Return to Phi Phi for Chris and first time visit for Carolyn

After an uneventful ferry ride to Koh Phi Phi Don, Carolyn and I found ourselves waiting to get off the long line to the ferry. Our first task was to find accommodations on the overly expensive island. I had a list of places I would consider staying and Carolyn was basically laid back and ready for any experience although really really hot. This is when we started running the gantlet of old friends, coworkers, and acquaintances from my 7 and a half months on the island. After dumping our heavy dive gear laden bags at my old shop we went and found our new housing. 700 baht (21 dollars) found us a room with a fan and cold water shower in a hallway. After one night of staying there we quickly discovered the window to the hallway had absolutely no airflow and we quickly moved upstairs to an 800 baht room with a view and hot water shower. The 2 windows made the room cool off much faster and there was a breeze coming in from the balcony window that kept us from being suffocated. Did I mention the drunk unruly idiots banging on doors our first night? Did I mention the drain that didn’t drain and left 2 inches of standing water after a 3 minute shower? The move upstairs costs us 3 dollars more per night and probably was worth 50 dollars more in comfort. We stayed the rest of the time on Phi Phi upstairs with the view and airflow with no complaints.

As I mentioned earlier there was a gauntlet of people to talk to on the streets. Dive shop employees from before, friends, massage shop employees that recognized my face, restaurant waiters, etc. all wanted to stop me and ask the same questions over and over. When did you get back? Are you working here again? How long are staying? Where else are you travelling? I expected to know a couple people still here and there but I ended up seeing tons. What was more amazing was that random Thai staff that I never had any interactions with recognized me as well. It felt very nice to be so recognized and remembered. The only drawback of course was it nearly tripled our commute time every time we wanted to walk through town.

We had days of relaxing beach walks, hikes to the viewpoint (to see the sunrise, sometimes jetlag works in your favor), delicious food, and warm water swimming. I showed Carolyn my favorite restaurants, bars, and beaches and we discovered some new ones together. As usual we experienced some characteristically Thai events…

1. Thai kitty cooling:

I took Carolyn to Papaya. As one of the more authentic Thai eateries and most popular as well, it has an interesting feature. Phi Phi can be very hot during March. Much of the time spent on Phi Phi was spent acclimating to the hot and humid environment. The Thai cats at Papaya decided they don’t need to acclimate. Years ago one of them slipped into the beverage fridge for relief and families of cats have been living in the fridge over since. When they get too cold, they meow and paw, and the staff lets them out. When they get too hot they meow and paw and the staff lets them in. The Papaya cats have their servants trained so well!

2. Thai tomcat friendship:

Carolyn loves the cats and doesn’t mind petting each cat that rubs up against her. Carolyn was resisting this urge however because of fear of certain diseases like rabies (thanks Grandma and Auntie J). One meal we were getting some attention from a friendly cat and since it had a collar Carolyn broke her rule for the first time. The cat appreciated the pets and gave his thanks promptly. He turned to walk away and sprayed Carolyn’s entire lower leg. I of course laughed and said, “I told you so”. Now Carolyn only gives attention to small kittens.

3. Use of Thai Paypal:

We decided for a couple of reasons to go to Bangkok. I wanted to see a friend and I need a new camera (mine broke on the first dive of the trip). We also think there will be lots of great cultural sites to see. After finding some cheap flights up to Bangkok, we tried purchasing them online to no avail. The credit card payment would not go through. We called the airline and tried to book over the phone. They made the reservation but would only accept credit card payments if we emailed a picture of our credit card and passport. I told the operator that there was no way I would email my credit card to a random email address. She laid out the alternative. “Just pay cash at 7-11.” I initially balked at that idea thinking I must have heard her wrong but then after receiving the instruction again I was dumbfounded. “You want me to hand over cash to 7-11 and that’s how I will pay for my plane ticket?!” Apparently it’s a common thing for Thais with no credit cards. 7-11 charged us a 1 dollar fee to collect funds on behalf of the airline. We simply gave 7-11 the booking code and told them the price of the plane ticket and I got a text message from the airline shortly afterwards stating my booking confirmation. It must be the equivalent of Paypal just Thai style instead.

