The months after yoga teacher training leading up to summer

Sun Jan 31, 2016
Its been a minute since I last wrote on this blog. About year to be exact. 2015 turned out to be one of the best years of my life. I got yoga teacher certified in Ko Phangan, Thailand in Feb then traveled around the islands afterward with a my friend +Dennis G. Shaver then visited Northern Thailand (Chaiang Mai) to see my friend +Mollie Bell and relax post South East Travels. It was a trip I thought I could not beat for a very long time... I was in for a surprise :)

 

Yoga teacher training Thailand with classmates

St. Pattys Day in Denver (Myself, Alfredo, Dennis)

I returned to Denver full of life and practiced yoga daily. My world was opened.
I concentrated on my landscape design company Absolute Home & Garden and doubled everything within the company! After looking at the numbers after the 2016 new year i was very happy with the growth and direction the company was moving toward.

Front yard remodels

I visited my sister +Alana Healy for her 33rd birthday in Seattle and her bachelorette party. It was great catching up with family and my 4 year old niece, Rhyan. I had actually just finished a children's book I wrote for her Rhyan's Ranch: Pony Makes New Friends. If you haven't figured it our my niece is named after me. Its quite the honor and I'm doing my best to make her proud.

Back in Denver my friendships grew stronger and my knowledge of the area grew. I took hikes frequently and got back into art. I did lots of mini adventures and "lived the dream" frequently.

Denver Cruisers night

I returned home to Santa Barbara in May for my friend Brittney and Taylor's wedding. It was great catching up with friends, family, and sailing whenever I could get a chance.

This puts me up to about June 2015. I'm going to write a separate blog about my sisters wedding in Italy/Greece and then my sailing adventures afterward. More to come :)

Dive dive dive

Sun Mar 1

We woke up and got breakfast on the beach. Today the plan was to hop on the scooters and check out other parts of the island before our night dive that evening with Roctopus dive school. We met up with Catherine from yoga school again and she joined us on the adventure. Dennis and Catherine were sharing a bike and got lost when I stopped to confirm our morning dive with Scuba Junction, they were going back to Chumpon 100% in the morning and I wanted my final dive to be there.

Two hours later I got ahold of Dennis and Catherine and met them at a southern beach. It was a beautiful but hot day. There was almost no wind. We stayed in the water the whole time. We left about 4:30pm to head back to our resort to change and return the motor bikes. 

We had enough time to stop at the Roasted Duck for dinner. This was my favorite restaurant on the island and I ordered the roast duck egg noodle soup with an extra side of egg noodles. So good I can't even begin to tell you the flavors I experienced. Fat and happy we continued up the road for our next adventure.

We arrived at Rockopus at 5:45pm excited about our night dive. Dennis had never been night diving before and I remembered the mystery of it, we were both excited to say the least. Our dive was going to White Rock again. I was happy about that because it was one of my favorite dive spots so far and had a ton of variety. The boat ride out was clam and full of color. The sunset was clean and had a transitioning feel to it. I think the thought of the night approaching after in sets was a little more visible in my mind. 

We waited until it was completely dark to start our descent. We could see Siree Beach bars light up the bay as we dipped under the surface. It was another world. I remembered why I love it so much. The light and shadow play tricks on the mind. I felt like I was entering the abyss. We touched down at 17.4m and swam around the various rock outcrops. I finally saw a blue spotted ribbon tail sting ray, two actually. More blotched porcupine fish and a baby this time.

We circled up at one point and killed our tourches to look at the phosphorescent plankton. This was cool circling our hands in the water and watching the little plankton light up blue and purple. It reminded me of swimming at night in the Mediterranean. In all my excitement my air got burned up quickly. I was at 50bars left with only 33minutes in. We started to make our way to the surface stopping for a safety stop at 5meters. I surfaced with 10bars left and learned a valuable lesson about night diving. Watch ur tank supply just like the day. On a happy note the bubbles and lights from the other torches at the buoy line looked like something out of a movie. It was incredible. I wish my underwater camera could go deeper than 12meters.

