Almost Didn't Make It Home

After just one day on Ko Tao, Michelle and I thought about canceling our flights and staying there for the next several months. I mean take a look at the picture above, this was taken while sitting at the cafe just across from my room.  I woke up, relaxed, and fell asleep to this view, listening to the waves.

Pier to the Catamaran - the wood was a

little damp from the humidity in the air

Getting to Ko Tao was a bit of a trip.  We took the overnight train from Bangkok to Chumphon then a ferry to Ko Tao.  The train was definitely an experience.  It is a nine hour train ride on a 2nd class sleeper with fan.  It didn't get as hot as I expected, but the A/C car on the way back was much better.  Unlike the trains in Europe, there aren't individual rooms.  Each car is a single room, the beds are along each side of the car.  Before the beds are pulled down for the night, the lower bed are two chairs facing each other and the upper bed is pinned against the side. For your luggage this means either sleeping with it on your bed (not much room for a person and a large backpack) or locking it to the shelves in the middle aisle.

Once we arrived in Chumphon we then got on an almost two hour catamaran ride to Mae Haad pier on Ko Tao.  Upon arriving on Ko Tao we were picked up by a taxi from our resort and brought to the dive shop to immediately get down to planning our dives.


That's right, I am officially SCUBA certified.  It is incredible!  I took an elearning course through PADI so I wouldn't have to sit in a classroom on the island and could get right in the water.  The first day there I went out on the boat while Michelle did two dives.  I was so jealous of everyone on the boat diving while I just sat on top, but it was gorgeous on the water.  The water is as blue as any picture you've seen, clear down to 30 meters some days, and looking back at the island it is amazing.  It's not what I think of as a typical flat reef island because not too far from the beaches it goes up to about 1000 feet in the center of the island.  This is what gave Ko Tao it's name - Turtle Island, the "mountains" appear like the back of a turtle and the shape of the island loosely resembles a turtle.

Thankfully on day two on the island I got in the water.  Over the next three days I went on six open water dives in the Gulf of Thailand.  Even on my last day on the island I was considering postponing my train and flight so I could get a few more dives in because it was so amazing - also I am now three dives short of my Advanced Open Water.  However, I did make sure to get my Deep Dive certification, diving up to 30 meters/100 feet.  Since that is generally the limit for recreational diving I wanted to make sure I didn't limit myself to certain dive sites because of depth (Open Water only allows you to dive to 18 meters/60 feet).  My instructor Lee kept telling me that the first 10 meters are the toughest to equalize your ears, then after that it's easier.  I didn't believe him until I went on the deep dive, but it's true.  I didn't have any more difficulty equalizing at 25 meters on my deep dive then I did at 12 meters on my first dive.  Pressure is weird.

It is a odd combination of feelings of freedom and claustrophobia when diving.  There is so much open space around you in the water, at the same time you feel contained by the regulator you're breathing through. Once I got over the awkwardness of the regulator, I could finally starting looking at all the marine life around me.  The number one rule of scuba diving is never hold your breath, but looking at all the different fish and coral around me, it is hard to remember that.  I was amazed at how many fish were still there despite how much diving is done.  Below are images of some of the marine life I saw on my dives, I wish I had my own underwater camera (although these are probably better than anything I could take).  They are from my dive shop, Simple Life Divers, and BottomCamera.com.  I definitely had the diving bug now,  I am trying to figure out when I can get to Catalina or somewhere else to dive again.

Sea Urchin - Lee, my instructor, put one in my hand

on my first dive

Christmas Tree worms on hard coral - when you snap

at them they close up

Bannerfish

Blue Spotted Stingray

Hawksbill Turtle

Porcupine Fish

Western World in the East

After over four months in India I am on my way back to Los Angeles (for few months at least). On the way back I decided to join my friend Michelle for the second half of her two week trip to Thailand. I spent two days in Delhi - which really turned out to be two days in the office in Gurgaon a suburb of Delhi since I was still working the night shift. Then on June 2, I took an afternoon flight to Bangkok.

View from the top of the Golden Mountain

In a shopping mall in Bangkok. Really?

