This morning I turned up at Rosie’s hotel to find her still in bed, awake as she’d text me to get some milk but still in bed   .. brilliant!!   Its so nice to see her relaxing for a change.

With nothing planned for this morning,  we took a stroll, had a look in a couple of shops and then had breakfast at Zest.   I ordered two lemon shakes and scrambled egg,  sausage with toast.  A little too much for both of us after our monstrous pizza last night but we needed to eat as we signed up for the afternoon boat to go diving again.   With us this time was Tim, a good friend who’s also happens to be a videographer.  He kindly came along to video Rosie, so you’ll all see her in action very soon

Both of today’s dive were very good, I can’t believe that on our first dive, we saw a banded sea snake  …Rosie’s been so lucky  ..just need a see a Whaleshark now LOL!!!

Sat in Rosies room, we are now showered and having a cuppa, ready to head out to the ‘Save Koh Tao’ meeting  …I’m sure Rosie will be very interested in what’s going on, on the island and will have a couple of suggestions.

Rosie did a ‘Discover Scuba Dive’!     I met Rosie at Crystal around 9.30 am for her DSD, paperwork completed and theory talked through, we set up our equipment, ready to get wet.  As our pool is green and the Regal pool is a bit too far to walk, we went off the beach to do a few simple skills (reg clear/recovery, mask clearance, fin pivot) in preparation for this afternoons dives  …even though we were only in 2mtr max of water we saw a seahorse, cow fish and a whole load of other things  …I can’t believe we were so lucky!  Rosie did incredibly well, although be it very nervous 😀
On the actual dives, we went to Twin Peaks and went to a depth of 12mtrs.  No problems with equalization going down the line Rosie took my hand and I gently led her for the first couple of minutes around the shallow pinnacle and then she was off  .beautiful body position, great kicking, it was like having a fun diver with me.   I felt very proud swimming about and seeing other first time divers who weren’t half as good a Rosie  Yay!!!!

Rosie’s so funny underwater  …its like taking a child into a sweetshop  …eyes wide, pointing at everything, so so excited.  It’s lovely the enthusiasm, as we do take it for granted    …at one point on the dive, we swam through Buoyancy world (artificial reef with lots of concrete structures)  I started singing the Jaws theme  and pointed at the massive giant concrete shark in the distance which she couldn’t quite make out   ..I could see the look of hesitation/fear which then erupted into giggles as we got nearer  …so funny.   
Simon was conducting Eco training with the divemasters and bumped into us during the dive and took some snaps.
 After a surface interval sunbathing. Rosie was ready for another dive. This time it was Junkyard.
Swimming around seeing all the different structures underwater, spotting a Lion Fish, which is the first one Simon has seen in over 2 years. Rosie seemed well at ease.

After 2 dives, it was time to return to the dive school… have some pizza at Hacienda restaurant, and retire for the evening! WELL DONE ROSIE!!

Today, Rosie and I ventured around the island.  What started out as an 1 1/2hr trek, turned into a 5hrs   ..we might have got lost a little but everyone, this is Koh Tao and markings are far and few between.  We did manage to get a ride to the top of one of the hills in a bike/side car thingy  ..a bit odd really, the guy stopped and said “get in” so we did, no questions asked   …you’d never do that anywhere else.    After walking though different resorts, taking a lucky guess at which trail, road or stairs to take, we managed to come across a snake, well I walked over one LOL, huge monitor lizards and chose a road which came to a dead end so had a steep climb all the way back  ..I must add that we chose the right hour to go out, midday, so sun blazing down and red faced we chuckled away …every corner, road, pathway was a new adventure.   

We eventually arrived at a beach which had life on it, so we decided to stop and have lunch which was very tasty indeed.  We had to laugh as we’d chosen easiest route in the book and yet we’d got lost   …I don’t know!!

Some of the roads were very steep but we took in the beauty of our surroundings, watching the squirrels run along the electric lines, admiring the modern day street lighting …

We came across the grounds of the trance festival which went on for 4 days over  NY  …hammocks, tents, wall hanging, electrical equipment, speakers were still piled up  …after  exploring a bit and finding a few coins  ..we got back on the road to nowhere where and then looking across the ravine, I could see my house in the distance  ..we where way off route but at least I knew exactly where we were  ….not that you could ever really get lost on the island.    

So after a steep trek downhill, we hit the main road and headed into Chalok  ..the quieter end of the island  …on route we came across this cheeky little monkey, who looked very bored and frustrated tied up.   

There used to be wild monkeys on the island but the only ones now are used to take down coconuts.  After a short walk, we popped into New Heaven dive resort to have a look at 9 month ole baby turtles they have for release.

After an exhausting day and getting a free lift back to Mae Haad, Rosie and I had a bit of a snorkel and then went back to the hotel for a nice cup of tea.