Back on Koh Tao - the trip on train/ferry was pretty uneventful. Pat very kindly brought travel scrabble with him so have taken up scrabble again. He's also downloaded a 2 and 3 letter word list - just like being at school again. All 3 of us played and then i played Vs Pat and scored over 350!! Not bad considering it's 16 years since the 'Daniel Scrabbles to the Top' headlines...if you don't know don't ask!

Koh Tao hasn't changed - we're booked into the new wing at Ban's which has hot showers - woo hoo! Pat has enroled and done the first day and a bit of his course, and we've been diving with a divemaster - none other than Phil Stephens. Phil is a guy I worked with for 18 months at MP and he's currently scousing it up on the island of Koh Tao. For those of you that know him, yes I heard him before I saw him. He's lost 4 stone on the Atkin's diet and currently has a Thai girfriend (or two).

Today's dive however was a nightmare - we got down at 25 metres, after entering through 3 metre waves, only for my ear to hurt and my mask to fill up with blood (literally). I signaled to Jen that I felt awful (very lightheaded and starting to panic a little) by giving her the 2 thumbs up signal for 'I need to surface'. She looked up and shrugged her shoulders, seemingly looking for a passing whale shark no doubt. By this stage we had lost Phil and the other diver who had swum off into the blue yonder - the visibility was only about 5m at this stage. Evenetually I managed to communicate via my 'slate' 'Feel bad!' and we surfaced, although our descent was a little quick and my dive computer reminded us of that fact as it made us stop for 4 minutes at 5m. We did so and surfaced only to be battered for the waves until we eventually struggled to the boat some 15/20 mins later. The conditions were utterly appalling and I, and a couple of others on the boat, were amazed they continued to dive. The boat had a kind of pre-pubescent schoolboy feel as it contained a number (around 18) Divemaster trainees. These guys basically get to dive for free until they are divemasters, ogh and they take groups of divers around. One of them even decided to dive in a poncho. COCK...this is 30m underwater for God'
s sake. The arrogance of these guys is pretty unbelieveable and there was a real marked difference in the level of professionalism between this boat and others we have been on recently. For Americans read frat party - for British read tossers. They were so irritating and immature that Phil was easily the most mature and level-headed one on the boat...We've made a decision not to dive with Ban's again...and to give my ear a couple of days to recover. It feels fine noiw - I shouldn't have gone down without taking my lucky Sudafed!!

Pat is progressing well on his course and has met some nice Canucks...meeting up with a couple of them for a beer tonight. Tomorrow is a chill day...the weather here has turned horrid (storms all day not just the night - hence the 3m waves) though so probably won't make it to the beach...as I've said before - roll on Australia...

Pat has very kindly uploaded the movies of us with Mantas and Whale Sharks - they can be found here - I suggest you download them to a separate file by right-clicking your mouse button. The diver in 2 of the movies is Jen by the way!! ENJOY!

MOVIE 1 MOVIE 2 MOVIE 3