The ride back was filled with smiles and stories. The water was clam and the air warm. We unloaded and made our way back to unload the supplies. We walked back thru town and got a ok dinner at an Austrilain restaurant. I don't remember what I had but I wished that I had that roast duck soup again. We didn't feel like joining the party that was roaming the streets tonight. Diving wears you out. 

Nice place to have lunch at. Drove the neighboring beaches on the scooters

Prepping my gear before our first night dive

Dennis and our dive instructor 

White Rocks layout

This ended up being my favorite restaurant on the islands

Mon Mar 2

We ate breakfast on the beach and made no effort to make plans. Nice thing about vacation is you don't have to really be anywhere. We thought about checking out of our hotel and moving to a different beach area. I stopped in Ban's scuba school to check which dives they were doing in the afternoon. I was excited to test out my new open water certification without having any class associated with it. Just fun diving.
They said they had a dive going out to Chumpon. I asked if they had a advanced introduction dive available for it so I could go deeper than 18meters. They did. Dennis had some writing to do so we said goodbye and I sat down at the table with 2 other students and waited for the instructor. When Darren showed up he gave the class syllabus and I just listened as it didn't pertain to me. I said I wish I had time to do the advanced adventure diver course but I was leaving tomorrow afternoon. He told me to hold that thought and went into the office.
Luck was on my side. They were doing 3 dives today and 2 dives in the morning. That's the 5 dives total I need to get my PADI advanced adventure diver certification. I said I was in and got to reading. I was really lucky because this course is almost all hands on training so no class time.
We loaded up the long boat and made for a gigantic boat moored way out in the bay. This school was one of the biggest on the island and had all the trimmings. Even though it was big we had only 3 of us in the course total for our group.
On the 45 minute trip out into the open water off the coast we prepped our gear and reviewed our material for the deep descent. There really wasn't that much more you needed to do but unlike 18M dives you really need to slow your accent to a minimum 18M a minute. With your open water you can really descent from bottom to top without having to stop as long as you don't beat your bubbles. Its not advisable but it won't kill you. Under that mark you better keep your head on you if you want to avoid the bends.
We pulled up to buoys floating in the middle of no where. Small bubbles were popping all around from other divers under the water already. We were already geared up and I was excited to go deeper than I ever had before. After our buddy check we jumped in the water and swam over the buoy to start our descent into the abyss. I was super pumped to see if it would terrify me or feel scary. I had no idea what was ahead.
We started our fins down descent like any other following the buoy line down. It stopped on a large rock formation about 18M underwater. We swam away from the line to the edge of the formation to the deeper water below. I was pumped. We started our second descent this time swimming down instead of free falling. This way feels a lot cooler. The water visibility on the bottom was low. There was a slight current kicking up silt and sand. 
We opened a raw egg. The yolk stayed together under the pressure. It was fun pushing the little yellow ball around underwater. Our dive teacher pulled it back to him then flicked it with his finger. It disintegrated and disappeared. It was very cool to watch. Next he pulled out a red tomato. At that depth red is the first color to disappear from the spectrum. It looked gray. Now I know what color blind people see when they see red. Its bland and kind of purple/grayish. We smashed the tomato and gave it the local fish.
We swam off in a stead circle going up the Champon pinnacles. There was tons of sea anemones on the tops of the pinnacles. It looked like a swaying forest. Not one portion was rock it was all life. We swam in and out of these tall underwater towers. As we circled up for our safety stop at 5meters the light shinned through the rippling water above.
My favorite part was the safety stop for 3mins. A huge school of fish circled like a giant wall of silver and yellow to the south of us. The west the buoy line was filled with descending divers and their bubbles. The bubbles broke and split with the light in such a fantastic dance on their accent to the surface. To the North was the main dive area teeming with life. To the East the shadow of the boat with its anchor floating in the water. It was beyond words. I felt a great breath of happiness and gratitude for the moment. It was life and I was blessed to be living it.
Back on the boat we made way for Red Rock our second dive spot. At this location we would work on under water navigation. We waited a hour interval before diving back into the water. This allows the nitrogen to leave the system and gives a longer second dive time. We talked about our navigation techniques and geared up.