Carolyn and I ended up doing 3 days of diving together. For me it was like old times at my favorite Phi Phi divesites. For Carolyn it was all about discovering new fish and discovering her new gear purchased just for this trip. We had a great time together aside from some slight nausea issues that Carolyn quickly resolved by jumping into the water the second the boat stopped.

The absolute highlight of the diving (and one of the highlights of my entire diving career) was on our third day of diving. Because we had already visited the day’s first site of the day the previous days, I decided to take Carolyn to the more advanced side of the island. She had already seen seahorses, stingrays, turtles, black tip reef sharks, moray eels, puffer fish, angel fish, barracuda, shrimps, crabs, etc. etc. etc. and had been a happy diver so far. After 15 minutes of a pretty strong current and lowered visibility conditions we came around to some even stronger currents. I was just about to turn around when I saw a shadow pass over me. I looked up and saw some schools of fish and the silhouette of a boat. Right when I was about look away I realized the boat seemed to have a tail…a shark tail. I was not looking at a boat but rather a whale shark!

A little back story is probably required now. I have been diving for over 13 years now. I have over 900 dives and have never seen a whale shark except in pictures and video. My close friends Ryan and Alexia also have never seen the mysterious amazing creature. We have a running joke that whale sharks don’t really exist and that all previous sightings have been the result of hallucinations, overactive imaginations, camera glitches, and hoaxes. Whale sharks are one of the 3 types of sharks that filter feeds just like whales do (megamouth and basking sharks are the other 2). Whale sharks have been sighted up to 18 meter/60 feet in length. It is the biggest fish in the world. Because of shark finning and other human factors the gentle harmless whale shark is in massive decline. They are so elusive that scientists have no idea about the numbers and behavior of the animals.

So as I looked up at the 4.5 meter/15 foot silhouette it took a moment for my eyes to calibrate enough for me to confirm I was right before squeezing Carolyn’s hand and pointing up. She looked up too and quickly looked back to me for some kind of confirmation of our safety. I started quickly signing ‘Shark!!!’ ‘Shark!!!’ ‘Shark!!!’ to her- which really didn’t make her any happier. In my grand excitement I failed to sign the ‘W’ that would have quickly calmed her down. My fist was pumping. My breathing was accelerated. My eyes were wide. And so were Carolyn’s. She looked up. She looked around quickly. What was she thinking? “How do I get out of the water as soon as possible to get away from the animal that is obviously scaring the living daylights out of my experienced and otherwise calm dive buddy?” Carolyn has misinterpreted my massive excitement for fear. When I realized Carolyn’s eyes were huge with fear I got my wits about me and made time to sign the forgotten ‘W’ which immediately settled her concern. Over the next 35 minutes we swam along with majestic animal as it swam towards and away from the island. It swam straight for us at one point and we held our ground (water) until it turned and passed us by while looking us in the eye. Eventually it swam off into the blue and didn’t return. This was an experience of a lifetime.

We head to Koh Lanta Monday. This is a new island for both of us and supposedly a more laid back and cheap place. Pictures will be posted shortly of Phi Phi on Picasa.

CB and CB.

The return to Phuket and Phi Phi

3 days in Thailand already and loads of activities performed. We arrived late to our hotel Sunday morning around 2:30 am local time. The plan was for us to have a relaxing day acclimating to the heat and hustle and bustle of Phuket Town. Instead we ended up packing the day with things to do.

We started off the day by walking to the open air fresh market. I enjoyed this place in the past and it's interesting to be the only white people walking around. Fresh smelly fish, raw meat, peppers, spices, and flowers overloaded our senses. We picked up some fried breaded chicken and rice for breakfast and went back to our hotel to eat on the patio. Eventually we walked back to the mall looking for sim cards for the phone and coffee and discovered everything was still closed because it was Sunday. Who doesn't drink coffee because it's Sunday!?

We ended up running into a taxi driver that spoke fairly good English. We decided to start our adventure and ditched the plan to relax. First stop...Good coffee for Carolyn. Second stop...Elephant rides! We came to an elephant safari park that was really more like a tourist activity haven. They had shooting ranges, paintball, go-carts, ATV courses, and elephants. Our peaceful ride on the elephant ended up being great fun but a little weird with gunshots in the background soundtrack. Our elephant was named Watermelon and she was small and stubborn but we loved her the same.

