So I did the dog  sitting duties within ten days me and Roxy were the sole occupants of nice jungle bungalow at the top of the hill with sea view overt tree tops what I watched when having dinner at the porch and listening to the sounds of jungle i.e forest and petting Roxy who was laying at my feet. It was a lots of early wake ups as when I had to be on the boat at 6:30 for whole day of diving I needed to walk Roxy before leaving the hill top bungalow which means waking up at 5:00 get her walking and doing her business before I leave for a day. She was already up with the tennis ball or plastic Santa in her mouth, waiting at the fly screen doors to get out but as soon as we left the bungalow she just froze on the steps and stare somewhere to the distance. I had to move first ahead of her to show her that we are going for walk down the steps and that does not matter that is dark we need to walk and after few seconds of waiting and deliberating “should I, Shouldn’t I go with him” eventually she went down and run down the steps and started chasing the ball or plastic Santa what I throwed down the steps. She is funny as soon as the dawn begin and the first orange sunrays came above the horizon she calmed down and started to run and relax as if the dark was not her best friend. Over the days we walked the streets and hills surrounded the bungalow with aim to avoid all the other dogs who were barking around, except one brave who was always following us from the Glass House anytime we passed by. I would say that chasing Santa was the favorite task together with chasing coconut and then just trying to strip the outer shell of coconut away laying in the grass at the side of the road or she was just lazy and tired as I had started boot camp and was tough Sargent to her 😊  Every day I came to the hostel after the dive, speak a bit with fellow DMT’s maybe had a dinner with them and then rush back to hill top bungalow before sunset to walk Roxy since she was not really happy being walked in the dark, mentioning this, now I remember that one day I went out to the bar for a drink after sunset walk and stayed there till midnight. As soon as I was approaching the bungalow she was up and ready with Santa and so be in good spirit I took her for a walk around 1am throwed the Santa until she sat down at side of the road and did not bother to play anymore “feck yay a prick it is late to run around” she thought probably. Back in the bungalow, and this time was the first time I slept all night as well as her, since she must be tired as there was no more licking, walking and making noises during the night as she did all the previous nights. We came I took shower and she was already on the white tiled floor and had not move from the spot all night juppiiii 😊  Well I had not been informed that she suppose to sleep outside on the porch and therefore I let her inside the bungalow every night, what I realized was mistake since it is nice to see her beside bed with my hand patting her over the side of the bed before we both fell asleep or better said at least me falling asleep as she was just snoozing probably as every night I woke up on her to licking herself or walking around the house to find new spot, some times come near the bed and sniffing or scratching herself. Ahhh I made mistake in boot camp strategy there DOH ! Well at least one night was good sleep 😊 also the ceiling fan helped me keep cooler since the height of summer heat was here. Sometimes she came to bathroom when I took shower and sat there looking in the bathroom as if I was supposed to disappear or what  but then sometimes she jumped to life as the cockroaches start running around bathroom and she chase them as they were some snack 😊 It was nice time and I had to say that my Blue Thunder was surprisingly smart to run out of petrol just as I was literally beside the petrol station at Sairee, which initially I thought it was some issue as it does not cough at all just suddenly start loosing power and then stopped. I was already thinking that the engine is gone but then idea came to me, that I had actually had not remember when it was last time I put some petrol in the tank… opened tank and it was dry as empty water bottle in Sahara. Happily pushed it across the street to petrol station pumped full tank and kick to start which the Blue Thunder obliged and I was on the way again. I might missed few dinners with fellow DMT friends during the time when watching Roxy but also saved some cash too since I had not time to spend it, between the diving and travelling to and from hill top bungalow except for quick dinners, so it worked well for me. The day the dog minding finished we had an BBQ at hostel which doubled as the snorkel test for White who become DM and therefore some small celebration was planned to mark this occasion, what was great. Lots of people, lots of food and good mood is all you need for successful BBQ. Except the BBQ itself as there was no fire at first then someone went to buy charcoal and then there was too much as everyone was a BBQ master which means no one really was one until the Thai group took over. The cooking factory of White friends was some sight ! I have not seen that much food and that preparation what took place in the common area of hostel, where every place was covered by some sort of vegetable, meat and sea food to be ready cleaned,  chopped and prepared for the BBQ. It was sight as if I was in some restaurant or some magnificent feast for half of the Africa was prepared but it was only dinner for aprox twelve people. Food is the main thing what seems to be most important in Thailand and it is always center of any gathering. When we in Europe are going for dinner with friends that means the restaurant and some relatively decent portions of food but here it was something else, it is a feast of amount of food that would feed the army. Since I was tired I did not stayed up for long but I heard next mooring that I missed he actual “snorkel test questions” but as my visual system performed auto shut down I rather went to bed, before main switch will shut down.

