons I "planned" it that way was because I was hoping to meet some great people and maybe do a little traveling with someone else. So here was my opportunity to do just that and I was letting a (relatively) cheap ferry ticket stop me? I think not! I decided that first thing in the morning I would make sure there was still space in the Advanced Diver course and then I would try and change my ferry ticket (but if I couldn't it wouldn't be a huge deal). Especially because doing the AD course meant staying ONE extra day. That's right - just one. Once the decision was made I felt much better - more relaxed and really happy that I was being so flexible with my plans.
Anyway, after the LB show we went out to some of the bars. I didn't drink very much but I did go dancing. I even taught some people the Waka Waka dance I learned in Zumba at BMC! Don't believe me? Proof:
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| Add caption |
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| Freestyle ladies! I've forgotten the moves! |
It was a really fun night and it made me even happier that I wasn't leaving the next day.
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| Proof of our fun night |
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| Further proof :) |
The next day I woke up relatively early (it was supposed to be a vacation after all) and reserved my spot in the AD course. Then I went to the travel office and the lady graciously agreed to change my ticket for the next afternoon. So now I was all set to stay and do 5 more dives! I went back to the resort, reading and eating breakfast until it was time to meet up for the AD course. We had a meeting in the morning where we met up with Ant and decided which dives we wanted to do. My group for the AD course was only 4 people - me, Frankie, E and H. There are 2 required dives to get the AD certification, a deep water dive and a navigation dive, and then we got to choose the other 3 from a list of 8 or so. The three all of us agreed on were a buoyancy dive, a night dive, and a wreck (like ship wreck) dive. However, in an effort to actually get this blog post out today I am going to save the stories from those dives for another day.
The last thing I want to mention though is that this weekend (and until Tuesday) Lieke and Kimsha came to visit me in Chaiyaphum!!! Tomorrow (Tuesday) they are going to do a presentation in my classes about Europe and Holland and I am so excited! It is so nice to be able to share Chaiyaphum and where I'm living and where I'm teaching with people who are visiting. I feel so lucky that they took the time and trouble to come up here. Anyway, if I don't get a post up tomorrow its because I'm too busy being happy and having fun with my new Dutch friends :)
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| Just sitting at the pool on a Saturday afternoon :) |
Loved reading your latest post... and, being a grandmother, I had to keep reminding myself, "Of course all's well that ends well, or Caroline wouldn't be writing this blog." I'm so happy for you to know that you are stretching yourself..... and keep writing. Love, Omo
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