It was kind of surreal arriving in Bangkok. I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel to meet Michelle and Elisia (was leaving two days later, today). That ride was the most "western" civilization I have seen since arriving in India. I'm sure there are parts of the big cities in India that have these places, but the high rises, fluorescent lights, traffic sort of following rules (they at least stopped at most of the stop lights and didn't make up too many unmarked lanes), fairly clean, and not nearly as much construction.

Grand Palace

We spent my first day touring around Bangkok, stopping at several temples, visiting the exotic center (more on that later), the grand palace, the golden mountain, and eating street food. It was a great day, a bit bizarre to see the clash of the old east and the new west. Then there was the constant asking of where we were from. I would say America and immediately whomever was asking would look at Elisia and Michelle expecting a different answer. By the time I joined the trip they had given up trying to explain they were also from America, instead they said they were from Hong Kong. At that point it was commented how good their "American" was.

Wat Pho, Reclining Buddha (46 meters long X 15 meters high)

My last night in Bangkok, Michelle and I went to the Tawandang German Brewery. This was quite an experience. A German Brewery in Thailand and this is not even close to what I would start to imagine. It was again a mash of west and east. There were only three beer options - a weizen, a lager, and an ale - and maybe a handful of "German" dishes like sausages and potatoes, the rest wast most definitely Thai. Most of the patrons were Thai and all the staff that I saw were Thai. Then there was the entertainment. It sort of sounded like karaoke at first then came our first sequined woman singing Single Ladies and many other songs. She was followed by many other fabulous performances that I tried to capture with the pictures below. Michelle and I just sat looking at each other not knowing what to say. This is definitely a do not miss in Bangkok.

Driving in India

I did it. I drove in India. After incessantly asking me to drive while I was visiting Delhi over Easter weekend, Shelly finally made me get behind the wheel on our way to Rishikesh a few weekends later.

It was after Shek and Bhawna's engagement and Shelly and I were killing time before I had to go to work and he was driving back to Delhi with Shek and a few others. We decided to make a quick trip to Rishikesh, check out the rafting for some possible trip in the future (it will have to be when I return in the fall) and just hang out.

We stopped at a petrol station to fill up and the next thing I know, I'm getting behind the wheel. Nearly all cars here are standards, so not only was I driving on the wrong side of the road, in a country with very loosely defined rules to the road, on the wrong side of the car, I was now also shifting with my off hand. Thank goodness for the years of playing piano and basketball - I am relatively ambidextrous. So one challenge conquered, at least enough to not have to look down at the shifter every time I went from first to second to third.

Next challenge, spatial perception. This was actual the biggest challenge for me. I know my Toyota Corolla very well driving around Los Angeles. I know what turns I can make and what parking spots I can fit in. I go crazy when I get stuck behind a Mini that is driving like a Hummer because they don't know the corners of their car. But sitting on the other side of the car and having all the extra space to my left instead of my right, through me for a loop. It took me a good five or ten minutes before Shelly stopped grabbing the wheel and gently steering me away from the side of the road. The road to Rishikesh is flat so he wasn't worried about going off the side of a mountain, more concerned about the random bikers or carts that might pop-out. Fair enough.

I finally more or less got my perception figured out, or enough of it down that I could drive without constantly adjusting. Now it was time to start figuring out the rules by which everyone drives in India. Chicken. The game of chicken. That's the rules and not how I wanted to play. Whoever honks first has the right of way if you're driving down the middle of the road (which everyone does), but sometimes the honking isn't for you. So that just adds another challenge. Sometimes the honking is just because there is a truck parked on the side of the road and there might be a motorcycle in front of the truck, so the car is warning the potential motorcycle that they are coming. Of course, since I'm coming against this car I can see there is no motorcycle so I have to guess is the car honking at me or the imaginary motorcycle. Ahhh!

I guessed right, or Shelly guessed right for me. We survived and I made him drive as soon as we got to Rishikesh where the cars, motorcycles, bikes, cows, carts, and people multiplied. I had enough of the guessing what that horn meant game on the relatively open road and avoiding potential objects in the road to even think about negotiating the roads of Rishikesh. But now I can say I drove in India. I have had the experience and I don't need to repeat it. I appreciate even more everyone who has driven me around for the past four months and who will drive me around in the future.