Half Professional Divers

Arrived in Krabi after another painful day of travelling...luckily there was pizza at the end of itwhich half made up for the prison cell we had just paid to stay in. The 'cell' had no air-con, no hot water and it's hard to believe that paint exists in thos town, the would-be-white plastic chairs on our 'veranda' were beyond salvaging (in colour and in chair-safetyness), the beds were designed for five year olds and the tiger/bear/giraffe print sheets and flannelette covers left much luxury to be desires. Oh, and we supposedly had a 'cleaner' who, the longer we stayed gave us increasingly worse towels...they'd start off a dull green colour, then the next day you might get one with a hole in, then the next day some weird stains!? and she also took to hiding Amy's mobile phone under her matress!!

After a long day we collapsed in the why-did-they-even-bother-with-the-matress-it's-so-wooden mattresses!!

The next day we ventured out into the horseshoe shaped town and realise the entire place should have come with a health warning...welcome to Ao-nang, Krabi, AKA a death trap where electrical cables run along the pavement, sometimes a couple of inches off of the ground like they are trying to resemble some sort of trip wire?! they run through puddles, past random craters in the floor which you have no doubt are there for a very good reason, yet you can never figure out what that might be...and what's left of the pavement for you to walk on may as well be made out of ice.

It's our own fault for not picking up the lonely planet for a week but since we knew the only things we needed to do here was meet up with the Irish folk before they moved on - check, meet Kit's cousin - would have done but he upped and left to Koh Tao! and learn to dive - half check!

Our dive instructor was called Marcus, he is from Germany...

DAY 1 Classroom Theory

Since it is raining outside we decided to get this part out of the way - not too strenuous although trying to get your head round air density, water pressure, neutral and positively buoyant, salt water differs from fresh water how? lungs over-expanding, nitrogen narcosis....ahhhh!

DAY 2 In the Pool

The pool stuff was good, it was at first very bizarre to be able to breathe underwater and some of the exercises took a bit of getting used to...luckily Marcus was the patient type...until...the best bit was towards the end of the day when me and Ayms had exhausted ourselves and spent the day breathing in nitrogen, the giggles were bound to arrive at some point! So at the pont when Marcus said we had to take off our BCD's and climb back into them...reminiscent of the time me and Amy tried to jump on lilos and failed miserably, we were already in stiches...the final task of the day was dragging each other the length of the pool in some pretty weird positions, Marcus soon turned into the "we dont want to spend all day doing this, do we?" monster ;)

DAY 3 Out at Sea

Another early morning, we headed out to the boat which was to whisk us away to sea. We stood at the shore comtemplating the rain, the wind, the rough sea, the big waves, low visibility and certain death and decided our first diving experience in the sea shouldnt be one fraught(?) with danger, not a problem, still two full days left to get it done.

So another day to waste in Krabi, where there isn't too much going on in the low season when it's constantly drizzling! Back to the cell it is then!

DAY 4 ...Amy gets a cold...

In case anyone isn't aware...it is a big no-no to dive with a cold. CANCELLED! But this did prompt a bit of an upgrade in the room situation. Me and Amy were aware that one day paying the extra four pounds for some hot water would be very worth it and today was that day! Since wandering around in the rain and showering in a cold shower had probably contributed to Amy not feeling too well we gave in to the budget and in return got some hot water, clean towels, a broken tele and a fridge!

We ran into Gerry from Halong Bay and went out for a drink with him and danced with some ladyboys.."no money, no honey", "never try, never know". All in all this was good preparation for our final exam the next day and me and Amy both passed with flying colours!