It was an emotional farewell for both of us this time.  It seems to get harder every time we go away, even though, we’ll be back to visit in September and hopefully have some visitors this year ;-D

Our flight from Heathrow to Bangkok was delayed by an hour or so but apart from that, we had a safe and comfortable journey.   I managed to sleep the majority of the way, while Simon wasnt quite so lucky.

To break up the journey to Koh Tao, we spent a couple of nights in Bangkok. Walking around shopping centres during the day, and down various markety style streets in the evening looking for bargains…and having a couple of Singha beers at the side of the road with these makeshift Volkswagen Van bars…. very cool..

It was time to leave Bangkok, and flying down to Samui, we jumped onto the ferry and arrived on Koh Tao later that afternoon.

Moving back into our apartment took a couple of hours, and then it was straight out to attend a leaving party for a friend of ours… I think we got back around midnight.

Waking the next day, we got straight on our mission to look around for another house/apartment and also places for Fiona,Chris and co to stay if they come over in July. We spent pretty much the whole day doing that, with not much success as the island is pretty full at the mo… we are going to try again in a few days.

That night, it was out again to attend a snorkel test that Jen needed to attend as one of her proteges was participating. I think I lasted till 11pm, and asked Jen if we could go home and have a cup of tea (old git I am!)…

Then yesterday, we had our first dive… going to Junkyard with Nathan and his eco students and transplanting some coral.. it was strange after 6 weeks out of the water.. and a great feeling to get back into it.. Lots of coral moved and transplanted, even with a fair amount of surge…

Jenny took photos of her 2 nieces names on the windmill.. Chloe & Iona!

After our dive, we went to Safety stop to have a game of Settlers of Catan with Tina and Carsten before going home to cook dinner, watch a movie, and cuddle up…

xx

SD

Well folks…

Its been a 4 week break from the blog, while we returned to the UK and spent Xmas and New Year with family and friends.

For a month I have been driving around to and fro to various places… sleeping in numerous beds and spare rooms whilst seeing all the relatives. Our base has been Jen’s sisters house.. She keeps a room for us to crash in bless her and makes us very welcome. In fact, today is her birthday… so HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSIE!!

With UK work, xmas, new year and many boozy nights with everyone (plus going to the gym!)… we haven’t had much time to chill… but its been great..

We have had plenty of nights out, nights in… all sorts of fun..

Now the journey back begins…

Its always tough to leave loved ones behind… it is the worst part… but venture on we must…. and Bangkok beckons for a night of mayhem before travelling down to Koh Tao.

Its been 6 weeks since I last dived, and I am itching to get in on some water action!!

So…. let the travels begin… again! Koh Tao… 5 days and counting!

x

SD

Its beginning to look like Christmas… NOT!

The sun is back, and baking heat reigns..  Power outages still bug the island, in fact Koh Samui and Koh Phangan were without it for 4 days straight… so we should think ourselves lucky that we are getting sporadic bursts of phone connections and power.

I was still going on back to back courses, until 1 night, where I hit a brick wall. A very strong fever kicked in as I was sleeping… I was shivering uncontrollably, but burning up… balance was screwed up, and I had my first ever migraine (Jeez, they suck!).

The next morning, I could hardly communicate… I felt so ill.. besides the balance, fever and migraine I had backache, chesty cough and knee pain… not much else that could go wrong really.

Jen had to go down to the dive school at 6am (phones were down) to tell them my students needed a replacement. My students were given a fellow instructor, and they all went and had a whole dive with a Whaleshark… how bloody typical!

So, for 2 days I could barely get off the sofa and do anything but squirm… and moan…

4 days in, I am still pretty much house bound, but now well enough to concentrate on some UK work. Last night, I rode down to the dive school in the evening to see Jen and that exhausted me…!

Getting better by the day….