After that we headed to a beautiful Buddhist temple. Many people were actively praying so we tried to be subtle with the picture taking. Other tourists were not quite as respectful unfortunately.

Eventually we ended up at a huge gem/jewelry showcase store. The taxi driver made it very clear to us that we didn't have to buy anything and they give him a 100 baht (3 dollar) kickback for every tourist he brings their way. He also gets 3% of whatever anyone ends up buying. It was on the way to our next destination anyway and Carolyn likes shiny things so it was a win win for everyone except for the market owners.

After that we headed to the Phuket Town viewpoint and saw the panoramic view of the city. Then we returned to the Buddhist temple that vanquished me some 1 and a half years earlier (see post from October 2009). Unfortunately Buddha still didn't like me and apparently Carolyn either because He attempted to burn the bottom of our feet with his scolding hot sun-soaked tiles and sent us running. No blood and no bruises this time so I'd say it was more of a strategic retreat as opposed to an all-out defeat.

The rest of the day we napped away our jetlag which of course was not actually helping us get rid of our jetlag any quicker. We decided that since we didn't have a whole lot to do in Phuket anymore that going to Phi Phi the next day would be the best use of our time. We finished up our busy day (besides the long nap) with some authentic streetside Thai food at the night market and headed home for sleep. I didn't get any sleep though because jetlag didn't want me to...

Back to the Blog

Well hello my blog reading friends. I'm sure some of you have been wondering why my blog has been idle for some time now. Some of you asked and got laziness as an answer. Some of you didn't seem to mind the quiet. Some of you realized I was favoring quick status updates on Facebook instead of lengthly journal entries. Well as of now I am officially reactivating the blog.

Since last I wrote I continued living in Phi Phi, Thailand until early May 2010. I kept working as a videographer making a decent living there. As April and May came around the Island slowed down as the season wound down and I quickly realized my time there was coming to an end. There were other places to visit and other opportunities as a Divemaster across Southeast Asia.

So that May I moved to Semporna, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. Semporna is the jumping-off point to the dive islands of Mabul, Kapalai, and Sipadan. These world class diving spots were at the very least places I needed to visit before I died. Wouldn't it be a great thing to get to work there for a while? I started out by diving the different spots by paying and started dropping my resume/CV off to all the different dive operators. It took about 3 weeks but one day I was quickly hired and rushed to Uncle Chang's Dive Resort on Mabul to work as a divemaster.

Over the next 3 months I worked day in and day out taking intrepid divers out to the different spots for 3 dives a day. I was paid a small salary and given a room, a roommate, 3 meals a day, and free diving when I wasn't working (most employees slept during their off times while I continued to dive as much as possible). During the evenings we partied with the guests and other staff. Electricity only ran during the night. Internet was sparse. But somehow I was very happy there just diving and socializing.

In August of 2011 I decided it was time to return home to real world. My sister was expecting her second child and I wanted to be around for that. I made a decision to relocate totally to Seattle instead of the Bay Area. Since then I have been procrastinating getting a real job and starting a normal life here. I started dating a wonderful girl named Carolyn back in November and we went to Hawaii in January together.

So here is the punchline. The blog is being revived because it's important to have one again. Carolyn and I have decided to travel for a couple of months to Southeast Asia. This time we plan on doing it right. Instead of working, we will travel from spot to spot, sampling the different cultures, foods, atmospheres, and hopefully lots of great diving along the way. We have an open itinerary with a list of places we would like to see and open minds.

As of right now the rough list is as follows off the top of my head: Thailand-- Phuket, Phi Phi, Krabi, Koh Lanta. Malaysia-- Lankawi, Tioman, Perhentians, Kuala Lumpur. Indonesia-- Bali, Tulamben, Gili, Java, Komodo. Philippines-- Cebu, Boracai, Malapascu, Palawan, Moalboal, Manila.

Our flight leaves March 11th to Phuket via Seoul.

Adventure here we come!

Same Same Different Day

Well I know it has been a very long time since my last post. My job is going well and it provides quite a bit of entertainment for me. Unfortunately though it sucks all my energy so I never feel like writing emails, blog updates, and posting pictures.