Diving is great as you are surrounded by the same mad like people yourself who decided that they want to be fish and deliberately leave land and go down under “no not going to Australia”  to see all the poisonous and dangerous things that live there .  Thankfully the part of training is “Do Not Touch anything down there underwater” but surprisingly no one mentioned that you not suppose to touch other people so if you are swingers you are welcome :-D Anyhow the best time to come is when someone had 100 dives as this is marked by naked dive when the nature is celebrated wholly, just be careful and hope that barracudas will not mistake the mini man for a food or some cleaner wrasse fish mistake lady parts for fish ready to clean. You might have some sightseeing not only down below but also above you and need to keep your eye peeled for beauty of the nature 😊 Some of the team here are ready for it and some are not but it is all personal choice but hey I think that we agree that nice body is beautiful and therefore should be admired. Well we will see…. The days are slow and fast the same time as when you are diving the time is going fast since you can do double boat what meant two dives in the morning starting 6am and then 2 dives in afternoon from 1pm therefore you have time for dinner, shower maybe some talk or beer and then most of the time you will crash to bed “at least I do”.  But it is worth and also the banter on the boat is fun and when the right mixture of madness, fun and mind liked people is put together that usually equals great time. Seeing the new students progressing from floating seal level “as everyone has black shortie wet suit” to the diver is amazing as well as being part of this process, it is satisfaction what I cannot explain but I assume that the same feeling has teacher seeing kids progressing and be better and smarter. Also with every student the teacher is getting better and better and we DMT’s as well and closer to DM cert by every day.

At the present the visibility aka vis is not so good for some reason as the May is usually the best month for diving here but this year it is not, as mentioned by senior divers but tough training makes better diver so bring it on the silt, particles and waves and currents. Every time you come from such dive you feel good if you found your way and navigated back to boat successfully. Also the sun kissing the nearly naked bodies is good reward to come up, however the water is 31 degrees Celsia no matter what depth as well as some of those bodies are female sculptures of nature what even Michelangelo or Da Vinci would be not ashamed make. Well after all I am a man “ at least as far as this last check showed” and therefore I am susceptible to female beauty. Any diver will tell you that diving is great life but not everyone is going to details why…  😊 but I’m sure that one of the reasons if you ask would be a beauty of our female colleagues and I’m sure that this is vice-versa valid for them looking at male colleagues. Back to diving, to be in the middle huge swarm “school” of fishes what flows around you like river is something that you need to experience yourself to understand, as well as the amount of various sizes, colors, types from tiny one living in between coral branches to huge Giant Grouper what hand signal for it is same as if you signaling the chest size “guys you know what I mean” plus if you are lucky enough as I was on by birthday I saw two Whale Sharks and seeing such giant gently and calmly swimming around you is some sight… We were slowly descending from 20 meters when I saw it coming up beside one of the diver in our group, who was actually turned towards his girlfriend so she had to tap him “better say punch him” to turn around and he pulled his GoPro camera. This one was about 5 meters big and swam beautifully slowly and gracefully beside our group of six until he disappeared in murky water above us. When we surfaced we realized that everyone saw it except one group. There was only one boat at mooring except ours and therefore there was no madness of people jumping into water like mad and scare the poor thing away. Everyone in high spirit  on the boat and nearly dancing from the pure joy as it is not usual to see them. We moved to second dive site when the guy ho has not seen it jumped into water first as he was in search for one and holy cow he found one as he was madly signaling to boat that there is one in the water below him. We all run to one side and thank God that we have big boat otherwise we would capsize as we were all hanging from the side of the boat watching this baby 3 meter long swimming along side of our boat at the surface so we had absofuckinglutely best view of this baby slowly passing our boat from the front to back and then descending down as if he was checking if we were there. What a birthday present ! I was so happy that I had smile on my face for 2 days straight. All of us on the boat has same smile and the high fives upon landing with rest of the colleagues was never ending but I had to admit that when I saw the madness it created I was thinking that I rather not see it as the boat running wild everywhere and apparently one of them had bloody tail probably from boat screw, since when there is sighting reported it is like madness and every boat is coming so close that it is dangerous for everyone not only for Whale Shark. I’m happy I saw it at Chumphon Pinnacle as there was only few people and we all see it individually without mass madness. I hope I would see it again like that swimming magnificently in murky water with just few of us so we can admire such a beautiful giant.

Time has come to say good bye to one member of DMT team as she graduated and was about to leave for home, which means snorkel test evening. This time I did not really enjoyed the snorkel test as it was just about get her drunk too fast too soon, on the border of alcohol poisoning and I do not thing that it is funny. However the tasks she was allocated to do were funny I had to admit. Going around streets and get kiss from 10 strangers, being carried on hands by strangers, tasting someone food “poor people were in such shock that they sis not even know what is happening” and others what were recorder on smart phone of her companion as proof. Bottle of Gin for little girls was too much as she fall flat on the tiled floor and few minutes later passed away in drunken state. Later I checked her in he hostel room, where her friend watched her to throw out and not to choke on vomit. Well this is not my kind of fun and therefore I had no intentions to get that drunk so I will skip it or rather replaced by BBQ and some drinks. Well time of completion of my course is near ….so we will see… If you wish to learn to dive here is the place as the energy is calm, ocean is warm and people are great.

Now it is time for snooze / nap. So long for now.