tuesday we hired a water taxi to take us around the island (all the way around) and stop at some snorkel spots. sol has become exceptionally proficient with his water wings and is looking to be a fearless swimmer, if you show him what to do he'll give it a try. blowing bubbles underwater, back floats and kicking are in his repertoire. goggles have been purchased and that's his next big task, watching fishies from below.
the last stop in our trip was a beach resort on a separate nearby island. it was a pretty pleasant place for lunch and swimming and there was a lookout we climbed for a great view. there wasn't any music and people were pretty mellow, a very quiet calm place. we were lazing in the water waiting for our taxi pickup and out of nowhere came 2 fighter jets screaming across the islands. it was so loud it was shocking. there isn't any air transportation here so it really took us by surprise. and no wifi so the next world war could have broken out and we wouldn't have had any idea.
that nite my friend lynn sent me a state department update that there is possible terrorist activity at the us embassy in chiang mai. interesting.
after shanti and pablo took sol to bed i went to watch the muay thai fights at the stadium. the word stadium is used very loosely here, it was a ring with some plastic chairs and metal benches in a field. there were 7 fights and it wasn't as bloody as i'd imagined. i used to do kung fu and muay thai and was super excited to see it. i especially loved the side of the ring smashed with screaming thais.
the womens fight was disappointing, a norwegian girl, undefeated in several months all over thailand, was up against a local girl. she kicked the local girl's ass up and down the ring and then lost on decision. total crap. the biggest surprise was an english guy named charlie (ha ha charlie don't surf). when i saw him posing for pictures before his match i thought maybe there was a tourist division, he looked like a computer programmer, all pasty white and goofy. but he was in the main bout and put up a good fight against the giant, oiled, ripped thai guy that eventually crushed him.
i spent a good portion of the next day sleeping while shanti guys rented an atv and explored more beaches. i did manage to go out long enough to get a massage and a hair cut. and i just need to say it, i got my hair cut by a lady boy. i've gotten my hair done by drag queens when i lived in seattle but they were dressed as boys at the time so this was something new and awesome. it was cheap and fun and maybe the worst haircut i've had since my dad cut my hair before my sister's wedding.
today pablo and i did a couple dives. after diving belize, roatan and the great barrier reef recently this was pretty non-fantastic, but i had to do it, check it off the list. the visibility was crappy and there wasn't alot of stuff, but i love to be underwater so i appreciated the things i did see.
my group was a divemaster and 2 scuba instructors from other countries. it was a small group to keep together but the problem was that there were so many other divers at the same sites that it was crowded. towards the end of the first dive i saw my divemaster duck into a swim through, i was a ways behind him and the other 2 guys were far behind me. i hung back to show the guys where we were going and another group (pablo, actually) entered the swim through in front of me. when i got out i looked around and my guys and i couldn't find our divemaster, he hadn't looked to see if we were behind him and probably went into another swim through. i wasn't about to go dive into a hole that possibly didn't go anywhere and we didn't see any sign of him so we hung out to wait for him, and he appeared about 6 minutes later to collect us. when we got back on the boat he was so pissed and said 'if you don't want a divemaster just let me know'. like it was our fault he didn't wait for us to show us the way. big baby.
still a good day, though, shanti and sol met us for lunch on the beach and more swimming, then naps, then sunset and dinner on the beach. there were guys selling giant lanterns shaped like hearts, people wrote messages on them and sent them burning off into space. they didn't look real environmentally friendly. i got my valentines kiss from sol and we called it a nite.
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| i'm gonna photoshop in some fighter planes |
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