My work days are pretty consistent:

06:30 Wake up and get ready for work. Pack my bag.

07:10 Walk to 7/11 and buy milk then bakery for bread.

07:20 Get to work, eat, clean camera lens.

07:30 Introduce myself to the day's customers.

07:45 Walk to pier ahead of customers to catch them walking to the boat.

08:00 Film, Dive, Eat, Film, Dive, Film, Film, Film.

13:30 Arrive back at shop and start the video capture process.
13:45 Walk home and take shower, relax for 20 minutes, possibly nap for 20 minutes.

14:30 Walk back to work and start editing.

18:00 Finish editing and start burning DVD.

18:10 Find and order dinner.

18:20 Go pick up and dinner, bring it back to the shop, and eat.

19:00 Make the critical decision whether or not to walk home for the next hour or just work.

20:00 Wait for customers to arrive and show them the DVD.

20:30 Shmoose with customers to see if they want to buy DVD.

20:45 Burn more copies of the DVD if more than 1 copy sells.

21:00 Wait around because I have to be back to the shop at 21:30 for boat assignments for tomorrow.

21:30 Receive boat assignments for the next day and decide whether or not the customers are worth selling to.

21:45 Pack my divegear box and order lunch for the next day.

22:00 Decide whether or not I want to socialize with friends or go home and collapse.

So basically my work days end up being effectively 14 hours usually.

Some days I end up going out the bars with friends until midnight or so. If I don't have to dive I usually stay longer. Unfortunately the only place to socialize on the island is bars or at work--therefore I spend the majority of my time here on the island at work. This is fun sometimes and wears thin other days. There are a lot of personalities at work and of course there are some people I prefer to be around and others I wish would forget to show up (occasionally this happens too!).

My boss is a German man that has been on the island too long. He has the European machismo thing going on and can be quite obnoxious, unreasonable, and rude. It's okay though because he does it out of the respect and love for his job right?

I have other co-workers that follow in the same suit and think it is their moral imperative to be obnoxiously condescending and flip at all times.

Ryan has a theory that being on the island too long makes a person 'affected'. I can't think of a single diveshop manager on the island that isn't socially screwed up in some way or another. You just need to learn to deal with these people, or plain avoid them.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I enjoy life here. It's different. It's fun. It's relaxed even with the long work hours. Despite all this I'm very excited to be leaving the island for a visa run today. This is the first time I get the leave the island since I arrived on Phi Phi back on October 1st.

I'm headed to Laos. I will be flying to the Thailand/Laos border and then will take a minibus or series of minibuses to Vientiane. This is where I will hand over my passport at the Thailand embassy and then wait for them to put a brand new visa in there. I hope to see some culture while I'm there and maybe even take some pictures. I will be back to Phuket on Dec 24th and back to Phi Phi on the Christmas morning ferry.

Have a great holiday season and wonderful time with family and friends!

~Chris

P.S. Today will not be Same Same Different Day!

Getting Paid to Play

Well it has been a long time since my last post. Party because I was busy, partly because I was procrastinating. Even as I write this I’m thinking about maybe I should go get breakfast and finish this later!

So I finished my Divermaster course about 2 weeks ago. Alexia and I spent a couple of hours in the confined water together evaluating my skill circuits. We quickly discovered I wasn’t going to need another session because I needed little no remediation on pretty much every exercise.

Then we moved on to the underwater gear exchange. This skill is supposed to be a huge problem solving exercise and I can see that it could be difficult if you had 2 much more green divers performing the skill. Since Alexia and I both have roughly 500 dives each though, it was downright hilarious. Our biggest challenge was not laughing so hard we would drown! The exercise involves exchanging all of your gear with a buddy, underwater, while buddy-breathing*--this means scuba rig, fins, masks, etc. all have to be exchanged while taking turns breathing 2 breaths each from the same regulator. (*Padi doesn’t let us call this buddy-breathing anymore because it was recently taken out of the official Padi literature and training procedures yet is still a requirement for the DM program!).

