Islands

We only jumped over the islands to get back to Bangkok, ending up in Chumphong on the east coast. The islands are sort of "same-same". Trees, coco-nut and crazy tuk-tuk drivers...  Sem-same - an expression Thai's use often, saying same-same adding "but different". This since it is not same at all... for some reason the expression has stayed with us... Boat was packed to Tao - a very very small island that young travelers for some reason se as the Ultimate Island, not sure if it is for party or the beauty of it. 

Great diving with nice viz here; we are told. Another reason to return - another time.

Moving towards other islands, Phanang and Tao

We have decided that we are done with island traveling however we are taking the boat to Phanang and Tao before getting back to the plane to Sweden on the 25th. We have travelled many hours on busses and boats so at this point a 3-hours boat ride sounds like a treat. It is hot however a few days with overcast is very nice. It has been raining the past few days off and on. We blame it on the Canadian that said rains follows him on his vacations... I guess he is here now.

Koh Samui - living seven meters from the ocean

Well if this 'aint another paradise - I don't know what is! Cute island and we are litary living 7 meters (21 feet) from the ocean. Well we are not under the waves since we have a coral reef outside our lagune.  Fantastic, very simple with a shower like a nice drizzle... how am I going to wash my hair here..? Great challenges to have :-) We'll stay here another night.

See-you-soon-again-dinner tonight

Pretty special tonight... We are going out with Bum and Andy for special Thai BBQ, looking forward to it.

Taking the bus to Surat Tani tomorrow mornign after visiting Big BUddah, then we'll be on the ferry to Koh Samui for a couple of days...

The internets!

Well you can't do much without internet access nooooor with minute access to a sssloooow internet. I got spoiled at the hostel in Bangkok with free wireless access. I am not behind on blogging just behind in updating the blog…. stuff is happening yet without access not much will happen.

Diver nuts

There is no stop, we went to Kara and Karon today to shop and change of view. Joar bought DIVE - a UK divers magazine! They had a mask for me in it, totally water-leak proof, say goodbye to flushing your mask anymore.

Karon is cute, several Swedish restaurants and a Dive shop, as well, owned and runned by a Swedish couple from Göteborg area. We spoke for a while. Nice guy. His wife had gone to Sweden to visit their new grandchild. They had only had the store for about a year. He loved it and said that His main concern was with all the divers he certified and the urgency of setting a new diver goal, as a new student. He had over 4,500 dives, coldest water dives he had done was in Kyrkenäs in Norway. That is way up there above the artic circle… He said that outside Gäddestad on the Swedish west coast towards Norway was something to look forward to.  I guess I will then.

Haggeling

Bought a shawl - I really did not need it yet when you are talking about 200 bath it is ok. He wanted 750, I said 200, he said 500, I said ok-no that interested anyway, not the best I have seen, and then he agreed on 200. Wow - what happened with all the sales courses I’ve taken… or is that what I am wreaking now? :-)

Water!!

Beware and USE the complementary water bottles in the bathroom as they are to be used rinsing when tooth brushing -  since it saves from locals from sick foreigners. I did not think that the water was that bad but ohhh Myyyy God! I got so sick on the boat from accidentally getting “fresh” water in my mouth, swooshed it around it and spat it out… ohh it felt so nice when doing it and I got the salt water out alright... :-) However it was a quick turn around, 12 hours = Done! Yet I was sick as a dog within 10 minutes. Hotel water must be very nice compared to what the boat offered, it was a nice sweat water shower though. Live and learn!

Wow - talk about stress and final study crunch. We got a Dive-log and a patch to prove it! Björn was our study-master, talk about a son with tons of patience. Final two dive was great, Rachi Yai Island, yet again we took the gear of under water and all that crap. I personally hate it and hope that I will Never be in a situation where I need to do all that again. I will dive again, fun-dive that is! Our test-scores was 96/B-94/T-90/J-84/A. 

Food

Well there is the Thai way or the European way…

Thai-food is the usual - rice and vegetable/meat/fish deal. Toby is totally sold on Fried rice with vegetable and eggs and Thai chili sauce. Never go wrong on that! Joar is a noodle guy, lots of vegetable-’n’oodles’f’noodles. I am not sure yet. I love green curry, basil and lemongrass taste. SInce I am a rather picky eater I have a hard time to even take knuckle with skin into my mouth and start to mush it around… However there is Nothing like a big fat ‘hemberger‘n’fris” after diving… I have no clue why but Toby craves ketchup! 

Breakfast

We are sooo totally spoiled with entering a packed Thai/European breakfast buffet every morning at the All Seasons hotel. It holds everything from Toast, egg, pancakes to fried rice, chilies and noodles with shrimp. This is complementary to the room and to us is a huge saving of about 5-700 bath per day. We usually eat morning buffet and then some afternoon snacks/fika* and then dinner. 

