worldbycarey: They come and they go...

The thing about island life is seeing people come and go. There are so many sad goodbyes and hopes to see eachother again. After being here for over a month, I've grown used to the people around me. It's like I've known them all for years. We've all had this incredible experience together and then it's over far too quickly. For me, the time is coming very, very soon. Just a couple weeks left in this tropical paradise. Time to make the most of the time that I have left (as if I haven't been doing that already).

Sam left me yesterday. We've now known eachother in Peru, Colombia, New Zealand and Thailand. Each time we meet up, we know when the next reunion will be. When she left yesterday morning, we didn't have any particular "later" to discuss. She may come back to the island, but by that time, I will be gone. So it sounds like I need to go to England sooner or later. My time with her was too amazing to say it will never happen again.

Last week, I wrote from Koh Phangan, the full moon party. For those of you with grand ideas of what it's supposed to be like, you may not want to read further. It was great because I had that time with an awesome friend, but other than that, eh...I could've had just as much fun staying here and going out in Sairee Beach.

I expected a DJ and dancing the night away with thousands of others on a beautiful beach. There were definitely DJs and dancing, but the beach was just so-so and the thousands of others were just very, very drunk. Haad Rin beach was nice, but not as good as we have it here in Koh Tao. The beach was a bit dirty and just filled from wall to wall with bars. There were people everywhere and medical facilities between each of the hundreds of bucket stands. It was all pretty funny to watch as we got there at 5pm and somehow managed to stick around for the chaos at 5am. We danced to bad pop songs, drank a couple of buckets, we made a few new friends, and I lost yet another pair of sunglasses to the sea. When we hopped in a cab to go back to our luxurious bungalow, Sam and I both looked at eachother and said that we just wanted to go back to Koh Tao. It was a good experience to have once. It wasn't all bad as Sam and I had a blast together. I can say that I did it, but I probably won't be going back.

Neither of us felt all that well on the catamaran back to our island. We craved McDonald's and just wanted to relax when we returned home. And that's exactly what we did. Since the full moon, there's been a lot of hanging out, some movies and a bar night thrown in there somewhere. I've been on a diving binge with my new gear and have gotten to hang with Sam and my gang of DMTs in between all of that.

I've been averaging four dives per day for the last week. As a DMT, you get all of the diving you want. With the visibility under the water getting better and better, I just can't help myself, I'm addicted. I recently got to assist an advanced course. I've been out leading fun divers. I'm finally getting the hang of all of the dive sites and am actually making it back to the boat each time without getting lost. All in good time; I know it will just keep getting better from here.

There was a whale shark spotting on White Rock four days ago, and I had just been diving at that site an hour before. I had done two dives that morning and was on the afternoon boat out to a deep pinnacle in the ocean when we heard the news. We could see the dive site in the distance and the captain was going to give us five minutes of snorkeling with it if we could find it. The boat started to buzz with excitement as everyone grabbed their masks and fins while the boat creeped toward the site. We all stood on the edge of the deck looking out into the deep and although one person on the boat saw it's fin breach, we never found it and never got to swim with this gorgeous creature. Apparently they are attracted to the coral spawning that happens once a year around this time. I will continue my routine of four dives a day until I see it. I swear it will show itself at some point while I'm here.

So that's it. There's not a whole lot going on other than that. I have to go to Burma again tomorrow night for my final visa run before I fly back to New Zealand. From then, there are just a few more leaving and then it will be me. It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun.

On a final note....I've finally gotten some underwater photos!!! I put some of them from the boat above, but I've been dying to snag a friend's underwater camera for weeks...and I finally got to yesterday. Here are some of the things that I get to see everyday under the waters surrounding Koh Tao.

This is my nemesis...the triggerfish. I got attacked by two the other day and it took a nice bite of my fin. I hate them, and of course was surrounded by eight of them on my morning dive today...