Laura's travels in Thailand

I haven't really got much news but thought some of you might be interested in what a typical day is like here!

If I'm diving in the morning, it's an early start - at the dive centre for about 6.30, fortunately my bungalow is just up the road so I can roll out of bed at 6.20! At the dive centre, we help the DMs pack the equipment for customers and get everything ready, and load up the boat. Usually time for a coffee and a bit of brekkie before we pile in the long tail boat which takes us to the main dive boat and head off to the dive sites. Sometimes I dive with the other DMTs for fun, and sometimes assist on courses.

We usually get back to Sairee where the dive centre is around 11.30 and have lunch there - the wife of one of the instructors does thai food for lunch every day for 50 baht (80p). If we're diving in the afternoon, we do the same again and head off at 12.30.

I don't usually dive twice a day so the rest of the time I'm usually at the dive centre in the day, just hanging out, reading or playing cards, and sometimes studying - got a physics exam coming up in the next few days unfortunately!! We also have other stuff to do like working on mapping projects and skills, so tomorrow for example all the DMTs are doing a skills circuit, which basically means we practice our underwater skills like mask removal and buoyancy to demonstration standard.. which should be interesting since I haven't done much skills practice since I did my open water course 7 years ago! There's a lot of flexibility with the course so we just come and go as we please and aren't expected to be at the dive centre all day, but a lot of people are because our bungalows can get quite hot and stuffy in the day and the dive centre is in a nice cool breezy spot.

The day at the dive centre usually ends about 6pm. Sometimes we go to Lotus Bar on the beach to watch the sun set and have a couple of drinks - happy hour from 6-7, beers and spirits all 50 baht. I'm developing a taste for gin and manao (lemon) believe it or not, most of you know how much I hate gin!

The other Scuba Junction hang out places are Choppers, a sports bar, which does half price food and 2 for 1 beers in happy hour. If it's a quiet night some of us sometimes go to Coffee Boat or Tongs for cheap food and then watch a movie or go online. Party nights are usually back at Lotus, which is a pretty cool beach bar with fire twirlers every night and occasionally good music.

Not a bad life really...

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't updated in a while. Been really busy since I arrived on Koh Tao and internet here is a little expensive! Been here a week now and just starting to settle in.

I've started my divemaster course with a small dive centre which has a really good atmosphere and only a few DMTs (dive master trainees, as we're known) which I decided after some deliberation would be preferable to doing it with one of the bigger schools who have around 25 DMTs.

Daily life usually consists of getting up early (6.30 start) to go diving in the morning and studying - not a lot else to do here unless you like sitting on the beach (which is a real hardship as I'm sure you can imagine). Apart from 'fun diving' I've also done a few exams and assisted on a rescue diver course - working on the physiology theory at the moment. Fun!!

Koh Tao is a small island, very laid back and not all that developed - mostly just bungalows off the beach and a few shops/bars/restaurants.

Not too sure how things are going to pan out - I've got some friends over from Hong Kong in July so I'm going over to Koh Samui to see them for a couple of weeks, and may or may not do my instructor course after that.. ideally I'd like to work but it might be hard to get a job.. not sure but we'll see what happens when I finish my DMT.

Anyway, sorry this has been a fairly brief and unentertaining blog entry - will try to make some more interesting entries soon to make up for it!

Warning bells should have been ringing when the drunk French guy launched himself at my feet asking "where are you going next in Thailand". Ten minutes later he was blubbing at my table telling me how his girlfriend had gone back to Switzerland and everyone always leaves him. He then informed me that he could "read my mind"; he put this amazing talent to use working at one of the giant pharmaceutical companies, who employed him in marketing until a dramatic departure when he couldn't stand working for the evil business any more. And now he works as a drugs mule in Bangkok. I kid you not. I eventually escaped to the toilet and hid out at the back of the bar until he departed. The bar staff found it hilarious - turns out he's known for doing this and is full of rubbish.

The night before I was sitting in a bar having a quiet beer when a couple of tourists pointed out the the flaming neon sign wasn't actually meant to be flaming and was on fire. A heroic german leaped up by the sign and proceeded to chuck drinks over it and blow on it, clearly they aren't told in germany that water and electricity do not mix. Never a dull moment in Bangkok. I ended up chatting to him and his mate for a bit after and it turned out they were going to Burma to film an 'undercover' documentary. Coming soon from a Burmese prison no doubt!

First day in Bangkok I went on a guided tour of the National Museum which was really interesting, learned a bit about buddhism and thai architecture. In the afternoon I took the river express down to Wat Pho, had a look round the temple and had a great massage.