The skill requires good teamwork, tons of air sharing, and extreme comfort underwater. The extra challenge that Alexia and I experienced was weighting. For some reason as soon as we switched rigs, neither of us had enough weight anymore. Each time one of us took in a large breath that we would have to save for the next 30 seconds, our buoyancy would increase so much that we would begin floating to the surface. So there we were with an imaginary teeter totter pushing one of us up while the other had to hold the other down. I was yanking Alexia down by her foot or calf and then I would shove the regulator back in here mouth as her hands were busy buckling straps or dawning fins. We were highly amused by the scenario but managed to keep our composure until the instant we ascended to the surface at the end of the drill and broke into uncontrollable laughter.

So once I finished all the paperwork and we sent in the forms to Padi, I started working on my diver resume. I needed to walk around the island handing my resume out to each diveshop manager hoping to differentiate myself from all the other new DM’s walking around doing the same thing. The first big challenge here is language skills. Diveshops hoard people with language skills far before anything else—even diving ability and experience. So when work is a little slow (and it still is since high season really hasn’t ramped up), the only people they give the time of day to is multi-lingual individuals. Eventually when they get busy this will be less of a problem and they will start using dependable skilled DM’s. Ironically language isn’t an enormous issue in the first place for a DM. I would say 90% of the people walking off the ferries can speak English enough to dive with an English-only DM. The diveshops just want to cover that 10% case so the other shops don’t get that business which is understandable. The front of every diveshop is plastered with signs and flags noting which languages the shop is capable of catering to.

The next struggle is the under-qualification of being a DM. This is something Alexia and Ryan didn’t face because they came onto the island as experienced instructors. Diveshops much rather have a full compliment of instructors than DM’s because DM’s can only take out 2 types of customers—certified fundivers and scuba refreshers. Instructors can take out every type of diver or non-diver. Here on Phi Phi a large percentage of divers are Discover Scuba Divers (dsd’s). They have never been on scuba before and are trying it out for the first time on their holiday. I have been to many other destinations where the majority of the travelers are already certified divers and therefore have no need for an instructor during their holiday. Some shops plain don’t hire DM’s here and others hire very few and get help from freelancers for the rest of the time.

The next point makes me sound bitter…when a shop tells you they have all their staffing needs, and then the very next day hires a female DM will 60 dives and no experience, it stings a bit. So what really annoys me is the constant lying by the managers. They say they will put you on a list but never call. They say they are staffed up but hire 2 more people with language skills or breasts the very next day. The whole process is demoralizing but the trick is to be persistent. Well I chose another option after a week of failure.

I heard about a shop that was looking for a videographer. They were willing to hire this person with no experience and no video equipment. I walked back in the shop and talked to the manager (a manager that told me he wasn’t looking for anything only days earlier), and he said I could have the job.

So now I have my first job on the island working as a videographer for P.P. Sea Frog. The job entails filming customers getting on the boat, getting briefed, gearing up, entering the water, diving, exiting the water, relaxing on the boat, diving again, and then exiting the boat. Then I spend the next 2-4 hours editing (will be less and less as I get better) so that I can try to sell the video to the divers after dinner. I only make money if they purchase a video and the shops makes a 60% cut because they supply the camera, tapes, dvd’s, tanks, and lunch for me.

I have now performed this duty for 2 days. I have gotten some pretty fun footage and I believe I am off to a good start being a good videographer. I have sold 0 videos so far but not for lack of trying. The challenge of course is reading the customers. Sometimes the sale is more about the customer than the product. I have seen some videos that sold well from other videographers and it’s obvious the customer only buys a video if they were willing to buy one in the first place regardless of quality or content.

So this is my job now—swimming around underwater looking for interesting shots to stick in a video—bouncing from divegroup to divegroup capturing the divers looking funny or posing behind sharks and turtles. Ironically I usually pay people all around the world to let me to swim around and take pictures/video of interesting animals and scenery; now I get to paid to do it or at the very least I get to do it for free!

Time in Paradise

Well it’s been a slow week in Paradise for me. I have settled into my bungalow nicely and my schedule is pretty relaxed.

For the first 5 days here I assisted Alexia during her shop hours. This involves sitting in a dive shop trying to catch people’s eyes as they walk by to sell them Discover Scuba Diving or Open Water Certification. Since I’m not really working at the shop for me it involved studying for Dive Master exams, finishing up Knowledge Reviews, and taking the exams. I have started working on my DM Mapping Project which is more of an exercise in concentration than actual difficulty which is pretty much why I haven’t finished!

