Injuries of sorts.

So while I haven't been diving I'll explain to you the multitude of injuires which have been gained through the adventures of myself.

So from the the fall out of the chang night which I have a really good memory of the whole night until one point, this was when I stepped off the dance floor in Lotus and fell about a metre and a half onto my back, from that point of the night, my day does become a little sketchy.... So yeah I think I might have had a mild concussion, seeing as I can remember the whole night before hand..... BUT importantly, my wound? A long scratch from my ass cheek to my lower back. Skillful eh?

Both my knees are cut up, with my right one severly worse than the left, again, i was extremly sober so I have no idea how I did it, but yeah that one I am not too proud of, like sunburn, it just hurts when ever I move my knees.

On my right ankle is a burn from a motorbike exhaust, fitting three of us on a bike while there are only foot rests for 2 doesn't really put things in our favour, ever.

There are a multitude of scratches and cuts on my toes, before I bought new flip-flops, they were so broken they would catch on the floor making me scratch my toes, it was a fucking bother, so yeah half of my toes are fucked.

Oh and there is still my ankle which is buggered still, probably won't dive for another couple days.

Mucho Loveo

Chang-over

Howdy y'all.

So yeah last night was a friends birthday, so we did what we did best and drink. Chang is the local beer and is very very cheap. They recycle the bottles and wash them all out with pure ethanol....but then don't wash the ethanol out properly, which could make the beer, which is stated to be 6.4%, anything between 6.4% to 15%, no two bottles ever taste the same, its actually legendary. So yeah, we had a few and I woke up today with a splitting headache, sunglasses were worn all morning. Ugh I felt rough.

Other than that not much has happened, although we did have some rain. Its now sunny again and around the high 30's

Mucho Loveo

Grrrr....

So yeah, its been four days since I cut my ankle on the wreck and it still hurts like shit.....Today it still really hurt, so I went to the local doctor, the response? Its clean and deep, don't dive for another 5 days.....AT LEAST.....

So surprisingly I'm pissed off. I've already done all my boat-masters, only got one shop-master left, so what the hell do i fucking do for 4 days.....'AT LEAST'......

So if you haven't guessed, I'm pissed off. really fucking pissed off. (Also whoever anomalously commented that I'll keep my language down can fuck off)

So hm, life is shitting on paradise island at the moment.

Mucho Loveo

Actually fucked up...

So yeah, its been a dive less few days, well 2, but tomorrow i won't dive either and generally depending on my own health it will depend, the reason for my dive less fun? Wreck diving. well yeah, there is this wreck of a dive boat in one of the many bays, its about 20m down and isn't all that special, except for the mass of nothingness around it, its not like an aircraft carrier or anything, its a boring ass dive boat. So you swim over to it, descend as per usual, and then swim around it, and if you have big cahones like myself you swim through it, and you have the skill to cut your ankle quite deep on the metal like myself, as you swim out..... Go me..... So yeah, I skillfully cut my ankle about a millimetre above where my fins are, so every fin kick only goes and rubs, its wonderful.
So I thought not much of it, its in saltwater i assumed, I'll be a man and continue to dive tomorrow! Alas no, I passed the skills circuit where you do all the boring skills such as mask off and whatnot to show you can help on an open water course, but thankfully even with the small amount of kicking it hurt a lot, so yeah, doc's orders are to spend time out of the water and help in the dive centre. Its so fun. although I have read a shitload of my book, 700 pages in to outlaws of the marsh, shame i still have another 1300 to go....
So yeah my ankle hurts like hell, walking hurts, and if you lucky readers remember i live a good 15 mins from the centre.
Other news? decided I love wreck diving, its for me, hands down, even with a mild scratch i wanna see more.
Other than that not much has been done, got drunk, slept, ate, nothing going on really, went to a bbq yesterday, got the last ribs and bit of chicken, so yeah life has been healthy.
Tonight we're going for a curry, so yeah, lots of coconut milk in mine as a man i just love my spice......

Mucho loveo

My actual day to day routine....

I realised today i haven't actually told you about island life so far. Well, the room me and rowan are staying in isn't too bad, flushing toilet and 2 king size mattresses, no hot water but to be honest, in 35 degree heat its not too bad. Comically, opposite our room is a hooker bar call 'Friend bar' oh and yes, they holler at us every night and morning, its so wrong. We have about a 15 min walk to the dive centre every morning/night, which does wake you up when the morning fun dives are at 7.20 am. After diving or like today i chose a lie in, its lunch, which is usually cheap noodles, before going diving again in the afternoon, today I'm fun diving in the afternoon so I just get to dive whenever I like, its pretty sweet.

