12/30/12

Off to sea

After a few more days in the north it was time to head south and start the scuba portion of the trip.

Khoa Lak Scuba Adventures and the Manta Queen I were to be home for the next four nights. A drive picked up a lot of us at the curb at the airport after some equipment fittings and paperwork we were on the boat and headed for the Similans.

Originally it was expected it to be the relaxing portion of the trip. I would be on the bike, I wouldn't have to sort our lodging or routes each day. A piece of cake. If you've ever done four dives a day, I'm sure you're already laughing... at me. It was a nice idea anyway.
The first day of diving was on December 25, in many places known as Christmas. The crew decorated the hangout area with as much tinsel as possible.

I decided to do the Advanced Open Water course which had the added benefit of my own dive leader for much of the time. (Neal, soon to be noted as the yeller)

The course did cut into my recovery time a bit though, I had to do some reading and answer questions for the courses. Now... that wouldn't have been much of a problem usually but when I was already predisposed to fall asleep at the drop of a hat, reading a PADI course book took longer than usual.
We quickly fell into the schedule that would govern the next three days:
  • Neal yelling "GOOOD MOOOOOOORNING"
  • A snack of toast and juice
  • "BRIEEEEEEEEEEEFING", again Neal. None of the rest of the crew were near as enthusiastic about the (harassing?) gathering of the divers
  • Gearing up
  • Diving
  • Gearing Down
  • Eating a real meal
  • Hanging pretending that you felt fine and didn't need a nap
  • A Nap
  • Loop back to the briefing call three times
  • Hang around for awhile in the evenings, maybe watch a movie
  • Pass out
So if you read the schedule there was a lot of napping and sleeping involved... however it was more of a requirement for continued health than truly being lazy. Darn it.
The dive briefings usually included a white board map of the area by Tik which were always impressive.

And that's Neal by the way, my dive lead, the trip lead, general yeller and briefer extraordinaire.

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