Spent 6 night in Koh Phi Phi in the end, stayed in a hostel run by a Germany lady who I had interesting chats with concerning the tsunami and so forth, but that I will save for a later post because my opinion on that is quite long!
I did my Open Water PADI course on Phi Phi which consisted of a confined dive where I practised skills such as taking off my mask etc underwater (something that I thought would be difficult but was fine), and then I had 4 dives in 2 days out in the open ocean. I saw TONNES! The coral reef there is well protected, I saw clownfish, seahorses, a turtle, an octopus, etc etc etc.
I met quite a few people over in Phi Phi, one of them who happens to be good friends with one of my good friends from uni - it's a small world! I met an american guy called Rob who shared my passion for photography, and on my last day in Phi Phi, which I didn't spend diving, we went off on a mini-trek of the island taking loads of photos. It was nice not to feel like I was annoying people by snapping away!
Friday I spent mainly in a plane flying to Borneo. I flew from Krabi to Kuala Lumpur, then onto Tawau in Sabah, Borneo. The departure lounge at KL has a shop selling chocolate from all over the world! I was in heaven! At one point it appeared I would be the only westerner on the plane, so there I was, a lone female westerner munching on some food which seemed ridiculous to them in such a hot country, I got some funny looks! Fortunately 2 brits and an aussie also got my flight, I didn't chat to them on it but after I met Charly at Tawau airport we all ended up sharing a lift to Semporna which is where my dive school is based.
It turns out that these people are professional underwater photographers, and the guy (I think his name is Adam) worked for Associated Press as a news photographer. I mentioned that my grandad used to work as a freelance photographer in Wales, and when I mentioned his name he said he had heard of him, which made my day!
I've had two days diving here so far, the dives havent been as good as Phi Phi yet, but the islands we have dived off are beautiful! Tomorrow we are diving off Sipadan which is legendary for sharks, turtles and barracuda, so I'm very much looking forward to it. And by the end of tomorrow I will be an advanced open water diver!
On Wednesday I'm off to the Philippines, which I'm hoping will be a little less intimidating than being a woman in a Muslim country. Even though we have made sure to cover knees and shoulders we still get unwanted attention from men, nothing bad so far just unpleasant glares, honking horns and 'Mees yu awlreddy' as a nice chat up line. It's definitely nice to be in a group in an area, which apart from the visitors to the few local dive schools, is not a tourist resort.
