RaiLey

After another two weeks in KL, I began feeling a little bored so decided to head North to Thailand with fellow couch surfer Max. After a 21 hour journey (most of which felt like it was spent waiting at the border) we arrived on the beautiful secluded peninsula of RaiLey in the Krabi region. It feels a lot like an island, but it isn't. There are no vehicles and you must reach it by boat. Jeeva (who hosted both Max and I) suggested that we come here and recommended a place for us to stay.

We found a great hotel and are paying a little bit more than you would expect in Thailand, but for $7 each we have a room with a private bathroom, fan, AC (which doesn't really work), pool and beautiful view of the island (I mean peninsula).

People come here to rock climb. There are cliffs surrounding the island. Today, Max and I took a little walk up one of them, although it was more of climb than anything else. There was a look out point where you can see the whole peninsula (pictures will be up on shutterfly at some point). There is also a lagoon that you can walk to. It was a little bit of a steep climb down though, and we decided not to risk breaking anything. So just admired it from the top as best we could.

Tomorrow we will head off someplace new, but not too far away since I have to be back in KL in a few days.

A little update

I have been back in KL for about a week now. I got a job at a dive shop in a massive mall just outside of the city. I helped sell dive equipment and I got 23% commission. It seemed like a pretty good deal, until I realised it wasn't. Things were slow and I often made only $1 in 12 hours. So I have decided that yesterday was my final day. My time can be much better spent doing other things. They wanted me to sell things to the foreigners, but the foreigners who came in were often dive instructors and got a discount, which meant I didn't get a commission. I was also the only one of the employees who had been diving before and could give some advice about things. It's also quite far from where I am staying. Things were so slow that I managed to get through a book a day. So I have managed to read about 5 books this week.

I stayed with Jeeva for a few days then moved into a guesthouse where I will be staying until I leave KL. I decided I needed a little bit of my own space for a few weeks. I am not really sure what I will be doing until I leave, but may find a bit of volunteering to do. I can keep myself pretty busy though.

There and back again...

Now it's definitely time for a new blog entry. It feels like a bit of a chore sometimes, especially when you don't feel like writing anything. I am now officially a divemaster! I left the Perhentians and headed to Bangkok. The journey took over thirty hours - a boat, two buses, a train and some walking. I was utterly exhausted when I got there, but had a nice surprise. Mike, my roomie from Santiago was in Bangkok as well. We only saw each other briefly before headed to Northern Thailand.

I stayed near Khao San Road the popular tourist road. I must admit that Bangkok was not for me. I would like to try it again sometime in the future. I was in a bad mood and tired from travelling. I definitely realised I needed a break from my break. Bangkok was noisy, polluted and I met some of the weirdest foreigners I have ever met! I had a few things stolen from my room including my only debit card and to top things off I fell and fractured my elbow.

I decided enough was enough and booked a flight back to KL after convincing a dive shop to give me a job selling equipment. I start on Monday. I am happy to be back, employed and around familiar faces, Ruben and Lara are here until Monday and I am staying with a Couch Surfer Jeevah, and am sharing a room with several snakes, a couple of lizards and some tarantulas.

Am happy to be here hanging around until I fly back to England...

Put Another Dollar In (PADI)

I figured it was about time for a new blog entry. It has been a while, but things have pretty much been the same. After a couple weeks we fell into a pretty sturdy routine which started making me feel a bit restless a couple of days ago. There has been a core group of us for a few weeks now and I think that combined with a small island have made things a bit tense. Our time is still mostly made up of diving, studying, eating and sleeping. It doesn't leave much time for other things.

There are only a few days left. I will be finishing the course on the 7th then will be making my way to Bangkok on the 8th. It will be a lovely 20 hour plus journey. It's an expensive journey though, because the south eastern border of Thailand isn't very safe due to terrorist bombing and religious conflict. SO I shall be taking a boat and then I assume a bus at some point. I think I will have had enough of beaches for the time being so am bypassing the south.

The course is going fairly well, but we have had to fit a lot into just a few weeks. We will get it all done on time. Although we have been assisting a lot with classes we really haven't been leading any dives. Will definitely be looking for some work soon so I can get some initial experience.

I have been trying to have a social life outside of our group, but that hasn't worked so well. I did run into a guy yesterday that I had met on my first night in Malaysia when I stayed in Melaka. So I did hang out with him and some of his friends last night.

Lauren my Alaskan roommate and fellow couch surfer who has been living in Thailand the past couple of years is AWESOME. I can't imagine what this course would have been like without her. We have had some new CS members join us which has caused a gender upheaval. We went from 3+ women and 1 man to 5 men and only 3 women. We have a good mix going though.

The diving here has been a little disappointing. We have mostly been doing shore dives, but the visibility has been pretty bad and the coral is bleached. It is still pretty good, but nothing like I expected.

I think this is a significant blog entry to tide me over until I reach Thailand. So until then...