Holiday
A Long Story
Wow, it has been over a month since my last entry
but at least I have something to blog about. Well
that’s not quite true, I actually have a lot to
blog about! Now the hard bit is deciding where to
start.
So in my last post I was Duty Manager and trapped in my apartment in India planning my trip to Thailand, so let’s start there. Well on the Monday Chris Gothard, a collegue from the UK arrived in order to meet the team and discuss a few organisation changes. It was a great week and Chris enjoyed putting names to faces and catching up with people that he had only spoken to previously via the phone and email. It was a busy week with a lot of stuff to cover but we got through everything and even resolved some long outstanding issues. Sometimes its just so much easier when you can sit down and discuss things. Friday was Chris and Sandra’s last day in India before they flew back to the UK so there was a big party to see them off. I think most people from the team in India made it along at some point and judging by the fact you couldn’t get on the dance floor I think everybody had a great time.
Saturday morning I woke up feeling a lot better than I expected to given the amount I had poured down my neck. I love a free bar! Karan was prompt as usual and after manhandeling my suit case into the car we headed for Delhi’s IGI Airport. I arrived with plenty of time to spare but I was in holiday mode and didn’t care as I sat there listening to my iPod watching the world go by. We boarded the plane, and my backside struggled to get use to the economy seats. Thankfully it was only a three hour flight and after few beers to top up Friday nights quota I was soon asleep.
We
touched down at Bangkok’s International Airport
about 20 minutes late and disembarked straight
away. I sailed through passport control and my bag
was on the belt waiting for me. Perfect! I headed
out and grabbed the first taxi I could find and
gave him the address of the Hotel and we set off.
As we drove the 40 minutes to the hotel I answered
the normal question on where I was from, how I was
here on holiday, and yes I liked beautiful women. I
looked out of the window at the high rise
skyscrappers and felt very much at home even though
there was palm trees everywhere. We arrived at the
hotel and I checked in, grabbed a shower, and
changed my clothes. Unpacking would have to wait as
I had spotted a McDonalds across from the hotel as
we arrived. As I walked in through the big glass
doors I am sure I looked insane with the smile I
was wearing, as I ordered I must have looked like a
raving lunatic.
As I approached the counter thoughts raced through
my mind, how many Big Mac’s did they have in stock?
Would I be allowed to order them all? Would they
deliver to India? I approached with caution and
ordered a large Big Mac meal. I don’t remember the
next 3.6 minutes as I was in a “Happy Place”. As I
liked my fingers and drained my full fat coke I
could only think of one thing.
A Cheese Burger Meal!
So back at the counter and then back to my table
and the “Happy
Place”.
After eating I just felt really tired, but knew if
I went to bed to early I would be awake early hours
so I went for a wander. It didn’t take me to long
to find a bar and as I walked in I was welcomed by
3 or 4 very beautiful girls. I sat at the bar and
ordered a beer and two of the girls sat down with
me. They asked me the same questions the cab driver
had asked me and made general chit chat. By the
time I finished my beer one of the girls was sat on
my lap and the other one rubbing my shoulders. I
made my excuses, well they weren’t really excuses
as I was totally knackered, and headed back to the
hotel alone. I grabbed a quick drink in the bar and
then headed to bed.
Over the next few days I enjoyed laying in, usually until 10:00 before venturing out to for breakfast. After breakfast I would do a little shopping and generally look around before heading in search
of
Lunch. Lunch usually focused around beef in one
form or another. After lunch I would head back to
the hotel to drop my bags off and would then spend
a few hours by the pool. Around 15:00 I would
generally doze off and wake a couple of hours later
ready to eat. I would grab a shower and change, not
that it was really worth it as I within 30 seconds
of leaving the hotel I would be sweating
profoundly. I would then enjoy a few drinks and
make small talk with the girls. They tried to teach
me Thai and laughed at my mispronunciation.
