Changes afoot

I survived my encounter with the sharks, you'll be happy to hear.

On Friday morning, I went out with the Advanced divers to Chumpon Pinnacle. The wind was whipping up the waves and there was a very strong current. Visibility, which has been low in recent days, had really declined.

Sairee Beach
We played a bit on the sandy bottom at 30m deep and cracked open an egg - the yolk stayed intact and we bounced it between each other like a ball. At this point a reef shark swam up less than 8m away to see what we were up to but didn't stay for long.

We swam a bit more, through a fish pool where apparently there was a large shark lurking but I must have missed it! The visibility was pretty awful and we were low on air because we had all been fighting the current so hard.

The next dive we did at a site called twins. Again, visibility was very bad and we didn't see much during the dive - however we did see Nemo! and a few of his relatives.

We logged our dives and then I'm pretty sure I went sunbathing.

In the last few days I've got chatting to quite a lot of the fun divers and have met a good bunch of people.

We ate that night in the cheapest place in town - real Thai food at Thai prices as opposed to the ridiculous amounts they charge in most restaurants, and then hung out chilling, drinking and smoking on Ben's bungalow balcony.

With such a chilled atmosphere and the prospect of rushing up to Bangkok the following day and rushing (well trying to - it's a hellish trip) to Cambodia, I decided to try and put my flight to Australia back a couple of weeks.

After most of Saturday spent in indecision - it cost 75 pounds to change - about the amount which was stolen from my room the other day - and unable to contact Emirates, I managed to contact the London office who changed it there and then.

So instead of flying to Sydney on October 12, it will be October 30.

This gives me a month to play with. So I celebrated with a night dive and a night out.

The dive was quite scary as it was pitch black underwater. We had torches though and there were just three of us and the dive master. WE had to cancel Barracuda hunting ground destination of White Rock because it was just too choppy and headed for the sheltered Japanese Gardens.

We say two blue-spotted stingrays, many shrimps with their eyes glowing pink, and fish such as squirrel fish. It was very relaxing actually to be down there at night and you had time to concentrate on the colours and corals.

Later a large group of us headed to Chopper bar for a few drinks and then to Lotus bar - a beachside place with mats and candles on the sand - dancing on the beach until the wee hours of the morning.

Today, Sunday, has been a day of catching up on sleep, reading, sunbathing and eating. Michelle, Duncan and I have just booked to leave Koh Tao on Tuesday by flying to Phuket (a real luxury!) and will head straight for Phi Phi for some more sunbathing, relaxing and supposedly the best diving in Thailand...