I went and picked Ali up from the airport on the night of October 1 and we had a day in Bangkok before we headed down to Koh Tao. We took a river tour of the Chao Praya River and visited Wat Arun. We went to Khao San Road and bought fake Ray Bans, we did all of the BKK stuff you can do in 24 hours!
Then we flew/took a ferry to Koh Tao! We flew on one of those little jumper planes where they have to place the weight just right and there are only 12 people on your flight. It was a little scary but fun!
When we got to our scuba resort, Buddha View, we were so excited but so nervous! We had an orientation that night where they told us everything that we would be doing during the next four days and met the other four people in our group. (Another girl named Chelsea from Manchester!) There were also two Germans. Our instructor called Ali and I, Team California, and the Germans, Team Germany, it was pretty funny. The next morning we had class with our instructor, Carine, and then practiced the basics in the swimming pool at Buddha View. It was pretty cool but we were all pretty excited to get out into the ocean. On Friday, we had our first confined sea dive! It was so cool! We had to be doing a lot of different drills and tests in order to be certified so it wasn't all fun and games. We also had to read a huge book, turn in four homework reviews, take four quizzes and at the end pass a final written test!
Anyway, on Saturday we had our last class session in the morning and then two dives at 12 meters in sea! We went to two different locations around Koh Tao and again practiced different drills and scenarios but also got to do a "fun dive" where we explored a little. Sunday was our last day on Koh Tao and our last dives to get us certified! We met really early and this time did two dives at 18 meters. We saw some beautiful fish and a ton of coral. It was really amazing. I can see why it is so addicting for so many people! It is a lot of work though, I knew you had to worry about a lot of different things but the set up and take down of everything was crazy! I already want to go back and get certified for my Advanced Open Water. That allows you to go down 30 meters while Open Water only lets you go down 18 meters. Koh Tao is diving school central! It has 40 schools and is a relatively small island. We would be on the ocean floor doing drills and just watching all of these different scuba people swim by. It was like a whole village!
just another day :-)
So, Ali and I left that night for Bangkok and we were pretty sad to go! We needed a relaxing day on Monday, we got back around 2 am and we were pretty tired from all the scuba. So, we went to the HUGE Siam Paragon (mall) and saw Taken 2! So good. Then we went to a fish spa! That is where the tiny fish eat off the dead skin on your feet! It was suuuuuper weird! We were so nervous at first but once you got used to the weird feeling and watching all of the fish on you, it wasn't too bad...and my feet felt nice and smooth afterwards!
fish eating my dead skin!
the fish tickling Ali
Then we went to an actual Thai massage, Ali loved it and we felt very relaxed.
The next day we took an early morning bus to nearby Ayutthaya! It is an ancient city and former capitol. We rented a tuk-tuk for 3 hours and he drove us all over town visiting the famous Wats and ruins! The most famous image of Thailand, the Buddha head coming out of the Bodhi tree is here and it was really cool to see in person! Ali really wanted to ride the elephants, obviously, so we went to this place where you can ride elephants around the temples and ruins. Riding an elephant is always fun :-)
so famous it's roped off and everything! that is big for Thailand!
Her last day she wanted to go to this scary and gross forensic museum (Sorry Al) so we took a ferry and went to this hospital where they had dead bodies and all of this cut up stuff. I looked at the interesting display on the tsunami and then excused myself...a little too much for me!
The past couple days I have been exploring Bangkok by myself, I saw Mel for half a second before she was off again! AAAnnnddddd my Mom and Aunt get here tomorrow!!!!!! less than 8 hours now! Yay, I can't wait. and HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!! I hope you have a great day :-) Until next time!
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