Chillin’ With The Grillin’

After qualifying as SCUBA divers we still had a few days left until we had to return to Bangkok to pick up Zoltan so we decided to spend it with our good friends Patrick and Heleen, all that was needed was a little island hoping from Koh Tao over to Ko Phangan and boy did we pick the wrong day!!  The weather didn’t seem that bad but when you see staff wandering around the boat (ours was a highspeed catamaran) handing out sick bags you know you are in for a rough crossing but what made it even worse was that the bags themselves were see through, so if you weren’t feeling sick to begin with you would be shortly after the guy next door was, and sure enough, ten minutes in and after leaving the lee of the island the ride started to become a bit like a bucking bronco and the vomit-fest began!

Koh Tao Part III

The previous days may have been all about fun and working towards getting our first tast of diving but after the high of our first dive came the crashing reality of our PADI exam!  Well when I say exam I should say multiple choice quiz but with that out of the way and all of us passing easily we were all back to the pier anxiously awaiting another Buddah dive boat to take us out to another dive site, Mango Bay 🙂  Unfortunately there were no mangos there but we did have another excellent dive which included a few more practical exercises for our diving certificate and a bit of a look around trying to identify fish the best of which was the Trigger fish, a pretty cool looking fish but one that you have to be a bit wary of as they can be a bit aggressive!! 😮 

Koh Tao Part II

Well the time had come. We had all had a good lunch and were all now eager to start our first real dive in the sea. Somehow we had got really lucky and managed to get a dive boat all to our one group and then when we arrived at our dive site, the sunken tuk-tuk at Sai Nuan Beach, we were in fact so lucky that we even got the dive site to ourselves too! 🙂

Koh Tao – Diving Part I

After arriving on Koh Tao we got straight on another bus and headed off for Buddah Dive Centre, unfortunately to begin with neither of us were particularly impressed with Buddah, it looked too big and too busy for us, partly because we were both a bit scared of going for our diving license, I mean sometimes you really are quite deep underwater, and alos we both saw this as the one big treat that we had promised ourselves over this trip so we wanted to be sure we were going to really enjoy it 🙂

Time Out In Thailand

Whilst poor Zoltan was locked up in a crate sailing the seven seas (well two of them really!!) we thought we may as well use the time constructively. To begin with we thought we would go to Cambodia and see Angkor Wat and visit a hotel in the south run by some Estonians that had gone to the same high school that Kadri had gone to but after some thougt and a hard look at our finances we decided it would probably be better to visit Cambodia later when we could afford it more time, after all we are going to be in the neighbourhood for a while and there seems to be some cheap flights so why not!?

Incredible India?

It is strange, before this trip started India was one of the countries that we were both looking forward to. You see the adverts showing the amazing scenery, historic buildings (some of which I had heard of since I was a kid, I even have a minature Taj Mahal that my grandfather had brought back from India), even the vibrancy of the place is somehow portrayed to you. Add to that the stories other travellers recount, some good and some terrible but in all reality you ignore the terrible ones thinking to yourself; “Ahhh obviously they just aren’t made out for travelling, they have probably only ever gone on package tours before, poor people!”in a sort of blind patronising manner. For us there was also an extra dimension, my mother was born in Ceylon (as it was then known, now Sri-Lanka) and spent her first eight years growing up in India so she had a special bond with India that we had hoped we would also find …

Chennai

After our brief visit to Australia we were back at Chennai airport haggling with taxi drivers and wondering whether we would find Zoltan still waiting for us outside our hotel, after successfully negotiating a price that we were all happy with we were whisked back to the hotel we had been staying at before our wee trip and happily discovered Zoltan still sitting there! 🙂 We now had five days remaining in Chennai to get everything sorted out to ship Zoltan to Bangkok as our flights were already booked, having this final date looming over us put a little extra pressure on us to make sure everything was ran smoothly but it also gave us something to aim for which we were both pleased about.

Darwinis Austraalia viisasid aktiveerimas

Austraalia viisad mis meil enne reisi algust onnestus saada on ‘permanent resident’ viisad ning mida pidi aktiveerima riiki sisenendes uhe aasta jooksul peale arstliku kontrolli labimist. Meie tahtajaks oli 8.aprill 2009 ning olgugi, et esialgu plaanisime me selleks ajaks juba Austraaliasse kohale jouda, sai meile Pakistanis selgeks, et sinna me selleks ajaks mootorrattal ei joua. Otsustasime siis Indiast korraks Austraaliasse lennata ja need viisad ara aktiveerida. Uurisime hindu ning leidsime soodsamad piletid Chennaist Singapuri kaudu Darwinisse lennates.

Out of India – A Temporary Reprieve!

When we started this trip we had planned to be in Australia by the end of March or at the very latest the beginning of April either way we were going to be on Australian shores in time to activate our Permanent Residency visas by April the 8th. Things didn’t quite go to plan though and by the time we were in Pakistan we realised we weren’t going to make it and therefore had to come up with an alternative plan which is how we could be found jumping onto a plane bound for Singapore and ultimately Darwin!

Singapur – Tere tulemast tsivilisatsiooni!

Imearmas Paya Lebari piirkond, kus meie tore hostel Betel Box asus

Koikjal valitseb puhtus, korraparasus ja inimesed on taas uksteise vastu sobralikud, abivalmid ja viisakad. Ei mingeid juustuseid mehi, kes sinu rinnakorvi suurust uritavad silmadega puurides ara arvata :-)! Liiklus sujub ja  korvulukustavat meeleheitlikku signaalitamist ei kuule enam ning ulekaigurajale astudes autod peatuvad ja lasevad sind ule tee. Keegi ei vaata sind enam nende klaasistunud silmadega. Konniteed on puhtad ja urineerivaid mehi ei paista kuskil.  Kusehais on ka ara kadunud. Ja ohk on puhas ….  me saame taas hingata ….  Kas on see uni? Oh ei,  see on Singapur :-D!