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February 09, 2006
First days in Ao Nang, Krabi
My first day in Ao Nang, Krabi was just checking out the local scene and securing my diving reservations. Shortly up the road from my guesthouse, I found Ao Nang Divers where they organized two days of PADI Advanced Open Water course dives, and a day of two ‘fun’ dives. From then on I just checked out what little there is to check out in Ao Nang, spent a few hours on the crappy beach with a bit of swimming, took pictures of interesting little bits, and checking out the local knickknacks for sale. That evening it Terje, my travel buddy from Laos, and I exchanged emails and coordinated a meet up the following day after my dives.
The next morning I met the Ao Nang Diving staff at their headquarters on the premises of Krabi Sea View Resort on route 4203 the Ao Nang high street at 7:45am. After loading up the truck with our gear and food for the day we headed the kilometer or so down to the beach and moved everything off onto a long boat. The long boat then took us out another kilometer to see where we transferred everything to the 25m, 2.5 deck M/v Petchmanee dive boat and set out on a two hour cruise to the island Koh Bida Nok.
After suiting up with my dive master, Kirre from Norway, and a beautiful young Swedish woman’s name who escapes me, we spent 57 minutes at Koh Bida Nok. It was fantastic…I have nto been diving for over two years since my Christmas holiday on San Salvador in The Bahamas with Steve, Charlotte and her parents. It was like riding a bicycle.
After about fifty minutes for lunch and the cruise to our new dive site, The Pinnade at Koh Yun, we jumped back in for our second 61 minute dive. While the visibility was not as stunning as San Salvador, both dives were incredibly amazing and lots of fun. On the two hour ride back to Ao Nang I grabbed myself a 70 Baht Chang Beer that as for sale, slipped into the rear corner of the top deck and relaxed.
Once back on shore I met Terje for the first time in Thailand. We went out for dinner, had some drinks, and played some pool with two young kids from America and two young ladies who claimed to be from Jersey…but Essex seemed more likely in my mind. Anyway, after only five beers or so I was completely pissed and went into the trademark Steve-Owens-walk-away-without-saying-a-word crash mode. Heading straight for the guesthouse, I accidentally stiffed Terje with my 700 Baht bar bill. (It was an Irish bar and the Guinness in a can was a whopping 250 Baht a pop which we discovered on the second round.)
Apparently, diving and drinking afterwards are not so compatible and it really messed me up. The next morning I missed the dive boat by ten minutes, but that is probably a good thing considering how poorly I was feeling.
Posted by stu at February 9, 2006 07:11 PM