The Gap Year Adventure....

hellooooooooooooooooo!!

Well we arrived back in Bangkok on Saturday and it was raining, and i mean raining! The weather hadnt got any better by monday, the first day of our trip so we wern't hopeful!

Koh Samet is a paradise island about 3 hours from bangkok, about 30mins off the coast. It is a national park and is absolutely gorgeous, there is nothing to do apart from scuba diving, watersports and lounging on the beach. Slight problem when the loudest/worst storms i have ever seen are hitting the island and the whole of Thailand! The rain didnt stop the entire time we were there which was unfortunate as it was our only real beach relaxing time until we go to Spain. We were both cold wearing jeans and long sleeves, we laughed at this when we found out that it was 33 degrees! The past 2 weeks had been 40 or above so we were finding 30 cold! God help us when we get back to good old English summer!

Due to a lack of anything else to do I decided to give scuba diving a go and see if my dodgy ears would actually equalise - they did! so now i have my first level scuba diving qualification which i am extremely happy with seeing as i've wanted to do this since i was 11 (dont worry Dad, i forgive that IOU!)! Due to the awful weather the visibility wasnt great, max 4 metres but i did see a HUGE puffa fish and loads of smaller fish. The coral was awesome too, blue and bright orange! The first place they took me to to dive was further out in the sea, the waves were 3 meters high which made me go really green, especially as the dive boat we were on was TINY! We had just started to kit up to get in when a huge wave crashed over the front of the boat, hitting me in the face - needless to say we moved to a different area! The dive instructor later said that we would have capsised if that wave had hit us side on!!! The second place we went in we got back ut again after 5 minutes because the visitbility was only about 2 feet max and there was a really strong current which separated our group. 3rd time lucky as they say! the next dive was perfect, i went down to 8metres no problem.

Due to the time we had wasted with all the other abandoned attampts i made my second dive the next day (Friday). My right ear was playing up loads and it took me forever and a LOT of going up and down to equalise but i finally made it and did all of the necessary skills to pass my PADI Scuba Diver! I didnt have time to do the open water as this btakes 4 days and i only had 3 - hopefully ill be able to do this in Spain or England at a later date! Mags - are you up for a trip!!??

Friday afternoon it was back on the boat and a 4 hour taxi ride back to the hotel which i have so far forgotten to mention! The hotel is AMAZING! bearing in mind that we have been sleeping on the floor, this hotel was awesome! We arrived by taxi and our bags were carried onto a trolley by the porter while we went to check in, our bags then arrived in the room without us even having to say where we were!! There was also a cool outside landscaped pool area with poolsode bar which we would have enjoyed if it hadnt been stormy! well we were impressed anyway!!

Thats all for now - hope eveything is ok

cant wait to see you all

xxxxxxxxxxx