Relief

It took me four days to complete the trip, but at least I'm here. The bus ride down to Phuket was one of those trips where we had to make a number of transfers at different points to get to your specific destination. The overnighter wasn't bad, but there was no food so I had to snack on some dried fruit and biscuits on the way down. I sat next to an English guy who let me borrow his horseshoe shaped neck pillow during the ride. I will never make fun of those ridiculous looking pillows ever again. Those things are awesome! Armed with the pillow, eye shields, and ear plugs, I was able to sleep fairly well on the way down. In all the trip was 18 hours long. When I arrived at the guesthouse, it was closed for renovation. I took the next best option (which is not bad by the way) at the Pineapple Guesthouse at Karon Beach. I have a single room with private bath and aircon for 700 Baht. More than what I originally wanted to pay, but based on my bus ride, I justified the cost.

The first day of my scuba course is finished. I checked a couple companies and went with Dive Asia. As soon as I found out that the owners of the shop were Swiss, I signed up (almost said the only Swiss German word I know too. You know, to get some cred). You can always count of a Swiss run company to be a quality outfit when traveling abroad. They also gave me the best deal. Unfortunately, I have developed a slight cough with some congestion this week. It is not enough to prevent me from diving, but I need to give my body time to rest. Tomorrow will be the open water dive portion off of two islands. I'm sure it will be just beautiful.

Here are a couple pictures. The beach is like Zoloft for the soul.

I would also like to add that if you are going to have someone do a 200 meter swim and 7 minute float test. DON'T ask them to do it 15 minutes after eating a large bowl of Pad Thai. I had the unsavoury experience of tasting my lunch twice this afternoon. And I think I swam 300 instead of 200 meters.