Tuesday night I caught the night train from Bangkok to Champon. It was very similar to the train I caught from Mumbia to Goa although there were less bunks per carriage and a lot more space. I arrived in Chanpon about 04:30 Wednesday morning and was meet at the train station by the company that runs one of the ferries between Champon and Koh Tao. It was about a 20 minute drive from the train station to the ferry terminal and then we had an hours wait until the ferry left. Luckily there was a cafe which sold coffee and snacks.
The
ferry took about 3 hours and I got talking to one
of the deck hands who spoke very good English which
passed the time. We reached the island of Koh Tao
about 11:00 and it was a short walk along the beach
to the dive school. Once at the school I filled in
the paperwork and checked into my room. The room
was quite basic, bathroom, double bed, TV, but it
would do. I grabbed a shower and then headed off in
search of some lunch. It wasn’t hard as there were
only two main streets and every other building was
a resturant which sold good old English food. It
was fantastic sat in shorts and t-shirts looking
out at the beach eating Sausage and Mash. After
lunch I headed back to my room and grabbed a few
hours sleep. I woke up and headed to the bar
grabbed a drink and got chatting to the other
people that would be on my course. We all had a few
beers and then headed off for dinner.
The second day we all met up at 09:00 and headed for the class room and a morning of video’s and tests. We finished about 14:00 by which time I was starving so headed in search of lunch. The afternoon was spent in the swimming pool running through some of the basic skills. Over the next few days we headed out to sea a practices our skills before diving the various reefs and huntng down different fish, stingyrays, and turtles. The last dive of the PADI Open Water exam was a night dive, which was in my view one of the best. We headed out about 18:00 and arrived at the dive site just as the sun was setting. We entered the water, turned on our torches and desended. It was amazing as there seems to be a lot more around. As we surfaced we all looked up and the stars seemed so bright. We bobbed around for about 10 minutes just staring at the sky before returning to the boat.
The
next day we started our advanced course, and more
book work. Luckily it was just the morning and in
the afternoon we headed out to do our first two
dives. The first was fish ID, which as it says was
all about identifying underwater sea life, whilst
the second was navigation, and I think my sailing
helped a little as I was familiar with a compass
and found the tasks no problem at all. When we got
back I elected to do another course, NITROX, which
allows you to dive on a mixture of Oxygen and
Nitrogen rather than air. The benefit of this is
that you can stay under for longer periods. There
was another exam but it was basically algothrims so
was pretty easy.
The folowing day was the last two dives of the advanced course and probably the most fun after the night dive. The first was the deep dive, which basically sees how you are affected by Narcoisis. We reached just over 30 metres and nobody showed any signs. Quite disappointing really. The last dive I did with a Dive Propelled Vehicle. This allowed us to cover an awful lot more ground and use a lot less air as we weren’t expending as much energy. As I had completed the NITROX course we completed the last two dives on Nitrox we were down for about 40 minutes on each dive and still came up with enough for another 20 minutes, but had to surface as others were low on air. That afternoon we completed all our paperwork and recieved our tempory certificates.
The following day was my birthday so I decided on a different type of sporting activity, namely drinking until I fell down. I was accompanied by a number of
the
Dive Master and Instructors and got to bed about
01:00 the following morning after basically
crawling my way around pubs all day. I was
surprised when I woke up at 10:00 the following
morning with only a mild headache, which was
quickly resolved after a visit to the NITROX tank
building. That afternoon I signed up for two last
fun dives. We went back to places I had seen before
but it was a lot more fun as we didn’t have to
practice all the skills and I was put with an
experienced diver. We were on air for both of these
dives but were down for over 50 minutes each time.
When we surfaced I still had enough for another
15-20 minutes. That evening I went for drinks with
some of the Dive Masters and long term visitors who
just couldn’t bring themselves to leave.
