Started the day with a cuppa and then headed out on the bike to look at properties to rent.  Most of what we came across were just rooms with showers  ..we’d really like a place with a living area and perhaps a small kitchen as we want something that we can come back to after a hard days diving and relax and maybe watch a film or even do some entertaining.

After searching around we found a few possible places but we’re going to investigate further and make a few calls.

After a hot and exhausting day, we headed to the Crystal bar to catch Nathan (Eco Warrior and also my mentor whilst I was doing my DMT training) to organize a couple of fun dives.   At last we’ll finally we’ll be in the water 😀

On leaving Crystal we headed to the ‘Safety Stop’ bar with a few dive buddies to log on and have some food, then it was home to bed.

JD  x

We eventually struggled off the ferry with our luggage to be met by Alan & Heidi’s smiling faces.

After loading luggage in the jeep we headed back to the villa stopping off to drop off Si’s underwater housing which weighed a ton at Deep Down Produtions (Underwater Video Crew) and then at the motorbike hire shop, where Si hired a XEROW Honda 250.

The amount of changes in just 8 months is just incredible  ..the so called road that we used to trapse up is all concreted now, there are new villa’s here there and everywhere  …and just how much things have grown.

After settling in at Alan & Heidi’s  ..we ventured back into town to spot a few ole faces from Crystal Dive.   Our first was the ‘Safety Stop’ pub where we thought Carsten, Simons old mentor would be but after a quick look in, we left and hopped on the bike and went to Dirty Nelly’s another haunt of the ole Crystal crew   …where we finally bumped into Carsten & a few faces we knew,.  Its was really odd to see them as for us it’s the start of our new adventure but for them we’re just another couple of divers popping back to Koh Tao   ..so I felt a bit flat and unsettled but later Tina turned up, who was part of the our old gang and filled us in on the comings & goings  ..so began to feel slightly more upbeat.

After a nice pizza and a couple of drinks, Si & I headed back home for long awaited sleep.

After leaving Dag last night, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to the hotel to pack, had a cuppa, watched Fridays episode of Eastenders (sad I know) and finally fell asleep.

I think the accidental lay in was a big mistake as we only slept for a couple of hours and then decided to watch a few episodes of the Twilight Zone.  I think that I must have dropped off in the 3rd episode and suddenly woken by the phone at 5am only to find Si still watching TV with his headphones on.

After a shower and breakfast we caught our taxi to the airport, checked in only to find that the max luguage allowance is 30kg per person  ..we had just on a 100kg, 2100 baht excess to pay  ..but we managed to haggle them down to 1500 baht (£30) ..thank God we flew business class, else it would have been only 20kg allowance each.

Anyway, we had a great flight, collected our bags, dropped them at the ferry terminal and now sat in the cafe opposite typing to you guys 😀

The ferry leaves at 1.30pm which should get into Koh Tao around 4.30pm where we’ll be collected by stars Alan & Heidi (Ex landlord/lady)

JD