We are off on our Visa run today and by 8.20, both of us were showered, packed and ready to go.
Simon had strapped the suitcase to the back of the bike and we each had a rucksack.  Its the first time that we’ve travelled so light 😀   ..just a mere 8 kgs

Our first stop was Lederhosen bike shop to drop off the bike and collect Si’s passport, then we walked down the street to ‘Cafe Del Sol’ for a much needed breakfast.

At the pier we checked in and sat around for a while before the lomprayah arrived.
The jouney only took 2 1/2 hrs to Koh Samui and we were met at the other end by an lovely air-conditioned coach which took us straight to the airport.

Our flight wasnt until 5.15, so I had a snooze and Simon read his book before we could check in.
Once checked in, we headed to our gate and took full use of the courtesy food & drink and caught up on mails.

The flight was good, maybe a little scary coming into KL as there was a massive electric storm going on but apart from that, fine.   Past passport control we collected our lugguage (1 piece) and grabbed a taxi to our hotel, The Mandarin Oriental, a very plush hotel next to the Patronus Towers of which we have an awesome view as you will see from the pictures that we shall put up in a couple of days, cos we left the connecting lead for my camera at Koh Tao.

After unpacking and freshening up, we headed out to do some exploring and to find somewhere to eat. Not really knowing at this time what was open & what wasn’t, we caught the skytrain into China town in the hope of finding the Vegetarian restaurant that we discovered on our honeymoon.

Unfortunately we ended up walking for miles and getting slightly lost on our way back to the hotel so went to bed exhausted and hungry.  We at least had a lovely bath though and a good nights sleep..

All of the Open Water students decided to do their Advanced course which was great.  I just feel for Clare the girl with the ear infection that couldn’t continue but at least she’s got her Scuba Diver certification.

In the Advanced course, the students have to do a ‘Deep’ (30mtrs) and ‘Navigation’ dive combined with another three, so the majority went for Peak Performance Buoyancy, Night, Wreck apart from one who chose Photography.

The Advanced course, two days of diving went really well apart from the night dive which I found the most challenging.

On the Night dive descent, one of the girls freaked just 1 or 2 meters down because her torch went out and managed to scramble to the surface between the rungs of the boats ladder  ..which is near enough impossible but once I whacked her light, which then came on again, she was fine.  I dread to think what might have happened if it had been choppy.

Once in the water there was a slight current which didnt help. Then to find an appropriate place and to communicate to them, to navigate a reciprocal heading  (which I’d briefed and written down on a slate for them)  was a complete nightmare, God knows what I would have done if Simon wasn’t there.  Then once that was over, I spotted a cuttle fish, my first since being on the island and what did one of the girls do?  She nearly stood on it!   Arrggggh!!!    As you can tell, taking students out on a night dive for the first time is not one of my favourite pastimes.

Morning dives went well and back on  dry land we washed our dive kits and then gathered in the restaurant.  All students apart from one girl who had developed an ear infection had sucessfully passed their Open Water.  I completed their temporary Open Water Cards whilst Nathan took them up to retail to have their photo’s taken.  All in all they’d done brilliantly and were all hopefully going on to do their Advanced course.

That evening we arranged to meet up at the new ‘Regal’ hotel to watch their video.  It turned out to be a great night as it was Crystal’s bosses wifes birthday and they’d put on a band, dance performances and a free buffet.  Everyone seemed to be there and as the night went on, people were being thrown in the Regal pool.  I fortunately stayed dry 🙂