Because survival is insufficient
Theory session completed. Swimming pool intro completed. Medical release from GP not received, so actual scuba diving in doubt.
Too busy and too much underwater to take any photos today, so here’s another rubbish one of the view from my hotel room.
Last night’s rain has gone, so with blue skies and white sands I swim in the warm waters with a view of Ko Phangan, before heading to the ferry pier.
The ferry is a modern, high-speed catamaran, filled to the brim with backpackers. Luggage is heaped in a big pile, leaving my bag crushed under the weight of a hundred others.
Ban’s diving resort is an enormous place, my hilltop suite has a stunning view, but sadly no WiFi, and when I say I’m a very bad swimmer they give me my own personal instructor, Camilla from Denmark.
Camilla asks how I got the scar on my head, so I tell her. Unfortunately that now means I have to get my GP to day through a letter saying it’s ok for me to dive, and until I get it I can’t have my diving lessons. GP is closed today, being Sunday, and won’t be open until it’s about 3pm here.
If I can’t go diving, I’ll have to do something else, like swimming, sitting around on a great beach, maybe kayaking around the island, snorkelling, jet-skiing….
French twin turbo-prop aircraft surrenders on the runway when engine number 2 goes on strike.
Disembark.
Watch for several hours as 8 men sit around the plane, looking at it, 3 more walk around the plane, looking at each other, and 2 men climb up a ladder to look at the engine. One man produces a laptop, but it looks like they’re using it to play angry birds or something, not diagnose the engine fault.
Announcement says we’ll be off at 2pm. At 1:45, staff hand out delayed flight meal vouchers for use at the adjacent restaurant. So we’re not going at 2 then? Yes, yes, going at 2…
Restaurant staff reveal that voucher is worth 18000 kip. Cheapest item on menu, 30000. Bangkok airways, you’re too kind.
4 other flights come and go, and then a flurry of activity. The 37 strong aircraft repair team and hangers-on exchange high fives and thumbs-up and laugh hard as if they’ve just discovered that the pilot had simply forgotten to press the on switch.
We’re away, and soon arrive in Bangkok, which looks nice from the air at night but not in a way that can be captured on a mobile phone camera.
I’ve missed my connection, but there’s a later flight so I make it to Samui a couple of hours late, and haven’t missed much because it’s raining. I’ll still be able to catch the ferry to Ko Tao tomorrow as planned, and an engine problem on the ground is much better than one in the air.
The hotel is a total dump, nothing like the pictures online. It is right on the beach as promised, but it’s too dark to see anything, as you can see in the attached photo of my sea view.
The darkness extends inside the room when the power fails, leaving nothing much to do but listen to the rain and the ocean and drink the rapidly warning contents of the mini-bar, most having expiry dates sometime in the last century…
Extensive breakfast of eggs Benedict, enjoyed in the luxurious surroundings of the hotel gardens.
Exhilarating ride on a rented Honda XR250 with dodgy brakes, wobbly steering, no protective gear, and roads full of free-range pigs, chickens, buffalo and children.
Swimming practice in the luscious pool, then reading, drinking and sun bathing by the pool.
Dinner with the two German girls for the 5th night in a row. They were riding elephants today.
Easing into the LP way of life: relaxing calmness lubricated with Lao coffee, punctuated with the occasional cake. The official name for the country is the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, but the locals say that the initials PDR really stand for Please Don’t Rush.
The ride in the back of a small truck (closest thing to a taxi around here) is not so relaxing, but it gets us to the waterfalls. The description in the guide book is completely over-egged, but it’s quite amusing watching Chinese tourists in their pants diving in from the upper tier and attempting, but failing, to launch themselves in from the rope swing.