We jumped in the water and swam for the underwater formation. We quickly reviewed the techniques and skills on the surface then descended. The visibility was low at 10-12 meters. This would add a challenge to our dive skills but that's precisely why we needed to learn underwater navigation. At the bottom we split into two groups. We had another dive master in training with us, Lauren, who partnered up with me. I was suppose to swim away 100meters then swim back 100M on the opposite course. The dive master in training was being a perfectionist and kept pulling me sideways on my way back. I knew where I was going and proceeded to ignore her pulls. We came back to Darren our instructor in perfect sync from where I left him.
I did my 25M square skills and same as before ended up back in the same place. Lauren stopped pulling on me this time :) At this point we waited for the other two teams to come back to where we started. Remember the visibility was very limited so we couldn't see further than 25-30 ft from where we were in neutral buoyancy. After about 3-4 minutes we decided to ascend. When diving if you lose a person in the group you stop. Look around. Wait a minute then ascend to surface with no safety stop. We did that and surfaced. Another 10minutes passed.
Darren was upset that the other two students didn't do what they were suppose to. He told me to descend with Lauren so I could get my fun diving in with navigation. I was going to lead the dive and she was suppose to follow me. We descended to the bottom. I set my course and made for the shore to the west of us. We got there and broke right heading north. The underwater rocks and coral formations were amazing. We swam for about 15minutes then turned back around. Lauren started leading which annoyed me because I wanted to see if I could master this skill.
When we got back to a formation I recognized when we swam to the shore and I signaled Lauren to head back East toward the Red Rock formation. She followed. After about 15M she tugged me and lead me another direction. My brain told me that was taking us away from the place we were suppose to go. Every 10-15M I got another pull and point leading us to a slightly different heading. After what should have been 50-60meters we should have hit the rock and didn't I felt like we were in open water.
We made the signal to ascend and did our safety stop while swimming on. We ended up 100 meters from the rock formation but on the up side we were by the boat. I was bummed that I kept getting instruction instead of letting me fail or succeed on my own. I still think I could have navigated us back to the right spot without interference but I'll never know. She meant well trying to give me help. I found out later that's the one skill she said she needed to improve on. Sera sera.
Back on the boat the two lost students were still getting a lecture from our dive master. They were embarrassed but happy with the dive. We loaded up our bags and made for the shore. We had a 2 hour break before we had to be back for our night dive. 
I met up with Dennis and had dinner at Bans restaurant on the water. After my shower and catching up on the day I only had a limited time to go somewhere to eat. With a really good Pad Thai in my belly I met up with my class again. We loaded up the long boat and shipped out for our main boat.
We were diving White Rock. This would be my second night dive at this location but so far it was one of my favorites. Its very diverse dive site with lots to look at with fun formations to swim around.
Visibility was good tonight. When we hit the bottom we swam off to do a few more skills in the dark. This was mostly hand signals using the flashlights and a few other exercises we do during the day. We made off for various formations and swam around looking at the sea life. Everything seems a little bit more mysterious in the dark when underwater. After about 20 minutes Darren swam us far away from main dive area and we shut off all our flashlights to look at the phosphorescent plankton. Its always fun looking at the little lights appear out of nowhere.
After a couple minutes of playing around with the plankton we kept our flashlights off and swam back toward the reef. I was surprised how well I could see in the dark under 40 feet of water. The boats above and other divers seemed to light up the water enough to see where we were going but also the sea life around us. It was a new experience to diving I was happy to indulge in. I liked it and had a feeling I would do it again in the future.
We surfaced about 48 minutes later, 3 dives down in my advanced course. Back on shore with all the gear washed and stowed I made my way back to the room to shower and change for my last night on the islands.
Dennis and I found a restaurant with these cool low hanging trees and lights you could eat under. We shared some laughs over a few beers. It felt surreal for me that I had been in Thailand for so long already and yet it felt so short. The dinner was good. At that point in the trip it was hard to compare one meal to another they were all so amazing.
There was a party next door to the restaurant at another bar that was packed. It was strange. My last night on the island and I really had no desire to drink or meet fellow travelers. I was content with my place in the world and running around drunk at a bar had no meaning for me. It was a funny moment realizing I didn't need that anymore to be happy or complete. In college I felt guilty if I wasn't part of the party and now I could honestly care less.
We stopped at a few shops and bars on the way back to the hotel but nothing to speak of. I was excited about my continued education in morning. I really love diving!