* fika is Swedish for afternoon coffee and sweets

Kara/ Karon/ Patong Beach

We rented two scooters, here they call the motobikes, and drive towards the connecting beaches Kara, Karong and Patong. Patong beach, is furthest about 15 km from Nai Harn on this very hilly and narrow street. The towns are busy with tourists and hagglers wanting on us to buy their trinkets. All ask where are you from? Many knows a few words in swedish, like: Tjenare, hej sockertopp, bara titta lite, billigare i Ullared, titta - inte köpa, which is translated to: “Hello”, “Waz up blondie”, “just looking”, “cheaper at Wal-Mart”, “only looking-no buying”. Kind of interesting to hear the first few times however after a while the family members look at me with a “you got to be kidding” look. As in We are not moving into that lion-gap of hagglers again. Yet we do it a few more times. They all sell the same, brand copies. Bags, t-shirts, stuff. Ladies walking around with northern Thailand head gear selling carved wood-frogs…? Why!? Who the hell buys that stuff? They sound like bullfrogs mating, awful night-time noise.

At one point Toby answered back, “I am from Portugal” on broken Swenglish… the guy hollered back - Why are you lying to me!? :-)

Patong (back-side of tourists intentions) I felt was sort of sad. 

At least when we where there, overcast, raining a little bit, no party atmosphere. The bars where semi crowded with thai-girls and single “falang” men. There is a purpose to be served, I am sure, yet it did not feel that good. Toby and I spoke about it later on and could draw a parallel to girls in the US that are looking to marry a doctor or lawyer for status. The girls in the bar are doing the same, looking to find better status of life.  When I asked Andy said that he felt lucky having met Bum, with accountant education, and not with any intentions of marriage. However Thai’s LOVE white pale skin. Westerners tell their pale friends to get some sun since they look sick. Talk about oxymoron.

Signs

Signs and spelling here is crazy, nobody seem to care. I guess this is since they all speak with thai twang. No filler words just dead to the point. Amazingly we are getting far on our english, of course they needs to since there are tons of tourists here still.

You eat a Hemberger… Joar went to the Baber for a haircut the other day. Signs pointing to the Tiolets at the beach.  Dive shop has “liverbord” as a suggestion stated on its door (Live aboard, live aboard a boat that is). We serve cold drinkers. You better use your imagination to get it sometimes. We smirk and wonder. yet feel happy that they do not care that much, they know what the sign says.

Phuket Night Market (Saturday and Sunday nights only)

It is time to go to the market and Buy stuff! This market is large yet they do not offer what I liked about f.e the opportunities in Bangkok. The fashion is geared towards teens from Japan, Korea and China. Well perhaps some Scandinavian teens as well… not sure. It is not my hippie kind of travel style. Totally different than if in stores in Europe and US. However we found our niche of interest. Software and CD/DVD’s. This is what the software market cry about in US. Adobe full series, about 15 different programs for 700 bath. We bought 25 different graphical software solutions for a total of $1000 bath/$32. I also have Rosetta Stone’s language series for 21 languages, 1st and ned stage of learning for 300 bath. They claim you can learn a new language in 6 month by using their tools for an hour a day! I think I’ll have a go of Portuguese and Thai!

Bum just had to show and offer thai us some specialties. This market holds a whole section with food-to-go or eat-in. Ohh! Thai salad = small tinsy aquarium fishes, chicken leg-skin, squid, all dried or cocked and tossed together with glass noodles and vegetables. Yum!? Fish and/or chicken on a stick, very spicy yet excitingly so. Try it once you want it again, the chili kick that is.

Tons of cool variety of fruits. Bananas comes without a sticker here and tasted sweater and denser. We drank pressed sugarcane in a bag w/straw. Pineapple heaven, other names I can either pronounce nor remember! I forgot if Joar took visuals from the food section however it is very revealing what they do with the ingredients and how to serve… use your imagination.

First Ocean open water Dive

Whoohooo! We did them two dives 16-18 meter down! 

Weather started out with overcast and rain, clearing out at the coast line. We went with Offspray’s speedboat to the beautiful islands of Koh Phi Phi. Boat trip took about 1,5 from Chalong, Phuket harbor.

Boat was full of 24 adventures, I was surprised that there was a few that only joined for the boat-trip not even to snorkel. We where down for 45 minutes, saw all kinds of fishes and fantastically large corals. Out there the sea was rather choppy, high waves, like riding a horse in slow-motion - you’re better off to sit in the back. They handed out motion sickness tablets, we all took one.

Little bit about Phi-Phi. 

Koh Phi-Phi is Thailand’s claim to fame islands. In the late ’80’s the movie “The Beach” was filmed here with Leonardo DiCaprio and Brook Shields. It was not a box-office movie however more famous about the sceneries and someone being nude, all filmed here on and around theses seven islands. Surrounding waters by stunning corals and tons of exotic fishes. After first dive lunch is served at the tiny secluded beach where the water is absolutely fantastic absolutely clear 40 m/ 120 ft viz in turquoise and stunning blue colors, and I can state it still is. We had the best italian sandwich, salami, pepperoni, genoa salami, bell-peppers and arugula salad! Hello! - can it taste better!? I had three sandwiches even though I long time ago swore off bread to cease exist in my diet. :-)

Before the movie was completely done Thai government kicked the film-crew out the country since they insisted on adding palm trees to the frames, no such exciting naturally on these islands and for trashing the place. Ohh well.

