Diving and Koh Pangan

June 23rd:
After a heavy (and eventful) night before, I was up at seven for an early morning scuba dive. I walked up the bay and it started raining. Great. Missed the taxi to the pier. Great. Climbed onto a motor bike and raced down, only to find the diving boat had already left. Great! But... some people are genuinely kind: I climbed aboard a fishing boat that sailed out and dropped me onto the right boat. I was on my way. The skys cleared and the sun beat down on us as we prepared for the dive. And blimey was the diving good! It was exquisite! Visibility was strong and we went to some of the top sites: shark island and Hin Ngaam Bay. We saw snappers, blue-lined groupers, angel fish, bat fish, barracuda, tiny shrimp and a 2 1/2 foot cloudy grouper. The most impressive were the trigger fish though. The other divers weren't as friendly as the fish though: everyone else was training for dive master and knew each other very closely. Shame, but at least a batfish took a liking to me, staring me in the eyes around ten inches from my face!


June 24th:
Caught an early morning ferry to Koh Pengan; a more built up version on Koh Tao but still pretty chilled. Had a very lazy day. On the beach, in bars, swimming, meeting people... the usual. We had planned to watch a film at a bar that night with a canadian girl, but walking up the beach we were suckered into a cocktail bar called Drop In Bar by the temptation of free drinks. For three nights in a row we went there and I spent 100 baht in total (two pounds). I didn't understand it, they kept giving us free drinks! I was happy. There was a massive fire show going on and I tried my luck with the fire Poi and fire stick with everyone at the bar watching. I did well! Only a few slight burns. lol. Some people filmed it so hopefully I'll get those over the internet some time :) Anyway, a few burns and a lot of Kudos later I met A group of girls and guys from London and we hung out for most of the three days I was on the island. Before long the bar pulled out a flaming skipping rope that they spun from raised platforms... COME ON! I had to give it a go, I was on an island!.. best night so far :)