Fish from the dives we've seen

Scuba selfie 

Darren and Lauren our instructors 

The people in my class having fun before our night dive

After my second night dive

Nice place to eat dinner at

Tues Mar 3
I woke up excited about my last two dives before becoming an official advanced adventure diver. It was something I wanted after my open water certification and I felt blessed to be completing it before leaving. I was down at the restaurant early eating breakfast and drinking coffee when the rest of the dive party showed up.
We loaded the boats and made out for our first deep water dive of the day, the Sattakut Wreck. Its a US WWII ship that was decommissioned and sunk. I was excited to touchdown at 30M again. We descended the buoy line. I was getting really good at clearing the pressure now and dropped much quicker than the rest of the group. Half way down we swam off toward the wreck and continued our descent by swimming. It looked like a ghost ship. We peaked in the windows as we dropped. The fish inside swam about doing there thing.
It was amazing that the spot they dropped the ship was exactly 30M deep at the bottom. We did a few more drills then swam around the ship looking at various aspects. I was laughing in my regulator because our instructor Darren said be careful on this dive it rains Chinese. This is exactly what was happening. Tourists taking photos of everything not paying attention. It was actually kind of dangerous having people not paying attention to their surroundings.
We swam thru the main viewing deck and blew bubbles in the confined spaces. The air that was trapped looked like mercury and was fun to play around with. There was a couple giant groupers that lived in the viewing deck that wanted me to get the hell out. I complied and followed the group to the aft end of the boat and swam toward the distant coral reef. Right when we got there one of the other students sucked to much air so we made our back to the buoy line and started our safety stop. This was another moment I laughed at because it literally was raining tourists all around us diving to the shipwreck.
Back on the boat we unloaded our gear and made for the upper deck to talk about our last class of the day. Our final and last dive of the trip was the Twins. My hovering skills got really good and my O2 use was way down. This last lesson was pretty much a fish idea course which meant just having fun.
Back on the shore I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I was excited about my new skill I now possessed. 
After our bags were packed we caught the shuttle to the pier and hopped on the high speed boat to Chumpon City to catch a train. After a short bus ride we were at the train station with 3 hours to kill. We ate a local street restaurant. I liked it immediately because the head chef came out at sunset and made an offering to a local shrine. I love the spirituality of the people here. The food was excellent and it was a nice finishing meal to my time of the islands.
We got on the train with a slight buzz. The sleepers were already set up for us when we got on board. I watched a movie on my iPad and set my head down thinking I am truly blessed.

After our last dive. Officially Advanced Open Water diver!!

Final photo opt

Dinner after a great day

The shrine the chef paid homage to

Open Water certification on Koh Toa island

Thur Feb 26

The alarm going off was brutal after tossing and turning all night in the heat of room. I had closed the sliding glass doors to keep the mosquitos out last night because we didn't have nets above th beds. Downside was the room heated up being on the top floor and two full grown men sleeping in it. I felt exhausted and dehydrated. Two things that don't mix with diving that well.

Coffee and a new 1.5 bottle of water later, I walked to class for the day's first instruction. I was suppose to have read chapters 1-3 the night before but like a champion I decided not to and review 20mins before class started at 8am. I finished my homework right before my instructor walked up. His name is Marian and he was from Slovakia. He was a master diver and certified in just about every dive arena you could get. He had been on the island over a year now and knew a ton about the local water life and sites. 

