Since I have some time, I figure I’ll write out what I’ve written in my little black book… here goes:

Started the trip at 8pm in the diveshop, drove up to Kuraburi where we got on the boat. I rode in the back of a minibus with Helen who is basically a British Valley Girl. I think that’s possible, but she does not. The other person was a Californian named John – he lives in Redondo, so it just became a small world!

I went diving with a computer from the shop for the first time. I dove with Ben (our Divemaster), Scotty (an Aussie) and Oliver (a Swiss-German). Justin (another Aussie) was the 4th person, but he had air issues, so they changed him to a different group. It was a good group. Saw lots of great stuff, LOTS.

The Divemasters on Board were fantastic – always helped with small tips here and there. It was super helpful. The Thai crew was awesome as well – just really fun and funny people. They were always there to help – no matter what was happening.

My ears got a little stressed, I think that three plus dives/day will do that to you. A couple of the DMs had some of the same problems – it’s the end of the season and the ears have a tendency to get more easily stressed.

Overall, I’d HIGHLY recommend Sea Dragon. All of it is fantastic. All of it. Here’s the link again: Sea Dragon Dive Centre.

BOO! I just did the last dive of the trip. I really was not pleased with having to do that, but I had to do that. You are supposed to have 24 hours between the last dive and flying. At least. And now I’m there. I have to fly on Saturday back to Bangkok, and then on Sunday for hours and hours back to LAX.

So, I can’t dive any longer, but now I’m up to like 35 or 36 dives in my logbook. I have decided that I want to start procuring my kit. Slowly but surely I’ll procure all the stuff I need for diving, so that I don’t have to share regulators with other divers.

I got to see plenty of lionfish, scorpionfish and schooling fish today, along with a good variety of nudibranchs – you’ll have to ask me for the diving sign for those – it’s comedy. I had a Divemaster I knew with me, from the liveaboard, and it was truly great. Just the two of us, and really only saw a few people who were starting their dives as we were coming up. The wreck was an old tin mining platform. The weather is still hot and I still like it. But, I have to start preparing myself to come home… that kind of stinks. Miss you all, but really…

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know I came up from the bottom…

Apparently on the boat, we were one of the groups that was the easiest to get up each time. The DMs were not pleased with this. They wanted at least 10 minutes of “wakey-wakey” time without customers. We did not oblige. I was up 10 minutes before the wakeup shout came, as I needed to make sure my contacts were all sorted before a zillion (yes, that’s an exaggeration) people started wandering about… Anyway, I’ve not yet been able to sleep in past like 8am any of the days I’ve been on holiday so far. But, I’ve gotten good sleep – apparently going to bed early works for me. That did NOT used to be the case. But now, whatever… I have to go back to the land of less sleep next week – sucks – and hopefully this store of sleep I currently have will tide me over for a while…

Anyway, I’m headed to a market today, in one of the next beach towns North, and also to that beach, to sit. That is part of vacation too, I think.

I just received an email from my dad that stated that 30 degrees C is 86 degrees F. Um, wow. That’s hot in the water. The monsoon is starting now too – the weather is turning very humid with crazy rain storms in the afternoon (as I told you before). We arrived back to port in one of those storms… It is also, in Phuket, supposedly currently 84 degrees, feeling like 94 degrees. It’s HOT. And then I just depressed myself by looking at the temperature in LA… not cool. But, I’ve still got time here… YAY!

I was trying to put some pictures up from the liveaboard of the lovely islands, but my camera (my borrowed camera) and this computer are not getting along. You may have to wait till I return home to upload them. If so, I apologize… I don’t have that many pictures this time, nothing like last time… I do think I have enough, though.

I didn’t see any whale sharks (they are the world’s largest fish…), but I saw some really, really great other things. I was out there underwater for three times a day, starting at 7am on Saturday morning… only two times today – and the last dive was a bit of a letdown… boo.

Overall, it was a total of 12 dives as I did only one of the night dives. It was a bit intense on the ears, but I’m going back down for another dive on Thursday… there’s a wreck in the area that I want to go down into. The divemasters were all fantastic, and the Thai crew was really, really awesome. The group we were with also was great as well. I’ve now become facebook friends with some of them (Mrs. Gray, get on it!!).

The diving was AWESOME, RAD, WICKED, WONDERFUL, SPECTACULAR… um, what else? I saw little fish, big fish, corals of all sorts, black-tipped reef sharks, leopard sharks, two kinds of turles (FOUR turtles in total on ONE dive!!)… it was really, really great. I know some of you don’t want to hear about this, but it was really good. Mom, we’ll just have to come back – Sea Dragon rocks.

As I said, met some great people, so I’m going to go hang out with them today and tomorrow. And then dive again on Thursday, make my way to Krabi on Friday for a Saturday flight to BKK… The hotel I wanted on Saturday is booked, so I’ll be doing the typical wander about town trying to find a place… Unless a friend can work magic and find a place to stay. It IS the beginning of the Thai New Year weekend, so I’ll just hope for it. I need to do some shopping for pashminas – and, anyone need anything?

I’ll try to write a more detailed update of the trip. Suffice it to say that it was really, really great.