but i'll put that part at the end, otherwise the rest of the post will be boring.
ps. this is the view from the new bungalow. loves it.
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i'm going to miss the geckos. in fact, i'll probably get home, hear a bird chirping that sounds like them, and my almost-automatic "geck-o!!!" will come out. then i'll realize i'm in the us and there are no cool geckos around. geiko guy doesn't count.
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walking to the internet cafe the other night, i overheard two girls. they were foreign, with neither one speaking english as their first language (we can pick this out by now pretty easily). holding their drinks in hand, the one sloppily looks up toward the sky.
"i see it! it's orion's belt! see, those three stars right there? the other stars make up orion, but the three bright ones are his belt!!"
"what? a rhino's belt? rhinos don't wear belts,
duh!"
i'll never make fun of american education again.
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we're the devil.
one of the best things about people not speaking english as their first language and having the barrier is the ease of blaming miscommunication on them.
what do i mean?
well, say i'm mid-conversation with someone from france who speaks english well, but obviously doesn't know american slang. we're talking, talking, talking, blah blah blah, and frenchie says something about wanting a bar, but i hear that frenchie wants a car because i'm only semi-paying attention, losing myself in the fact that i can't really understand the accent as much as i'd like to think.
frenchie: yes, i'm so tired, i just wish there were a bar (i hear car) around so i dont have to go homerachel: (confused as to why a car won't take frenchie home) yeah, i know, sometimes they just dont go where you want them to. (questioningly, but trying to be polite)frenchie (confused as to why a bar is even going anywhere) uhhh, uhm, yes, i don't know... (now questioning his use of pronouns changes the subject to why he wouldn't go where he wants to) but i'd go to the one i like, so it's where i want.rachel: (100% lost now) what are you talking about?frenchie: (looking confused) uh, i don't know, how do you sayyy... uhhh i'm not sure, so... nevermind.see? it's frenchie's fault now, all because i didn't pay attention in the first place. pretty easy. also works well for trying to evade conversation i don't want.
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note the ease and convenience of completely switching the monastery out for paradise island, ko tao. day for day. arriving on the first and leaving on the eleventh of the month.
here's why.
can't have too many sunset pictures on the beach.
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now for the highlight of the day, which, by the way, began at 6:15 when the alarm on alex's watch went off. i didn't exactly jump out of bed, but i knew that if i were late, i'd hate myself and would have wasted the extra $180 i spent on this course. it was day three, my final day of being open water scuba certified through padi, and i only had to make it until 12:00.
i slowly crawled out of bed, threw on my suit, and meandered over to the resort's main room. ak (the girl in my class), carlos (the spanish open water diver) and i had a videographer follow us today to make a movie we could later watch and buy if we wanted. after everyone showed up, we grabbed our gear and headed toward the boat.
island dive club (idc)'s boat.
our first destination: chumphon! what does that mean? the most diverse and colorful spot around ko tao. we almost didn't get to go here because there weren't going to be enough people signed up on the boat to make the 45-minute trekk. we lucked out.
what else does chumphon mean?
sharks!! well, the possibility. if we're lucky.
after our briefing and putting our equipment together, ayelet (my instructor), gives us the cue and we jump. we make it to the line, equalize, and down we go. we're immediately greeted by a huge school of barracuda. we continue around the coral, seeing blue ringer angelfish, butterfly fish, parrotfish, goatfish, anemone fish, wrassefish, goby, tuna, and others. we make our way around the top to a second set of coral where the sharks are generally found.
but no such luck.
ak and i signal to each other sadfaces, understanding now that our hopes have been given up for nothing. ayelet runs into her husband under the water. i see him give her a signal for a huge school of barracuda. though we've already seen them, we make our way back to where we were to take another peak. we go lower, and though i'm disappointed about the sharks, i keep looking at the coral and the mass of fish swimming around it, in and out of crevices and coral, in patterns that appear to be dancing. it's all so close and so clear, but when i look to my right, i see almost nothing except the most beautiful blue. it's about eight meters out, and i see only blue because it's where my visibility stops. it's hazy, but against this cobalt backdrop i can see the built in reflectors on the sides of each fish that throw the sun's rays back at me in all shades.
after staring for a little while, i'm disrupted by ayelet's thrash movements in the water. i look to my left and she's got her right thumb on her forehead, fingers towards the sky. she's pointing straight ahead and i look out into the blue.
but i see nothing.
this has happened before. her trained eyes tend to see things much sooner than ak and i, and when i look back to my buddy, she's just as confused as me. disappointed, we think we've missed our chance, shrugging our shoulders under water towards each other in dismay. but ayelet's hand is still in position, and we look back to our right. again, i see only the beautiful cobalt.
until the cobalt starts to turn grey in one area. then darker grey, and darker. it moves slowly, coming towards us.
and it's taking the shape of a shark.
ak and i put our thumbs to our forehead like ayelet, the diver's hand signal for a shark.
i almost forgot to breathe, and we watched in awe as he moved his tail slowly back and forth, swimming along the bottom. right after him came another, then more blue turned to gray and we watched a third and forth shark emerge. they swam gracefully by us, no more than five meters away, and were out of sight almost as quickly as they came in.
we have success.
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after chumphon we went to green rock, about 30 minutes back towards the mainland. both ak and i weren't used to the rocky waters, and felt sick.
in fact, this was my view for the entire boat ride as i closed my eyes tight, trying to avoid a headache before launching myself back into the water. this dive was even going to include a skill set test and i wanted to feel well enough to do it right.
we arrived, reset our equipment, and went off into the water with little problem.
green rock from the boat.the skill set went well, and both ak and i passed easily... but not before we made sure we messed with ayelet. we loved acting like we didn't know what we were doing, and she got back at us pretty well.
trigger fish are nothing to mess with. google one. they have teeth and will bite.
we had to navigate with an underwater compass, and ayelet (unknowingly at first) sent us to do the compass test right over a nest. of about five of them. we found out on land, but even so, this was our expression when we were finished.
another successful dive. i'm so glad i did it.
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and what's certification without celebration? considering the dive center loves alex and i by now because of our long stay, we watched our video of the day over drinks...
and shots. not sure why i'm done before everyone else. it was gross anyway.
ak, ayelet, and i in order.
alex and i, newly certified (and basically wedded).
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i rented a raft again today to float on after my long morning. alex and i fell asleep, not paying attention to how far out we were. after we looked up, we were maybe a quarter mile out from the beach-- barely close enough to see figures. i began swimming my way back in on the raft with her beside me on her raft, but the more i swam, the more i sunk.
my raft had a hole in it the entire time. i fell asleep so i didn't notice.
by the time we got back to the beach, i was completely off the raft, with only the headpillow inflated, keeping me afloat.
son of a b.
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i'm not sure whether or not i mentioned monkey boy before, but we've met him a few times and he let us take one picture with him before. he has a small table stand on the side of the road on the way between sairee beach (where we stay) and mae haad beach (the pier, which is good food). he never has a shirt on and his long hair bares explanation for his "hippie happy" store. alex's sister asked for a bracelet, and since monkey boy makes them himself as we stand and watch, we're happy to support.
we just happened to catch monkey boy on a, um, good day, i guess we should say.
he doesn't really like having his picture taken, but we observed a good opportunity. as we were at the stand looking over the jewelry, we note the stale smell of some well-known college cars after long drives on the back roads. we look at each other and back at monkey boy.
joint in hand, he happily takes these pictures with us. without refusing or asking for money. thank-you, thc, for creating our photo opp. but that's all we're going to thank you for.
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Y rae. racho. d.