Lucky for me the morning quiz was mostly on things we did in our homework and the rest seemed like common sense. I got 4 out of 30 incorrect and we went over them with the teacher. 2 more boring videos later we broke for lunch. I caught up on emails and a bit on last nights reading before we started our afternoon dive instruction.

To give some background on my dive experience; I had dove Airport Beach Hawaii when I was 15 years old and a bunch of lobster night dives in college with some buddies who had the equipment. I knew a bit but I never really had proper instruction. I knew to just clear your sinuses often when descending and to always breath. Never hold your breath as well.

We loaded up the long boat with our supplies and a group of about 25 students and teachers made for the dive boat. My group was 3 total students and our instructor. The other couple was from England and had only done one intro dive somewhere else on a pervious vacation.

We reviewed what skills we were going to do and prepped our gear. When we did our buddy check I got super excited I was going to do this training. It had been on my bucket list for awhile and this felt like another great skill set to learn.

We jumped in the water at The Japanese Garden dive site and swam for the sandy part of the reef were we went over our skills. This included submersing our heads underwater while standing on our knees and breathing using the regulators, swimming techniques with equipment on, inflating and deflating our BCDs, clearing our masks, taking off our masks and swimming 100 meters with our masks off underwater, and a bunch of other things I can't remember right now. The important thing was lots of time underwater getting used to the sensations. I loved we were already diving so much after just a few hours class time.

The next dive site was at the Junkyard. Aptly named that after a bunch of the dive schools got together and made a little underwater theme park made out of junk. The idea is to get coral and sealife to grow around it. This dive was going down to 10.5meters but at 30ft at a beginning level you are very much aware of the depth. I drew in my breathing skills I learned in yoga school and calmed my mind. Pervious fears about being that deep underwater melted away and I relaxed and enjoyed the swim amoungst the sea life. We saw a windmill made out of metal. Along with a couple other themed buildings, an underwater gym with used equipment, a bar, and a castle. It was cheesy but I saw a bunch of cool fish including a puffer, porcupine, and yellow fin triggers. We swam back to the buoy and started a slow accent to 5meters for our safety stop. We waited for the standard 3mins to decompress and clear the excess nitrogen bubbles from the system. When we surfaced it was a 47 minute total dive and counted toward my first registered dive. I loved it!

We took the boat back to the scuba shop and unloaded the boat of the gear and used tanks. With everything washed off in clean water and stowed we broke for the day. I walked away ready for another day of diving.

I met Dennis at a pizza place on the beach for happy hour. I was stoaked on the lessons from he day and shared my experiences. He was excited to take his refresher course in the morning with my school so he could dive again on the upcoming sites.

The sunset was extra gorgeous tonight and the drinks flowed. We met up with Catherine, another student from my yoga teacher training, and her two friends from Canada. Her friend Jamie was a Dj who lived on Koh Phagnan. He lived there for two years already and had lots of stories to share about the islands. After sunset we made for some music we heard down the beach. Every beach bar had fire dancers and crazy light shows. We stopped at the Sunset bar and watched a Sunset beach party ensue.

I paced myself but the rest of the group got at it. I was entertained at the sheer madness of it. No rules with drinking and fire. The fire limbo was really hot but I did a few rounds harnessing my back bending skills. I called it around midnight. I had another quiz in the morning and once again had not read a thing. I pounded water on the walk back to my apartment. Tonight I slept with the sliding doors opened. Much better sleep.

My dive instructor Marian

 

Before my first official dive at the Junk Yard

Post scuba happy hour

Sunset at Siree Beach

Sunset Beach Party

Fri Feb 27

I hated my alarm a little bit more today. I could feel the night before despite the water I drank. The walk to class was paced. With an Americano coffee in hand I once again finished my homework with less than a minute before my instructor walked up. I really wanted to know this information in my book but it still remained only skimmed through. Cliff notes style I walked into class for my last two quizzes and passed with only two incorrect. My instructor immediately handed me the final. I thought "this will be interesting" considering I didn't finish a complete chapter in the entire manual.