The following morning I packed, ate some lunch and then headed for the ferry port as my time on Koh Tao was over. As I sat there watching the ferry pull in I checked my BlackBerry and saw an email saying that I was needed in the UK as soon as possible. I made a couple of calls to find out what was going on, and then returned to my holiday. The ferry ride took about two hours and when I arrived at the ferry port in Koh Sumai I was greated by GIANT. No kidding you this guy was about 40” Tall and like 18 tons. Okay maybe not quite but you get the picture. I swallowed hard when he held up a card with the name of my hotel on it. I wanded over and said “Hi!” He introduced himself as Vince and lifed my suitcase, which by now did weight at least a ton, cleanly onto his shoulder. I followed him to the minibus, where he loaded my case into the back and then waved goodbye. It was about a 30 minute ride to the hotel and I was pretty knackered. Koh Sumia according to everyone is very touristy, and that’s the impression I got as we drove through what looked like little spain. We arrived at the hotel, which was right on the beach and I checked before grabbing a shower and change of clothes. I went for a short walk, but there wasn’t much about, apart from the normal gift shops. I headed to the hotel bar and order a drink and something to eat but struggled to finish them both, so called it quits and headed to bed.
The
following morning I woke up about 10:00 felling a
lot better but didn’t really have time to do
anything as my flight was at 15:00. It was only 15
Minutes to the airport so I opted for a morning by
the pool. I arrived at the airport on time, and
enjoyed the whole experieince. Seriously I have
never seen an airport like it. You felt as if you
were on the beech. They even had free fruit juice,
fruit, and pasteries.
We departed on time and 2 hours later landed back in Bangkok where I repeated the actions of my first day and grabbed a cab to the hotel. I had a 18:00 flight the following day but a 14:00 checkout and 3 hour airport checkin, so I grabbed something to eat and then hit the bars for one last night in Thailand, and the last steak for a while. I got to bed about 02:00 and woke about 11:00 the next day. After showing and packing I had a quick brunch and then checked out and headed back to the airport.
I arrived back in New Delhi at 21:00 Sunday night and was met by a very happy Karan. He couldn’t wait to tell me the good news about he and his wife having a baby son. I got back to the apartment about 22:00 and unpacked. Well I think most of the clothes walked to the laundry basket themselves. Then headed to bed.
See the Thailand Photos.
So in my last post I was Duty Manager and trapped in my apartment in India planning my trip to Thailand, so let’s start there. Well on the Monday Chris Gothard, a collegue from the UK arrived in order to meet the team and discuss a few organisation changes. It was a great week and Chris enjoyed putting names to faces and catching up with people that he had only spoken to previously via the phone and email. It was a busy week with a lot of stuff to cover but we got through everything and even resolved some long outstanding issues. Sometimes its just so much easier when you can sit down and discuss things. Friday was Chris and Sandra’s last day in India before they flew back to the UK so there was a big party to see them off. I think most people from the team in India made it along at some point and judging by the fact you couldn’t get on the dance floor I think everybody had a great time.
Saturday morning I woke up feeling a lot better than I expected to given the amount I had poured down my neck. I love a free bar! Karan was prompt as usual and after manhandeling my suit case into the car we headed for Delhi’s IGI Airport. I arrived with plenty of time to spare but I was in holiday mode and didn’t care as I sat there listening to my iPod watching the world go by. We boarded the plane, and my backside struggled to get use to the economy seats. Thankfully it was only a three hour flight and after few beers to top up Friday nights quota I was soon asleep.
Over the next few days I enjoyed laying in, usually until 10:00 before venturing out to for breakfast. After breakfast I would do a little shopping and generally look around before heading in search
Tuesday night I caught the night train from Bangkok to Champon. It was very similar to the train I caught from Mumbia to Goa although there were less bunks per carriage and a lot more space. I arrived in Chanpon about 04:30 Wednesday morning and was meet at the train station by the company that runs one of the ferries between Champon and Koh Tao. It was about a 20 minute drive from the train station to the ferry terminal and then we had an hours wait until the ferry left. Luckily there was a cafe which sold coffee and snacks.