The Koh Tao Festival was a good laugh, they were selling these litre jugs, so after finishing it, it was kept, so that's an epic little momento i now have. It was shame that all the music they played was local Thai music, which funnily enough didn't really get me up for dancing. After a great stumble home which took us 45 mins, we then had a great 4 hours sleep before we were up for diving.....so yeah, island life is pretty sweet.

Mucho loveo

Life is gooooooooood..

So i have enjoyed not having to rush over the last few days, I started my dive master with my first 2 sessions not diving, I took control of the dive boat and slept. a lot.
Today we assisted with the advanced open water course, it was pretty easy, just sat around underwater watching people breath. yes, that's all i did this morning.
This afternoon is the 'Save Koh Tao' festival, its pretty basic, just some Eco awareness an whatnot, with beer.
Not much else has been happening, I'm taking it pretty easy, well tbh can really be arsed to rush, that's just not me, rushing takes effort. ha.

Hope all is well in the warm sunny British isles ha.

Ok, I apologise,

I'll admit, this has been too long, I tried to keep it constant but the 3 courses I had to take were pretty epic.

Anyway, I have now finished my Advanced, EFR, and Rescue diver courses..... So yeah, I'm a fucking DMT (Dive master training). Finally. I'm exhausted, tired, alcohol deprived (knowingly i write this on st paddy's day and trust me it's just a stop before the 'night')

Anyway, with reports of sharks and turtles I've been busy with the courses assigned, so yeah I'd get back on the boat and everyone would be raving about the sea snake/turtle/shark they saw, me? Yeah, I learnt how to save a drowning person... bitter much, yeah just a bit.....

Koh Tao is lovely, I won't lie, most likely will borrow a scooter for a couple days, see the rest of the island, and chill.... but yeah, all is good. got m y first boat master tomorrow so I will sleep off tonight AND work towards my DM, efficient am I.

Mucho loveo

Ben
x

After 48 hours travelling......

So yeah, it was fun, but we made it, after a few hours in a insanely air conditioned bus we got the Koh Tao.
So lets me get you up to speed. The flight had all you can drink beer, and I mean just ask and you shall receive beer, it was epic, so after a few Grolsch I fell straight to sleep, I did have time to watch the Oscar winning 'The Blind Side' Which easily killed 2 and a half hours.

So we land in the 'kok around 4:30 local time, and we get a bus to the centre. where we book our travel to KT, unfortunatly we have to wait for about 90 mins so we walked around the market street of Khoa San, which if I could liken to anything imagine a London market but instead of apples and bananas its mangos and watermelons.

We got quite lazy and just sat at a bar for a good 40 mins..........

And then we got this horrible ass coach to southern Thailand to the ferry terminal, it was stupidly Air-Conditioned and instead of making you cool, you were freezing cold, at one point I started to shiver....yeah I can admit it, i'm a man.....

Bus to catamaran, catamaran to pick up truck, truck to dive site. THANK GOD. I'm no gonna lie, 48hrs of disjointed sleep is hell, and I finally had my 8 hours.

Hope all is well
Ben.

20.5 hours away..,..

OK, I'm not one for lying on my blog, so, I'm nicely drunk, thanks to a Chris Mulloy, but, no offence to anyone; and this blog is going to a wide audience, I'll try to keep it to a PG12(haha)

So it's 19 hours til' lift off, I've had a good day with friends and family, but i won't lie, drunk packing does help A LOT! As a man I automatically awful at most things; packing being one, but! Thanks to a quick couple pints at my go-away lunch I've suddenly prepared myself.... I needed a quick call to Rohan (that is rowan Hermes for those not used to the nick-name) to quick check what i needed but thankfully we were both on the same page....

So comes tomorrow, I have to cut my hair (HORROR!?!?!?!?) get some cash, some ear-plugs ( cos Rohan snores) and general bits and bobs....

Mucho Lovo
Ben

Welcome/intro

Hey all,
Thought i should put someway of letting people see what i get up to on my travels, so here comes a blog, I'll try to update it regularly and with good posts but I'm not the most determined so i apologise in advance if i get a bit lackluster.
Anyway, its the Saturday before I go, 57 hours until the plane to Bangkok, it should be a laugh, 2 months in Thailand, 1 month in Australia and 2 and a bit weeks in new Zealand.
I'll be with rohan for the first two months, and joined with tom at some point in Aussie land, where we'll have hilarious adventures where we generally will stay sober and out of trouble hahahahahaha.
I'll start posting properly once I'm in the 'kok.
Mucho Lovo
Ben