I passed with a B average. The questions were all ones in chapters I didn't read and when I reviewed the questions with my teacher I nailed the correct answers. School work was now officially over and only dive skills remained. As a side note, I own the PDF version of that book and have read through it completely. I truly wanted to know the material and I was very present for all dives with skills.

After lunch we were back on the boat loading up and heading to Mango Bay for confined water drills at  10meters. Doing simple exercises near the surface is a little boring but under 30ft of water it adds a nice little danger to it that makes it fun. I feel very smooth and controlled when I practice my techniques. I'm really starting to love this underwater stuff.

With all our skills done we surfaced and swam back to the boat. Our next dive spot was The Twins. This would count as a full dive. It was beautiful. The water was low visibility but still fun. We saw a school of chevron barracudas as we descended. They looked fierce but beautiful swimming together. I liked messing with the XMAS tree worms. They come in tons of neon colors and swirl out in this fan shape to catch debris floating by. It you pass your hand above them they curl inside quickly. The idea is to look at the sea life but never touch.

Despite the low visibility it was still a great dive. Our max depth was 11.3 meters. I'm excited to hit our lowest dive limit tomorrow. Boating back to our base camp I reflected on how amazing life is and the directions it takes you. I was two dives away from completing a goal I had made when I was 15 years old and here I was about to finish it just shy of two decades later. Better late than never.

Dennis and I headed back to shower and change. We ate dinner at one of the nicest fish houses on the island, Barracuda. It was delicious and hit the spot. No night life tonight. We both wanted to be rested for the big dive tomorrow morning at Chumpon. I closed me eyes excited and happy about the day and tomorrow's dive.

Loading up at Mango Bay

Ready to dive

Yeah this sign is convincing enough that it's safe to eat here

Sat Feb 28

We were at the dive school at 6:45am. Dennis was going to join our group as we only had a few quick exercises left. Sadly though the school didn't get enough free divers together to do Chumpon so we went to Green Rock instead. Chumpon is a half hour cruise further into the middle of nowhere so they need a full boat to commit. This was a let down. I'd been excited to dive Chumpon since arriving on the island. I made a goal to complete that dive before leaving Koh Toa.

Our first dive was Green Rock. When scuba diving a good dive profile starts at the lowest point slowly ascending back toward the surface. This helps with your no decompression limit and air supply.

I was excited about going to the max depth for open water diving. Water was low visibility and had a good current. Still in was cool dropping into the depths below. We touched down and did a few drills with our masks and regulators. Afterward we circled green rock heading back toward the surface. We saw trigger fish, butterfly fish, longfin banners, blue ringed angelfish, black groupers, red breasted wrasses, and tons of marble sea cucumbers and magnificent anemones.

Our max depth was 17.9m at 36min dive.

We boated for White Rock our final dive spot before we would be PADI certified open water divers. This terrain was spread out with lots of variety and coral formations. A great finishing spot to an already exciting program. I wanted to jump in immediately but we had to wait a hour to allow the lasting nitrogen in our body to leave our system after the last dive. This would give us a longer dive on this go around.

After buddy checks we descended White Rock. It's not as deep which makes it good for a second dive spot. We touched down at 15.7m and had a fun dive. No more instruction just being divers and enjoying the sea life. We saw blue ringed groupers, eight banded butterfly's, blue spotted trout, garget major fish, squirrel fish, soldier fish, golden trevelly, long faced emperor fish, parrot fish, and staghorn coral.

I splashed around in joy after surfacing. That goal was long overdue on getting completed. Our boat ride back was filled with smiles and feelings of accomplishment. I was stoaked taking the photo for my PADI license. I had done it. I thanked my instructor and made my way to the nearest beach restaurant to enjoy a well deserved lunch and cold beer.

