Just went on my first dive in Thailand today

and it was great.  I was a bit stressed this morning.  Couldn't fall asleep until late last night, woke up tired, packed, walked 45 minutes with my backpack over to the dive center to get a room closer, was drenched in sweat...  Then this morning we had CPR "instruction" and after lunch we went out on the boat for two dives.  I was the "rescue diver" which basically meant every few minutes somebody was yelling "Pizza! Pizza!"  -- code for "help! help!" during simuated exercises so everybody else knows the person isn't really drowning. 

Well, it was my first time diving with budhaview, so it was obviously my first time using their equipment or riding on their boats or using their protocol.  For that matter it was my first time doing any of that anywhere other than with Dive India in Andaman!  What a difference -- in andaman we road little 12 person boats (those were the biggest) that were pretty much old boards of wood glued together propelled by an agricultural motor intended for pumping water on farms...  The boats we road today were quite a bit more sophisticated -- and big!  Everybody actually puts together their tanks and regulators -- something we only did for practice in andaman -- the boat boys took care of it for you on the boat.  So it was a different experience.  That and the XXL wetsuit here is quite a bit bigger than XXL I was used to -- so I was wearing an oversized suit which messed up my boyancy.  I did ok though, and I have to say by the time we were headed back on the boat, I felt wide awake and energized!  It was amazing.  There's just something about spending a little time under water that makes everything else around you seem so much better.  

Ok, time for me to go socialize with some new people and see if I can get a decent nights sleep before my tests tomorrow...

 

I know, I've been bad...

Haven't updated much lately.  I'm back to island life and with that comes hyper expensive internet connection fees...  I've started my rescue dive course and once I'm through with that I can start dive master training.  They basically let you dive as much as you want as long as you want (within reason -- that was their wording anyway).  Given that the thai government lets you stay here a cumulative 90 days within every 6 months and no more than 30 days in a row at one time (meaning you have to run to the border and then come back if you want to stay longer than 30 days), I expect I'll be here a few months.  So if anybody feels like visiting in Thailand, just let me know!  The DMT program sounds relatively flexible, so it's not a big deal if I leave the island for a week or more and come back to resume the training.  So I'd be up to some side trips to malasia, burma, cambodia or vietnam too (or anywhere else nearby...)

The last few days of sleep deprivation have caught up with me though and last night I overslept.  I was supposed to show up at 9 this morning but didn't wake until 9:45!  Usually I'm up as soon as it's light out so I didn't think I'd need to set an alarm.  I won't be making the same mistake today... 

Ok, I'd better go before I run up this internet bill.  Just wanted to say I'm having a great time here so far.

 

Bangkok women really are fellas

That's the pneumonic device they taught us in dive training so we'd remember what to check during our buddy check -- B is for boyancy, W is for weights, R is for releases, A is for air and F is for final (I think)...  That and the male is always right -- as in you should always have the male side of the weight belt on your right side. 

Anyway, I have to say some beautiful Thai girls just walked by outside the internet cafe I'm sitting in and I couldn't help wondering if they really are girls...  As you can probably guess, I successfully made it to thailand.  My last few days in india were quite a blur.  I took a bus from kerala back over to madurai where I caught a very cheap flight back to chenai in time to have late night drinks with a former colleague who just happened to be in india on business for Hewitt! 

My bowels are going to burst so I have to get going.  I wanted to check in quick though and mention that new photos are up.

ciao

Absolute Madness...

Physically I'm back on the mainland of India, but psychologically I've already left it and I'm sitting on a nice tranquil tropical island somewhere in Thailand.  I've decided to end my India trip a bit prematurely before really seeing all that much.  Somehow my heart just feels it isn't in the right place.  Andaman had given me new direction -- one that I hadn't expected.  I've bought a ticket leaving from Chenai to Bangkok next Thursday.  Actually I attempted three times to buy the ticket through orbitz, and each time they gave me the same response a day later saying I needed to rebook my ticket.  After the third day and third attempt I gave up and went directly to the carrier, successfully bought the ticket and even saved a few bucks.
So now I'm just biding my time waiting to get out of here.  I thought maybe I'd spend the week hanging out in Mammallapuram and Pondicherry relaxing, but my first night in mammallapuram (after having already paid for two nights) I met two germans (yes girls) who were leaving the next day for pondicherry.  We made plans to meet up the next morning for breakfast and then visit the caves together.  Afterwards over lunch as we were saying our goodbyes, they said sorry for leaving me all alone again and joked that I could always join them.  Hmm, why not.  An hour later we were sitting on the corner waiting for a bus.  Tonight we're heading toward madurai which is complete and total insanity for me because I'm quickly going further off in the wrong direction and in five days I'll probably find myself on a 30 or so hour train ride back to chenai.  Then again maybe I'll get lazy and hop on a plane.  Who knows.  That's so far off in the future why think about it right now...
In the mean time it is nice to be moving around (it seems to be the state I'm most comfortable with) and of course hanging out with people.