As soon as my arm was healed enough for getting wet I couldn’t wait to get in the water for the first time on my journey. Alexia and I popped into the confined water section of the beach to work on some DM Watermanship tests. This involved me performing the 400 meter timed swim, the 800 meter timed snorkel/fin swim, and the 15 minute tread. I have yet to complete the 100 meter timed tired diver tow but expect to do this afternoon with Alexia after we complete some skill circuits.

The next day I joined another Barakuda Shop (Alexia’s diveshop) instructor in the confined water to help him out with an Open Water student. This was my first exposure to a non-Diver Dan’s instructor and the ways of island instruction. I was not impressed. I won’t go into too many details but I was surprised to see how many skills were glossed over, under-demonstrated, under-performed, or just plain ignored. This style certainly breeds a different kind of PADI Open Water diver from what I am used to back at home.

The next day I was fortunate to go on both the morning and afternoon boats to assist with both the OW student from a previous day, as well as Alexia’s OW students in the afternoon. All 4 dives were a pleasure, and it was nice to go diving for real again since the last time I was out was August 22 on 3 Reefcheck dives. I found it exhausting for a couple of reasons:

1. It was the first truly sunny day since I had been to Phi Phi and the sun just sapped the energy out of me. I applied and reapplied sunscreen the entire day but still lost the battle to the sun. Very unhappy about my burned arms and legs.
2. Working as a DM on the boat is very different from paying to play—you are always on, watching people, trying to accommodate their needs, packing and unpacking the boat. Underwater you are watching the divers like a hawk (I am used to this because of working with OW classes back at home), making sure they don’t float off, making sure they are happy.

Yesterday I finished up another 2 dives with Alexia’s OW students. They are very sweet people from London (New Zealand and Scotland originally), and we went to dinner to celebrate their conquering of their first diving certification. They gave both Alexia and me substantial tips which is something I shouldn’t get used to. No one tips here and I definitely didn’t expect it since I’m not even a paid member of the staff.

I hope to be finished with all my DM stuff in a couple of days. Barakuda said they might be interested in having me onboard although I’m still not sure if I want a DM staff position over a freelancing position. There are tradeoffs to both and the freedom associated with freelancing is quite alluring. There is plenty of time for all that to play out.

As for non-diving lifestyle, I’m finding the food great. I rarely pay more that 3 or 4 dollars for a meal and the portions and tastes are well worth it. Honestly I have already fallen into a rut of similar restaurants and ordering the same dishes at many of them. I’m trying to make a conscious effort to order something new but it is always a struggle when I have a specific craving for something I know and love (Masu Man Curry is awesome here!).

My place is quaint. It is a room with a fan directed at my full-sized bed. There are some chairs, end tables, and a vanity. There is no dresser so I’m a little unhappy about the lack of storage space. I’m thinking about buying a plastic stackable drawer set.

The room is spacious and so is the bathroom even. The bathroom is made to be wet at all times. Thai bathrooms don’t like to separate their showers from the rest of the room so the entire tiled space gets wet when you take a shower. That doesn’t bother me at all actually. The only complaint I have at all is the lack of hot water. The water doesn’t come out freezing by any means but getting used to a cool shower takes a bit.

Here are some pictures:

Angry Buddha that kicked me off his temple

Crazy kaleidoscope of colors, swelling, and cut on my left arm

A lion fish just chilling out

The really cool sheer cliffs of the islands here

My front door and patio

Angry Buddha, Apologetic Buddha

I have made it to Phuket successfully! Every part of course was an adventure.

My arrival to Phuket came a couple hours late. The boards in the Bangkok airport didn't bother to tell anyone the plane was late and of course the staff doesn't want to stand there and wait for a late plane so they are hiding from the inquiring passengers. For a long time the flight didn't even get a gate assignment. There is something quite unnerving about being in a foreign airport, knowing your boarding time is 15:55 and staring at a board that has a blank spot under the gate column at 15:50. Eventually I tracked down an Asia Air person and got them to look it up in the system. She told me to go to B2 but failed to mention the flight wouldn't start boarding until 17:30.