Afterward we switched accommodations to Bans Resort. It's a dive resort that had a decent room in a prime location. We wanted our last two nights to be in a fun area and enjoy our surroundings. We got settled in then rented some scooter bikes to go to the main pier to get our ferry and train tickets switched around so we could stay longer. It was successful and saved us a whole morning on Tuesday to do a final dive. I was very happy about this and it only cost us $200 baht to switch. Worth it's weight in gold to save half a day.

We explored around, but only briefly, then ate dinner. We tired to get into the idea of going out but honestly we were both so exhausted by 11pm we called it early. I slept so sound.

Sunrise. Waiting for our boat to load up

Ready for the first dive of the day!

Graduation and the day after

Tues Feb 24

I awoke like any other day since my training started and did my morning routine. Nothing felt different about today. I really put very little thought that in a few hours time we would all depart our training together as certified yogis. I grabbed a snack from the The Beam and headed up to the Shala. It was a beautiful morning and the walk up seemed quick.

We started our last session with some notes about our session here and improvements we recommend for future programs. Our last practice together was 108 sun salutations. It seemed like a lot but became like a meditation after about 30. Our breath was in sync and when we finished together the moment of finality arrived. It was in a big group Om with all our knees touching and everyone facing different directions that I felt the closure of experience.

We recieved our certificates of 200/hrs completed and said our goodbyes to everyone. Most of the group left immediately after the ceremony. I did a few errands and chilled out most of he day with Dennis around the beam. 

I reflected later that the certificate I received meant very little about whether I was a teacher or not. It was what I know inside that was my credibility and accomplishment not a piece of paper telling me I am. The knowledge is in me and that's what matters most. 

Dennis and I met up with the remaining stragglers of the yoga group on Haad Yuan in later part of the day. There was 7 of us that ended up crushing the beach area with nothing more than our imaginations and conversation as our entertainment. Happy shake indeed. We finished the evening at Bamboo restaurant for dinner on the upper platform. I had the green curry with lots of laughter.

My last sunrise at the Shala

Everyone saying goodbye yoga style- laughter and in cross legged position 

I'm officially a yoga teacher pose

Last beach sunset on Koh Phangan

Wed Feb 25

Breakfast in the morning at The Sanctuary was delicious and it was a good place to finish at. I said my goodbyes to everyone throughout the meal as they left for other places or passed to other activities. Dennis and I caught a boat about water taxi about noon to Haad Rin. It felt like entering a huge city for me after my time on the quite beach. The ferry to Koh Toa was a 1pm and was packed. I wanted to sleep but I was middle seat and my head kept moving around waking me up.

After arriving in Koh Toa we made for lunch to get our bearings and wifi access. Of course the two places we went had terrible wifi connections. I barely found a dive shop recommendation site before the Internet would click out. With address in hand we got a taxi to a dive school called Scube Junction.

I walked in the shop with all my luggage excited to find out more about the diving certification process and possible accommodations while we were on island.

Luck would have it they had a new open water class starting in 10 mins and it was only $300 US dollars to get my open water certification with PADI. Dennis already had his open water cert with PADI. They set us up with accommodations about a 10 minute walk away. A lot of the other programs offer free lodging but we got a deep discount apartment with a great view and two twin beds for 400baht a night ($12). Dennis went off to check us in while I started class. 3 boring videos and some review of our next three days later I left class and made to find Dennis and our lodging.

I got there just in time to witness a gorgeous sunset. Dennis stocked the fridge with a bunch of big Heinekens which tasted amazing. I laughed realizing I didn't even go one day before I got into another learning program. 

We got dinner at an Italian restaurant splitting a bottle of red wine from Argentina. It was a nice change of food style after a month on Phangan. We stopped at a few other bars and made for the apartment. I have to be careful while I'm here. Alcohol use can impair you when diving. Looks like no heavy vacationing in my near future. It's funny because I took it easy almost the entire time I was doing teacher training and now I have to continue that habit until I complete this training.

It was a warm nights sleep. I woke up a lot throughout the night.

My home beach. Saying goodbye is such bitter sweet sorrow 

Leaving Phangan 

My scuba scool and the view out the door