Things n' Stuff Thoughts about the universe in general

Hi everyone!

We got to Phuket last night, and decided to pamper ourselves a little. So we’re staying at the Sheraton’s Crown Plaza! 😉
So we have electricity all the time (yes!) and – bless me – hot water! 🙂 The really good bed, pillows and actual bathtub are just an added bonus! 😉

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Yes, it’s true. I’m now and Advanced Open Water diver. 🙂

My course included one Dive from HELL! Literally! We couldn’t see the hand in front of our face! What ended up happening is that Mike – one instructor, held on to the tanks of Ross and Sara, Jurgen – an instructor-in-training held on to my and Andrew’s tanks, and Alex – our primary instructor – tried to figure out how to get us to the surface near the boat, since besides having 1.5 metre visibility, we had a ripping tide… It was really scary, but we all managed to get to the boat safely in the end. 🙂 I will probably look at very few conditions as really bad as of this dive, but it was REALLY scary!

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אתמול סיימתי את השלב התיאורטי בקורס הניטרוקס של PADI (כולל המבחן – 100 כמובן 😉 ). היום הייתי אמור לעשות את שתי צלילות ההסמכה (עם EANx32 ו-EANx36), אבל זה לא יצא לפועל לפי המתוכנן..

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כמה דברים ששכחתי לספר על קו-טאו:
אנחנו שוהים במקום בשם Budha View Resort, שהוא מועדון צלילה חמש כוכבים של PADI עם בית הארחה. המועדון נמצא בחוף הדרומי של קו-טאו, ויש להם רצועת חוף די יפה (תמונות בהמשך), ויש כמה אתרי צלילה קרובים יחסית לחוף. זו היתה אחת הסיבות שהלכנו על המקום הזה, אבל מה שהתברר לנו זה שאף פעם לא יוצאים לצלילות מהחוף. יש ל-Budha View סירה קטנה שקשורה בחוף, אבל אף פעם לא משתמשים בה. במקום זה, פעמיים ביום יוצאים בטנדרים או משאית קטנה עם מקום ישיבה ל-20 איש לרציף בכפר הראשי באי (אותו מקום דרכו הגענו עם ספינת הלילה מצ’מפפון), שם עולים על אחת משתי סירות הצלילה הגדולות של Budha View ומפליגים מסביב לאי לאתר צלילה – לפעמים בחזרה לחוף של Budha View רק מצד הים.

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Hi everyone!

I completed my open water diving course today! 🙂 Yay! 🙂 Tomorrow I’m doing the Advanced course, which allows me to dive deeper and at night. Parent, we got a video of our last 2 dives, so you can see some of what we’ve done.. 🙂

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Today was a great day! It started at 11:00 – Yay! – with my written test. 45/50. It’s a great score. 🙂
(I did, in the end, join the other group. This is a great thing, since the instructor is really nice and really funny and his assistant is too! 🙂 )

We went out at 12:30 for the dives. I felt okay though it was good. It seems the general consensus is that I have seasickness.. Ugh! I’ve never had seasickness before! 🙁 Oded, my sweetheart, went and bought me anti-seasick pills. Bless him. I hope they will do the job tomorrow! 🙂

Anyway, we had our very funny “family chat” with our instructers – Alex and Mike – and then went down for our first dive. It was really good, other than the fact that I had a disagreement with a coral and it scratched my leg up pretty good.. What’s really funny is that under a certain level, you bleed green! It’s really, really freaky. 😉 Don’t worry – I’m fine! Just in a little pain. 🙂

We saw some pretty cool fish on the dive, which was a lot of fun! 🙂

We finished the dive and spent some time on the ship to our next dive point, then had a second dive, which was really good, after I stopped panicking.. You see, I have a real problem – when things are funny, I laugh, as we know. And when Alex is being particularly funny (as he always is) – underwater – I laugh – underwater. Which means my mask fills up with water.. Which is a problem when I gasp water up my nose.. So I breathed a little water instead of air and started to panic, which was okay since Alex saw and helped me through it without drowning. 🙂 After I calmed down, the whole thing was pretty funny.. 🙂
After that, the dive was perfect!

We got back, and my wonderful man got me some crab, which I am happy to say was really fun and worth the effort – He won’t agree, though.. 🙂 So now I am happily full of crab and the world is moving as if I’m still on the boat, so I’m going to go now..

