Tuesday through Sunday.
The other side of paradise.
I left PP on Tuesday to ferry and fly to Ko Samui, another Thai island, this time off the east coast. Ko Samui is a larger tourist destination than PP - more developed, as in cars are actually allowed on the island. It's also a lot bigger with many villages, often a 25 - 40 minute drive between them. I was headed to Samui for 2 reasons: 1) to get my advanced open water scuba diver certification and 2) to meet up with yet more Wharton classmates. And, well, you can add a little fun in the sun to that too.
All told, there must have been 15 Whartonites who floated through. Three of them had rented a house for the week and invited everyone to stay, but logistically that didn't work... clearly the house wouldn't quite make it Real World-able. So we all stayed in bungalos on the beach in Chaweng, the main tourist area. I know, I know, I've had a very tough life recently.
What was great about the Wharton/Samui rendez-vous was the mixture of those who were at the end of their journeys with those just starting. Fantastic way to share information, enjoy travel war stories and feel the excitement of those just beginning. At the same time, the days in Samui were a wonderful way to catch up with close friends -- Mitzi, Rose, Nancy, Turner -- as well as form stronger relationships with people that I wish I'd spent more time with or got to know better while at school (the list is too long to name, but Allison, Kate, Craig & Derek, Neel Bhatia and Kobi (again, from my Hong Kong days) would definitely be on there). We had some phenomenal dinners, most notably at Eat Sense, right along the beach and so much fun at night.
As true Wharton students -- read: always competitive -- we went bowling the first night, where I unequivocally disgraced the Wallis family name for generations to come with my worst game of bowling since I was probably 6 years old. Clearly, there must be something different about the lanes on this side of the world, cause it could neither have been my fault nor the influence of several drinks and shots of vodka I had consumed. Mini-golf the following night was a different story. I was much better; I think it was the affect of feeling the start of the British Open or the bond with the success at the Masters of the other notable lefty, Phil Mickelson. Well, at least I had a hole-in-1. I'm still reliving that moment of glory in my head... since they really don't come around all that often.
And then there was the party scene -- also very good. Definitely some fun clubs to go drinking and dancing in. I ended up out late several nights including a few with Neel & Kobi, and then with Rose/Mitzi/Kate/Allison. But the highlight had to be when around 15 of us went out together and just danced everywhere. Good times... or as my dive instructor would say, Happy Days.
And diving. Yes, this was my crowning glory, my icing on the cake of the trip -- my 5 dive course for my Advanced Open Water Dive certification. The Advanced course requires 2 days and 5 dives, 2 of which are compulsory (Deep dive, Navigation). In addition to those two, I did a multi-level dive, peak-performance buoyancy dive and underwater naturalist dive. Diving from Samui actually involves 2 long boat rides. The first day we headed to Ko Tao (Thai for Turtle Island, but unfortunately no turtles were to be seen), an island about 3+ hours away that's known for its diving. In fact, that's the island's sole reason for existence, or at least tourism (which I'm starting to believe is Thailand's sole reason for, or means of, existence).
The diving was nice -- better than what I experienced in PP, but that just may have been the temporary conditions. The marine life very similar to what I'd seen before. I had 3 dives at Ko Tao's Shark Island site -- my 1) multi-level which involved planning and spending significant time at three different levels underwater (23 meters, 18 meters, 10 meters), 2) navigation which required dropping a weight on the sea floor and then using a compass and counting fin cycles to find the weight again, and 3) peak performance buoyancy which was comprised of several tasks underwater to make sure I can control my body, such as limbo-ing under a stick, touching my nose to a stick as well as the ground without any other part of my body touching the ground (think: body inverted), and doing a series of flips underwater.
The second day of diving we headed to Sail Rock, the aptly named structure about 2 hours north of Ko Samui that is a rock and resembles a sail emerging from underwater. Fascinating where they come up with naming these places. Sail Rock is considered one of the deeper dive locations and that's where I had to go some 30 meters deep for my Deep Dive requirement. After 25 meters, nitrogen narcosis may set in; nitrogen narcosis may have sever affects including, cause people to go delirious, acting like they are tripping or just slowing down the ability to comprehend information. I didn't experience any of those, much to the disappointment of my dive instructor Ben, who was hoping for some high-quality comedy. But diving to 30 meters was incredibly cool because of the different aquatic life at those levels -- visibility is lower, water colder, more places to hide out for animals. I had a great time on the deep dive. As for my last dive, all I had to do was identify 3 types of coral and 3 fish that we saw once I got back on the boat afterwards. Not that difficult, but fun nonetheless. As for Sail Rock, it's a great dive site. Mostly wall diving with coral, there are several bends and turns that create different habitats for various fish. It also has several cool structures in it, namely the Chimney, which divers can enter the Rock at 18 meters and shoot up to 12 while still inside and then pop-out again. It's like a cave with a couple of openings. Simply fun stuff.
From Samui, I am headed to Bangkok for 3 days to finish up the Asian portion of my trip.
And as dive-instructor Ben would always say, these are Happy Days. They are indeed.
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