Day 205! I took today off as well, hopefully my knee will be pretty healed up in two more days so I can start diving again! I’ve really enjoyed my time off as it’s reminded me why I love this island so much. But I’m ready to get diving again!

I had a fun late night out with my friends yesterday… but that wasn’t going to stop me from getting up on the earlier side and sitting in on an open water class presentation!

I rolled out of bed at 8am, got ready, and made my way over to Taco Shack. Today I’d be sitting in on Dawid’s class, he’s one of our most experienced diving instructors, so I was hoping to absorb a lot from his class.

I have to present an open water class to Chris, to show my understanding of what we’ve learned before I finish my DMT… and because of these days off from my tattoo, it sounds like I’ll be presenting it soon. I like the teaching aspect, so I’m looking forward to working on my presentation and being able to show it off!

2 hours of class and lots of notes later, I felt like I had a good grasp of the content to start working on how I’d give the presentation. I also asked a couple instructors if they could send me their notes as well. Some of them use very organized white board drawings to help guide them through the talk… but Dawid did not. But it was still good to see how he taught class.

After class, I got a big photo dump from my friend Guada. She shared videos and pictures from some past dives we had done together, so here they are!

I wasn’t diving today, but I ordered a chicken gra pow and ate with the diver instructors. I hung out with them and played some pool till they all left for their afternoon dives.

I then went back to my room to play some guitar and take a nap. My friend Pauline asked me if I wanted to join her at one of the beaches on the island. It had been a while since I relaxed on a beach so I happily accepted the offer.

I knew my friend Lydia would want to come too, but she somehow missed my messages so I waited for her to respond since I was her only way around the island (she doesn’t ride a motorbike). But eventually she saw the messages, apologized, and we made our way to the beach!

We hung out for a few hours chatting in the shade and enjoying the good weather. We went to Tanote Bay, which I had never been to outside of diving! It was kinda crazy going to a new beach after being here for so long. I had felt like I had already “seen everything.” But obviously I haven’t! Eventually we got hungry and decided to head back across the island for dinner.

Before getting back to Taco Shack, Lydia and I stopped by a fruit shop for a smoothie. Hector suggested us this place the other day and claimed it was the best on the island… and he’s probably right! These smoothies were really good and had truly nothing but fruit in them!

I got a very interesting meal of chicken with fried vegetables and… French fries. I have been really craving them and with my discount at Taco I got them both for 85 Baht… which is crazy!

I then played a bunch of pool with our new DMT, Chris! Chris just finished his advanced course and was hooked and signed up like Kit and I did a month ago. It’s nice to have a new member to the team, especially since 4 of our DMs just finished up!

After hanging with him for a bit, I went back to my apartment to shower and get ready for my border run!

I had about an hour to kill so I worked on my duo lingo German and relaxed in the AC. It was going to be a long next 16 or so hours…

Around 8:15pm, I left my apartment, hopped on my motorbike, and headed to the pier!

It’s been 2 months since my last travel day, so even with it being a long one, I’ve been looking forward to it!

Hopefully I’ll get some good sleep rocking to the waves and I’m curious to see who I’ll be sharing this border run with. Last time it was with friends, but maybe this time I’ll make some new ones since I’m solo!

Off to Myanmar we go! We’ll see how it goes!

– Elie