I’m having the most incredible time! 🙂

Love you all!
Karen

(ובעברית – אי הצב).

קו-טאו בסופו של דבר הוא מועדון צלילה אחד גדול. יש פה בארים עם שמות מוזרים כמו “עצירת בטיחות” ו-“נשימה שניה”. יש פה המון חנויות צלילה ומועדוני צלילה, וכל הדברים האחרים זה שירותים נוספים למרכזי הצלילה ולצוללים.
מה שמעניין בקשר לזה, זה שהקימו פה קרטל – כל מרכזי הצלילה הסכימו ביניהם על מחירים קבועים לכל הדברים העיקריים כך שאי אפשר יותר לבחור מועדון לפי מחיר. המחירים לא נורא גבוהים, אבל קצת יותר מהמקובל בשאר תאילנד ויותר מהקורסים הזולים בישראל (900 ש”ח לקורס כוכב אחד) – קרטל זה תמיד רעיון גרוע לצרכנים.

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Hi Everyone!

Sorry there was no post yesterday, we were both too tired to find interent. (Oded is fine, by the way. He didn’t manage to write a post the last time but he’s having a good time, too!)

I had my first ocean dive yesterday. It was really nice. I had a lot of fun on the dive.. But the heat here is really hard to deal with, and today I didn’t feel well enough to dive.. I think I’ll leave it at that.. So I’ll join the group that’s a day behind us and everything will be fine. So far it seems that as long as you play it safe and don’t disregard the safety rules, diving is fine. And fun! So don’t worry! 🙂

On another note, we found the most incredible restaurant here – the Safari Grill. If you ever visit Koh Tao, you must eat there. Great food, great decor, phenominal service.. We had a blast. 🙂 Oded claims that there were the best fries ever, and I agree that they were certainly top quality.. 😉

I’m going to be an aunt! I just found out a few minutes ago! I’m so happy and excited! Take care of yourselves, Amir and Ronit! And congrats also on the new house! 🙂 Yay! 🙂
(They sent me ultrasound pictures! It’s *so* cool!)
(Oh, and regular pictures of the house, which looks amazing!)

Tomorrow, I hope I’ll be able to eat some crab, which I have been looking forward to the whole trip.. 🙂

Love you all!
Karen

The course started off nicely. They gave me a big book that the instructer told me isn’t worth reading other than chapter 4. 😉 We went over some of the basics, with many funny stories to make it fun (which it was) and many hand gestures, which are funny! 🙂

With me are Robyn and Olle – from Sweden – and Andrew, from Australia. They are all very nice (and rather nice to look at.. 😉 ) Our instructer, interestingly enough, is also from Sweden..

This afternoon we had our confined dives – in a pool. It was very strange, a little hard and hysterically funny. Especially since I didn’t have enough weights and every time I had to move I ended up all over the pool trying to get my balance.

After the dives Oded and I (after cruising around town for a little) tried the BBQ that our resort offers. Incredible. Absolutely wonderful food. We tried a Baracuda (it was a fillet and came out so-so) and a White Snapper – divine. It was probably the best fish I’ve ever eaten.. 🙂
Also really great is that there was actually food that I *could* eat. Everything here is way too spicy – including things like porridge and hash browns. Ugh! Spicy porridge!!!! Here at least they ask what we want on our fish, so I didn’t put any spicy and had a wonderful dinner! 🙂

Tomorrow is my first ocean dive.. I’m very excited.. 🙂

Have fun, everyone!
Karen

This is a really nice island.. Sort of.. On the negative, there is electricity only from 6PM til about 7AM, and it’s really, really hot… Oh, and there is no hot water..

On the other hand, it has incredible beaches and a rather nice blend of modernization (like motor bikes and restaurants – and internet, of course) and rustic authenticity (there is only 1 concrete road on the whole island, etc.)

The night boat was fine, I guess. I think I slept through most of it, which is probably good. Our room is one of those that doesn’t have electricity during the day, so we were pretty much steamed to death today, but hopefully this, too, shall pass.

I start my diving course tomorrow! Yay! 🙂

We found a nice Mexican cuisine restaurant run by a brit. It’s really nice and Oded claims that the food is actually Mexican, unlike usual. Except for the Guacomole, which (thankfully) is not spicy! 🙂

Happy Birthday Daddy! 🙂

Love you all!
Karen