The second day we all met up at 09:00 and headed for the class room and a morning of video’s and tests. We finished about 14:00 by which time I was starving so headed in search of lunch. The afternoon was spent in the swimming pool running through some of the basic skills. Over the next few days we headed out to sea a practices our skills before diving the various reefs and huntng down different fish, stingyrays, and turtles. The last dive of the PADI Open Water exam was a night dive, which was in my view one of the best. We headed out about 18:00 and arrived at the dive site just as the sun was setting. We entered the water, turned on our torches and desended. It was amazing as there seems to be a lot more around. As we surfaced we all looked up and the stars seemed so bright. We bobbed around for about 10 minutes just staring at the sky before returning to the boat.
The folowing day was the last two dives of the advanced course and probably the most fun after the night dive. The first was the deep dive, which basically sees how you are affected by Narcoisis. We reached just over 30 metres and nobody showed any signs. Quite disappointing really. The last dive I did with a Dive Propelled Vehicle. This allowed us to cover an awful lot more ground and use a lot less air as we weren’t expending as much energy. As I had completed the NITROX course we completed the last two dives on Nitrox we were down for about 40 minutes on each dive and still came up with enough for another 20 minutes, but had to surface as others were low on air. That afternoon we completed all our paperwork and recieved our tempory certificates.
The following day was my birthday so I decided on a different type of sporting activity, namely drinking until I fell down. I was accompanied by a number of
The following morning I packed, ate some lunch and then headed for the ferry port as my time on Koh Tao was over. As I sat there watching the ferry pull in I checked my BlackBerry and saw an email saying that I was needed in the UK as soon as possible. I made a couple of calls to find out what was going on, and then returned to my holiday. The ferry ride took about two hours and when I arrived at the ferry port in Koh Sumai I was greated by GIANT. No kidding you this guy was about 40” Tall and like 18 tons. Okay maybe not quite but you get the picture. I swallowed hard when he held up a card with the name of my hotel on it. I wanded over and said “Hi!” He introduced himself as Vince and lifed my suitcase, which by now did weight at least a ton, cleanly onto his shoulder. I followed him to the minibus, where he loaded my case into the back and then waved goodbye. It was about a 30 minute ride to the hotel and I was pretty knackered. Koh Sumia according to everyone is very touristy, and that’s the impression I got as we drove through what looked like little spain. We arrived at the hotel, which was right on the beach and I checked before grabbing a shower and change of clothes. I went for a short walk, but there wasn’t much about, apart from the normal gift shops. I headed to the hotel bar and order a drink and something to eat but struggled to finish them both, so called it quits and headed to bed.
We departed on time and 2 hours later landed back in Bangkok where I repeated the actions of my first day and grabbed a cab to the hotel. I had a 18:00 flight the following day but a 14:00 checkout and 3 hour airport checkin, so I grabbed something to eat and then hit the bars for one last night in Thailand, and the last steak for a while. I got to bed about 02:00 and woke about 11:00 the next day. After showing and packing I had a quick brunch and then checked out and headed back to the airport.
I arrived back in New Delhi at 21:00 Sunday night and was met by a very happy Karan. He couldn’t wait to tell me the good news about he and his wife having a baby son. I got back to the apartment about 22:00 and unpacked. Well I think most of the clothes walked to the laundry basket themselves. Then headed to bed.
See the Thailand Photos.
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No News - Boring Really!
Being confined to the apartment has forced me to sort out my trip to Thailand however. The plan as it stands at the moment is to fly from New Delhi to Bangkok on the 17th May. Then on or around the 20th May I travel by overnight train to Chumpon where I get a ferry to the island of Koh Tao. I stay on Koh Tao until the 30th May (Diving Courses) when I then get a ferry to the island of Koh Sumui where I stay the night before flying back to Bangkok on the 31st. All I need to do know is sort out what I am going to do for the first 3/4 days. I am thinking of a day in Bangkok and then heading north but I am still trying to sort out the finer details.
I am also starting to plan some weekends away as time is running out fast. With the weather the way it is some of the hill stations sound alluring as they tend to be a lot cooler, but I need to do some more research.