Thursday I took a trip up to Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand before it was sacked by the Burmese in the 18th century and the capital was moved to Bangkok. Partly out of laziness and partly thinking it would be more educational, I booked a tour rather than making my own way up there and cycling around as originally planned. This proved to be a big mistake, as the tour guide was possibly the worst in the world. He could hardly speak english and 'guided' us by jabbing at pictures in his guide book. He then left someone behind and only went back for him when I pointed out someone was missing! They also took us along to an 'elephant camp', it was nice to see the elephants but also a little sad to see the baby elephant they brought out to perform for us - hula hoops, harmonica and dancing - which I found a bit troubling, I was only thinking about what methods they use to train them and what will happen to him when he grows up. Quite sad - I thought they did away with the dancing bear routine last century.

Had a very lazy day on Friday before I got the train down to Chumphon. On Koh Tao now, more about that later. Still catching up with the Bangkok stuff! Internet is a lot more expensive on Koh Tao than in Bangkok so will probably not be online every day. Will try to add some photos next time I'm online too.

In Dubai everything has to be the biggest [and biggest = best]. I saw the biggest flag in the world (!) and most likely the biggest indoor ski slope. They are currently building the tallest building in the world and the biggest shopping mall. In fact, they are in the process of building a lot of things - the skyline is one crane after another and as we're talking statistics they reportedly have the most cranes in the world too. You wonder how it can be sustainable economically and even people living in Dubai don't seem too certain so it should be interesting to see what goes on there over the next 5 years when all the construction work is completed.

It's also probably the least environmentally sustainable place I've visited too: no evidence of recycling, air con blasting out everywhere and everyone driving around in 4x4s. At 45 degrees when　Ｉ was there (and the temperature goes up another 10 degrees at the height of summer) it's impossible to live without air con though - after 10 mins out in the heat you start looking for your next 'fix' of cold air.

My first thought on stepping out in the airport was "Thailand had better not be this hot, or I won't survive the next 8 months". Followed by "bloody hell, if it's this hot at 7.30am what's it going to be like at noon?!". Fortunately it was already 42 and only went up to 45 that day.

Anyway, overall I really enjoyed Dubai. It has two sides to it: old and new. The 'new' is pretty artificial: super clean expat villa enclaves, golf courses, shopping malls. The old - original - side is really interesting though and feels a lot like any other asian city. On Saturday we visited the Bastikiya - the partly reconstructed old town - crossed the creek in an abra, and had a look round the souks. And unlike a lot of Dubai it didn't feel like it was exclusively for the benefit of tourists.

The day before, we went to Hatta, about 100k outside Dubai to swim in the rock pools there (which were lovely and cool), Colette got a stalker in the pools, and we did a bit of off-roading to get there. On the way back, the guys went quad biking up 'Big Red'。 probably Dubai's biggest sand dune (naturally).

Colette & Phil were back at work on Sunday (the weekend in Dubai runs Fri - Sat）ｓｏ　Ｉ headed to Jumeirah Mosque for an interesting tour and talk on Islam. The afternoon and evening were less cultural - Mall of the emirates followed by Pirates of the Carribean in 'Gold Class', or 'Dubai Style' as I like to think of it: huge black leather Lay-Z-Boy chairs, full waiter service and a blanket if you get a bit chilly in the air con!! Very nice too. I'd lost all momentum by Monday and spent my last day in Dubai sitting by the pool at the Montgomerie golf club, getting a little bit sunburnt. I did use the gym though so it wasn't totally decadent :-)

In Thailand now, battling with a very odd keyboard that keeps insisting on writing in Thai characters so I feel like I've been glued to the screen for hours. Will update on the last day or so in Thailand tomorrow hopefully, and will try to add some photos to the blog. Had more than enough for now though - time for a beer and some noodles! The best thing about Thailand so far - it is COOL in comparison to Dubai!!

My leaving day has finally come around, and it still doesn't really feel real. It's been a funny old week, strangely enough I haven't felt that excited. Probably because I've been focussing on saying goodbye to people and feeling a bit sad about it all! I've been a bit stressed as well, this probably had a lot to do with it:

Rest assured I'm a bit further along with the packing now, with just 4 hours to go before I leave. They say the secret to good packing is to get everything out you want to pack, then ruthlessly take half of it away. Let's just say I'm not ruthless.

My leaving party was good, thanks to everyone who came. In my typical style, I took about 5 photos all night and 3 of them were blurred. Still, we managed a reasonably sober one of the girls:

And the lovely Emma & Theo:

Just about ready for The Off now, checked in for my flight this morning on my laptop from the comfort of my bed, modern technology eh. Been checking out the weather for Thailand too, if anyone's envious of me sitting on the beach all day it may be some consolation to know that the forecast looks like this for the forseeable:

Anyway, catch up with you all from Dubai when hopefully I'll have something more interesting to report - do you reckon it'll feel real when I'm on the plane??!