It’s dead slow. I’m really ceasing to believe a lot of what I’ve been told about this island. Or maybe it’s changing.
I went out for a bit of a crazy girl’s night out with Amanda (fellow instructor of Ryan) and Robyn (Ryan’s DMT) a few nights ago. We went out for an absolutely fantastic dinner at La Piazzetta – indulged in the appetizer of Italian meats and cheeses, followed by pastas and pizzas and all topped off with liter of nice red wine. What I most appreciated is that we sat around a table enjoying all of this loveliness for an hour and a half – it was very leisurely and unrushed.
We all found out after dinner that none of us had to dive the following morning so we thought we’d go out to Deco Bar and continue our evening of girly chats for a bit longer. As it turns out, this ended quite contrary for one of us (not me) who got a call at 6:45 in the morning because the DM at her shop had called in sick and another one of us (me) got called in to dive in the afternoon. I was so knackered from only 5 solid hours of sleep.
The evening ended at 2:30 in the morning after a few hours of bar hopping and dancing at the beach parties and watching crazy drunk people think that they can jump rope with fire. One guy seriously caught on fire - his entire left side went up in flames and I’m sure that it wasn’t until the next morning that he realized just how badly he was burned.
Anyways, all this not just to tell you that I had a lovely crazy girls night out, but that the beach party was packed. So there are people on the island. They’re just here to drink and party. These people are not here to dive.
This morning Chris and I had a nice chill n chat session on our mutual patio, followed by a mediocre breakfast, followed by a walk on the beach to see naked boobies. And the beaches were covered in people napping off their hangovers.
So today on Phi Phi, every dive shop sent out a boat with 2 or 3 divers on it, but tonight the beach bars will be raging mad and tomorrow the beaches will be covered with people again napping off their hangovers.
It’s been an insanely slow week. I’ve actually enjoyed some really nice dives with some fun divers, which as I think I’ve said before doesn’t pay much, but when the divers are good it is so enjoyable and easy. And I’ve been mostly diving in the afternoon which I now prefer. There’s no-one on the dive sites, there’s no-one on the boat. It’s great.
I also had the most spastic open water student this week. I started out with two, but one dropped out after getting ill in confined. I don’t know why, but as Gar used to say, “I can’t want it more than she does.” That left me with Carl who was just scary insane. He focused on the most bizarre things – like what would happen if he lost his weight belt or what would happen if the inflator on his jacket malfunctioned. Carl tried to grab my reg out of my mouth twice (while underwater). Carl tried to hold his breath and go to the surface. Carl tried to climb on top of me both underwater and at the surface more than once.
At the end I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that I issued Carl a certification card, but he was able to do the skills to what PADI would consider mastery for an open water student and his form in the water wasn’t even all that bad. He is the only person that I’ve ever certified and felt like I should leave a little note in his logbook for his next instructor to let them know that it really isn’t my fault that I’m not a crap instructor because I know that the next PADI professional is going to take one look at him and go “who the hell certified him.” In my opinion this guy should not dive unsupervised and I told him as much.
At Barakuda the tension is palpable. I’m glad that Ryan and I leave for our visa run on Monday because I can feel myself getting more fed-up every day. Probably the biggest problem is that no-one is diving a lot. We’re all still making enough money to live, but if it continues at this rate, that’s all it’s going to be. Possibly when I come back it will be a bit busier. I’m actually getting a little fed up with some of the drama that goes on there as well as some of the completely demented business decisions that get made. I came here to dive not to listen to prima donnas.
So I’m a little anti-Barakuda at the moment which will either pass with a little distance from it that this visa-run will afford me or it won’t pass, in which case I will go see the manager at Ryan’s shop and beg her for a job and if that doesn’t work then I’ll have to email the owner and beg him for a job and if that doesn’t work then Ryan will just have to support me in the manner in which I’ve become accustomed.
We are nearing Christmas and the 5th anniversary of the Tsunami. I found out today that one of my colleagues lost his girlfriend in the Tsunami. I imagine that it will be quite a somber day here. Another of my colleagues and his wife are from New Orleans and she was expecting the Tsunami memorial to be a celebration of life in much the same way as they do in New Orleans, and was surprised to find out that it is quite the opposite. After Katrina it’s hard to imagine that even the spirit of New Orleans can take a day that became a mass funeral and turn it into a celebration of life.
We return to the island on Christmas day and I’m hoping that Ryan and I will get to go diving together that afternoon with cameras and all. Now that I know the sites so well, I’d really like to spend some time photographing. And I’d like to dive with Ryan – it’s been so long! I’m hoping we’ll have Christmas dinner together as well with friends – a little family dinner away from family.
As we leave Monday, you’ll probably hear from me before Christmas unless Vientiane doesn’t have wifi. It’s Southeast Asia, anything is possible.
Peace.
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