Day 179! It’s time for another day off. This cold is really annoying and I want it to go away. So a day of naps and relaxing was just what I needed! And I also finally made the time to get myself a haircut after farrrrr too long.

After 2 days of intense diving, while being sick, it was time for a day off.

I slept in as late as I was able to and got up around 9am for breakfast at Taco Shack.

I still wasn’t feeling 100% but I was much better. My energy was back but I was still pretty congested which was quite annoying. So after eating I went back to my room and fell back asleep.

Once I woke up from a long hour and a half nap, I picked up my guitar and started playing.

It had been a bit since I strummed for a while but I guess I went for too long and one of my strings snapped. I’ll have to fix that soon so I can keep playing!

The string snapping made a good excuse to head back to Taco Shack for lunch!

Over the next hour or two I hung around and played a lot of pool with the Taco employees and some people staying at the hostel. I’ve missed the long pool sessions I had as a volunteer!

I then hopped on my motorbike and set out on a very overdue errand.

It’s been 2 months since my last haircut in Bangkok. I’ve been waiting for a friend of a friend who allegedly is one of the best barbers in London… but he’s been waiting for his clippers to come in from Lazada and I decided I didn’t want to wait any longer.

I found a barbershop nearby that my friend Kit recommended. But they didn’t have availability till 3:30pm, so I put my name down and went back to my room for another couple hour nap.

I woke back up and made my way back to the barber “shop” … it’s outside.

The woman cutting my hair gave me a bit of a fright… she kind of just started lobbing off curls left and right and I was worried my hair might be really messed up. But in the end, I think it turned out alright!

I paid 300 Baht for this one and I feel like my 150 Baht haircut in Bangkok was better… honestly I think my $1 haircut in Laos was better than both!

But the barbershop also happened to be next to a bracelet shop I had gone to last year on Koh Tao.

The reason this is relevant is during the stress and rescue, one of my bracelets lost the turtle that was on it… but the bracelet shop next door was the place I got it from! So I was hoping they’d have another. Unfortunately it was in black and not white, but I was still excited to get a very similar version of the bracelet!

I then went back to my room for another nap before heading on a solo dinner to Mama Tams for one of my favorite meals on the island.

Most of my friends went on a trip to a dive site, called Sail Rock, today. I opted not to go because of the price and because I wanted a day off. So they were all exhausted. It’s also been a while since I’ve had a solo dinner out and about, and it was quite nice! I really enjoy sitting with my thoughts, listening to the ambient noise of people chatting in a restaurant, and of course listening in on other people’s conversations.

To end off my night, I went back to Taco Shack where I ran into Albert and Till, two of my fellow DMTs. We sat and chatted for about an hour, talking about diving, life, etc. It was really nice to just chat with them outside of the diving environment.

After that was another great chat! I finally FaceTimed my parents after weeks of busyness!

It was so lovely chatting and catching up. It was a brief FaceTime since they had plans, but it was nice nonetheless.

Tomorrow I should be back diving! I’m scheduled for a morning boat and a night boat. So I’m looking forward to logging more dives and hopefully getting to see some cool things!

– Elie