Tuesday Julia flew back to London for graduation :(
I came back to Ko Phi Phi, after hearing that the diving here is better than in Ko Tao. Yesterday I started my advanced certification in diving. We dove the wreck -- a ferry that sank in '97, many believe on purpose for insurance... There were tons of fish and Lionfish everywhere you looked, which meant you have to be careful where your hands/legs are so you don't get stung. We actually had really good visibility for this location. After that we went to Shark Point. While swimming around there, a 6-7ft leopard shark came right up behind my instructor, Pat and settled on the ground about 6 feet from us. I was able to get about 3 feet away from it for some photos! :) From there we went to Anenome Reef a short distance away, aptly named the fact that this rock is COVERED in anenomes! Also because of this, there were clownfish everywhere, all little nemos!
Today I went on my deep dive, although because it was SO choppy in the morning (the stern at times was about 7feet from the water and would crash back down) we didn't get dropped off on the deep side and just had to swim along the bottom to get deep enough. We only went down to 28m, and did our nitrogen narcosis test there, having to point out the alphabet in order, being timed. Nitrogen narcosis isn't dangerous itself, but it makes it like you're drunk underwater so people can do crazy things because they're not thinking clearly. None of us seemed to have any problems. Next dive we did our navigation test with a compass having to swim away and back in a straight line and then swim in boxes based on the compass. Luckily we both were good enough at it and made it back to Pat since visibility wasn't that good.
SO other than that, I will head back to Bangkok, arriving in no the 14th early in the morning. My flight to Melbourne leaves the evening of the 15th. I'm diving tomorrow, and since I'm addicted, I will probably dive every day until I have to leave!