Pool work - Happy Independence Day

It is work alright however kind of exiting to put the gear on and start the stuff, laps in the pool no gear is easy.. I guess it is good to start the process by knowing if you can swim or not. There is something about understanding and trusting your buoyancy, how can you float if you can not swim…? Lungs with air makes your float better. We all state the StarWars move line: “Luke - I am Your Father..” since we now had the gear for sound-effect... he-he

I love it and yet on the other hand am still arguing with poor Andy, our dive-master, about not filling the mask full with water and flushing it out, nor will I take it off under water. I have no clue why I am soo darn opposed about it? However I am sharing breathing device, CESA, and such… the mask however it NOT Happening..!

Hey saltwater to makes you float! I had no clue that you had to add lead weight belt to your gear to be able to sink in both kinds of water. All of a sudden we get suggestions from everyone how to breath via tank. 

We have entered the fellowship of divers… tomorrow towards Koh Phi-Phi Lanta.

Class room teaching!!?

We are at the dive shop for a 4(!) hour school environment on teaching technicalities about diving - talk about sucking out the fun of something… :-)

yea-yea, safety is important!

Who knew - mask and snorkel!

It is sort of complicated to dive. Divers are pictured in movies and such to just take a “giant-step” into the water and off they go. Lots of things to think of and then yes you need to remove stuff and put them back on under water… hey did any one tell you that I am not a fish. I am getting a little-bit hesitant about the whole “diving” idea. “Hey Toby - I think I can dive already.. no need to all this… please” I hate the fact of taking the mask off under water, even filling it up with water and flush it out, yes there is a way to flush water out of the mask under water… it is stressful and water all over the place. No control of the situation, that is how it feels. I have read the book and are now doing all the quizzes. Kids are done with it all; knows everything by heart. I am proud of them and feel like a total idiot that can not retain any new information. Test!? Crap - I did not do that swell on my last test, nearly passed the real estate licensing. Pressure is building up. Toby has not started his studying yet. This was not on his agenda… retain new info - goal was to come away from that. I can not even say how excited Björn and Joar are - they went down to the beach-store to buy masks and snorkels to practice in the hotel pool. Jacque Costeaux (sp?) here they (we finally) enter your world.

I guess we will be certified divers, then!

We are moving forward to become certified Open Ocean Divers via PADI organization, www.padi.com.  I think this is the most logical way to do. Both boys have this as their dream goal in life. We are heading out to Phi-Phi island next week to dive first time. However first we need to read a Manual… ohh my good quizzes and a test as well. Toby and I are not that excited about reading and testing yet it is the best way to do since Björn and Joar can not believe that they in a week or so are going to be certified divers, open ocean divers. 

We need to go over skills and buoyancy in the pool first. That sounds safe enough to me!

Andy and Bum

Cute couple with big hearts at their Dive store in Nai-Harn! Visit - www.oceangeodivers.com, for more information about diving locally, day trips to do and such. They are awesome fixers..! When back in the US I am thinking I should arrange Adventure trips for not so risky adventures. I would go. How about.. cooking Thai with locals, bungalow living at the beach, detoxing in the mountains, swimming with “Nemo”, cocktails at sundown, yoga on the beach, live-aboard close to nature revered islands (Similan), elephant rides, moped excursions, flower-, & or fruit plantation visits, night market shopping… This most likely has to be a three week vacation - All booked and taken care of ready to be executed by you, the Adventurer. I’ll totally go! :-) Check for details later either before Christmas ‘08 or around May ‘09.

Bus trip to NAI HARN - south tip of Koh Phuket

Ok, so I can now state that if someone says “you know - the roads are ‘not that’ great” - TRUST THEM! They know of course-they have been there. Oh don’t get me wrong the bus was nice, AC, tree action movies shown w/ thai-translation. We where bouncing and hopping around in our seat, yet it reclined far more than an airplane chair.  We all fell asleep around 1 AM and at 06:30 AM we have arrived - get off the bus..! I look out and we are in the middle of the Jungle, on a dirt road! Oh nooo you are in Sura Tane now. About 4,5 hours away from Phuket. I got the pick-up call from Andy at 7:30 AM, telling him the fact *smirk* ok My dahlin’ it will take you about 6 (!!) hours with local bus to Phuket. I’ll pick you up there My Dahlin’! Alrighty then! We are stranded in the jungle and here come a tuk-tuk? to Phuket..? We get our stickers on our shirts, ushered into different corners to wait… tuk-tuk takes us to the town, to wait on the street, show sticker… Yes - Andy was right 6 hours later we are arriving into Phuket-town central bus station. Andy and his wife Bum are too sweet, drives us to a Nice hotel, All Seasons, at Nai Harn beach about 10-15 minutes from the city-center. Ohh I forgot the view and the mountains are absolutely stunning. Working elephants on the slopes really, spectacular I am told, since I am totally out, sleeping with my head bouncing around and my neck titled back an mouth open… very nice sight. (I am a little bit surprised that Joar did not take photo’s of it.)