Summary Catch-Up Post
This was originally a private post for Tommy and I to refer to as we did catch-up blog posts, but we decided to just publish it. Some of it is so truncated it might not make sense at all, but hopefully we can do full blown posts about these days later on.
Day 12 - Arrived in Koh Tao by boat, first day of Scuba class, first diving at Japanese Garden. Checked into Save Bungalows during lunch break. Watched PADI training videos afterwards. Bam Bam for dinner. Met Schporty the cat.
Day 13 - Second day of Scuba class. Breakfast at Bam Bam. Classroom stuff in morning. Took skills reviews. Quick lunch break. Out on boat for some diving. Cafe del Sol for dinner, some blog uploads. Studying until late (tired!) back at Save Bungalow.
Day 14 - 3rd day of Scuba class, classroom first, took final tests. Then diving. Graduated! Got dinner & drinks with Ivana at all you can eat do it yourself BBQ place until late.
Day 15 - Schporty is attacked by ants in the morning. Sally all sick and pukie, lays in room most of day. Ventures out to get chips and Gatorade. Tommy goes out for 2 fun dives, dinner at Cafe Pla with homies afterwards - Michael, Jan, Timo.
Day 16 - Sally still kinda sick, Tommy pukes, is also sick. Tommy does partial Advanced Dive class and Night Dive, Sally waits for Tommy at beachside bar. Tommy takes his skills test. Dinner together at Cafe del Sol.
Day 17 - coffee at Dive Shop chilled with homies for a while, breakfast at Cafe del Sol, bought boat tickets, packed up slowly, late checkout. leave Koh Tao on ferry. Sitting up top, big storm, down below 2 dumb movies Dragonball Z and The Tuxedo, arrive in Chumpon. Cool open taxi truck ride with bikes to Chumpon train station. Train from Chumpon to Bang Saphan Noi. Got 3rd class seats in very back, train agent comes and gets us, has him follow us to front of moving train and sit in official agent/police car just behind cargo car for our ride. Praying mantis flies in window into Sally’s shirt. Riding at night in creepy lady boy subculture area. Local drunk kids make lude gestures at us from a roadside bar. One hotel ladyboy turns us away. Next hotel ladyboy finds the sleeping owner and we get a room.
Day 18 - Ride just a little bit, get stuck in rain. Tommy’s not feeling great and not eating much. Stop at a cute family run bungalow place and stay there for the night. Wish we found this place the night before.
Day 19 - Ride for a while, not totally oriented on the map, ride through cool areas, beachside. Wait for rain to pass for hours at little bay where Thai tourists hang at the beach. Finally ride on and find a cute bungalow in Ban Krut before sunset. Nice dinner, cool outdoor bathroom! Watch dumb Thai TV which sucks until we find MXC — awesome in any language!!
Day 20 - Best night of sleep since before Save Bungalow and the fish sauce bathroom. Breakfast, wifi uploads, couples massage in the room, checkout after Noon. Starts raining exactly when we’re about to ride. Wait for it to pass. Get a few km down the road, then downpour starts and rain continues for hours while we sit bored at a roadside open air restaurant trying to decide what to do.
1 year ago