This morning we’re sat silence in ‘Cafe Del Sol’ tapping away on our pc’s, munching breaky playing catch up.  Since our visa run we’ve been busy. On the 1st Sept we helped out some more with Bouyancy world construction.  I left around mid day to take two eco students on dives to Aow Leuk to check out the coral nurseries while Si carried on welding for most of the day.

Later that night he suffered severely that night and the day after with Arc eye.    Pretty scary, as at one point Si couldnt even open his eyes they were so painful.  Not something I’d ever like to experience. 

Today is my Aunty Babs’s 90th birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTY BABS!   90 years young!  I hope you enjoy your surprise party!! AND a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAULSY, my big brother for tomorrow.  We both hope you have an amazing day and we’ll be raising our glasses to you both 😀

Today was Mini’s deployment. Basically MINI have donated a life size mini car concrete structure along with a concrete telephone box, underground signs and massive (over 6ft tall) concrete letters, spelling out MINI.

After hours of rigging, manouvering were craned onto the back of trucks and then transported down to the pier straight onto the Tally Sub night boat which then set off to Aow Leuk bay to be deployed.  Si was filming all of the land shots whilst I along with 3 other videographers were on Crystal 1, following behind to film all of the underwater action. 

It was a pretty slow but good day, everyone was given ‘Mini’ shirts and had crew passes for a free evening of food and drink.  By the time we got back, we were pretty tired so grabbed something to eat locally and then went to the Babaloo bar where we all intended to just have a couple of drinks but as you can imagine with a free bar, we worked our way through the cocktail menu and ended up all pretty smashed.  We’ll put some footage on the blog soon ;-D   

Up and packed we headed to ‘Zest’ around 9.30am for breakfast. Whilst I ordered, Si popped down to the pier to confirm our Lomprayah tickets.  10.15am we were on the boat and off to Chumphon.  Luckily for us today the weather was calm compared to the last few days. 

Two hours later, we were off the boat and shuttled into a minibus where Si read his book and I played on my DS for a good few hours. Compared to our last visa run, the driver must have been sedated as he took it nice and slow  PHEW!!!!  ..and we arrived safely in Ranong where we went through passport control and then got onto another boat to the Andaman club resort in Burma.  This is the first time we’d actually gone into the club, it was massive hotel, with all the amenities, spa, pool, casino, restaurants and duty free.

After a quick trip to Duty Free, where Si bought some aftershave we sat down for a coffee and then it was time to get back on the shuttle bus which took us the customs check in and then back to the boat.
30 minutes or so later, we were back in Thailand, through customs with another 3 months extention to our visa’s and then it was back on the minibus for the 3 or so hour drive to Chumphon. 

This Visa run, we decided to stay the night, not that there’s anything in Chumphon but we thought a nice hot shower and a good nights sleep  So being dropped off at the Farang bar, Si tried to log onto the internet whilst I went wondering to see what shops were still open as I wanted to buy some shoes, my crocs have just had it.  An hour or so later, I trundled back after buying a T-Shirt for Si and a pair of croc, flip floppy things, for 70baht (£1.40)  bargain!!

Before we headed to a hotel, we stopped for food at a restaurant just on the main street, sat down and ordered.   Oh my God, i think I must have counted around 15 rats, running about, some just a few feet away from ours  ..this slightly put me off my dinner (Chicken in ginger with rice & phad thai) but being so hungry we ate very quickly and left. A nice comfy night in the hotel, and it was up the next morning to catch the ferry back to Koh Tao…

xx

Buoyancy World 2.0

Mini Thailand Deployment

Shark Release

UK Work

Visa Run

So much on at the same time! Today we hit the road to Burma… better go now, we are late for the ferry!! Back in 24 hours!!

xx