The only highlight of my flight was one of the most beautiful above cloud sunsets I have ever seen. The light filtered though many layers of clouds and caused sunrays, orange, red, deep blue, and purple colored dramatic excellence. (no picture sorry)

Upon landing I was treated with a 1.5 hour minibus ride that was supposed to be 20 minutes. Long story short they had no idea which town my hotel was in and we took an island tour.

Wednesday morning I was awakened by jetlag at 05:00 and a power outage and decided to take a walk. I found the local fish market and grocery place where all the locals buy and sell everything. I found a cheap breakfast and was happy.

After walking and realizing everything was closed this early I decided to see sites instead of stores. I found a taxi driver that would drive me from site to site and would wait at each place while I took pictures. Eventually we found a 30 meter tall sitting Buddha statue. I climbed the temple to take pictures, removed my sandals as required, but still managed to make Buddha angry.

On the way back down the stairs, I realized the steps seemed very slippery as it was raining. I reached for the handrail and before I could get to it, my feet were already in front of me and I was headed down the stairs—all the way down the stairs. I’m not sure how many obscenities I uttered but when I got to the bottom and just laid there trying to figure out how many bones I broke, a kind Buddhist Monk came out of nowhere and said, “Walk slowly, walk slowly, must walk slowly.” He may have been trying to tell me to get up slowly but either way I found it hilarious that I just swore all the way down a Buddhist temple.

I gashed my arm pretty good and had additional scrapes on my ankles, and other arm. My tailbone took quite a beating too. The taxi driver ended up taking me to the clinic for some gauze and to get cleaned up. I paid a whopping 100 Baht for the service and medical supplies. I asked for extra gauze so I could keep changing the dressing and she handed tons over with a brand new roll of medical tape. That’s 3 bucks US in case you are wondering! Pretty good considering she worked the wound for 10 minutes.

Off I went to Patong Beach. This is the super touristy beach of Phuket Island. The beach was nice but quite exposed to the direct winds from the West. This location got hit hard by the 2004 Tsunami but you couldn’t tell from the looks of it.

My next adventure might seem naïve to some of you but I enjoyed it and don’t regret it. I was approached by 2 Brits about a free prize based on some scratch tickets. I scratched and won a t-shirt on the first card, and the grand prize on the second. The grand prize ended up being a 1 week vacation in a nice resort in either Phuket, Ko Samui, Pattaya, Spain, or China. While I was quite skeptical, the Brits’ reactions made me feel it wasn’t as much of a scam. They were both super surprised I had scratched the Grand Prize and told me that most people only win t-shirts, free drinks, dinners out at a local cabaret, and occasionally a free night at a local resort.

So to collect my prize I had to sit through a 90 minute timeshare presentation. It ended up being pretty cool although much longer than 90 minutes (the guy was new and slow at his job). They drove us to 3 different resorts in the system and at each place he offered me a drink to relax while we were waiting for the next transport. When all was said and done I had 4 non-alcoholic mixed fruit shakes and a full lunch, all at beachside spots and resorts. While it hadn’t been my original plan for the day, it was a pretty great alternative considering my tailbone and arm were throbbing. I guess Buddha was apologizing for his harsh treatment earlier in the day.

Later in the evening, I caught up with Ryan and Alexia. (for those of you that don’t know, Ryan and Alexia are close friends that paved the way for me to be here. They did all the research ahead of time, made all the mistakes for me, and now I get to steal of the fruits of their labor). They were arriving from a Kuala Lumpur visa run and I was waiting in Phuket an extra day to travel with them to Ko Phi Phi Don the following morning. After a long morning of last minute shopping, we boarded a 1:30 ferry and by 3:30 we rolled into my new home.

Ko Phi Phi Don is a beautiful island with amazing limestone cliffs and blue crescent sandy beaches. I will be posting many pictures later. With only less than 2 days here I am already extremely happy with my choice of islands. The food has already been a treat and super cheap cheap.

Tomorrow I will be pounding through my Diver Master exams so I can finish up my DM soon. It’s good to do it now while I’m banned from the water with a gash in my arm.