Day 216! After 9 busy days of diving it was finally time for a day off. I got a lot of things checked off that I’ve been neglecting and even had time to relax and spend time with friends throughout the day.

It’s been a bit since I’ve been able to sleep in, but I finally had my chance today. I woke up around 9am and then finished up my blog post from the day prior, before starting my day.

Before leaving my apartment, I FaceTimed my parents and had a lovely chat with them! As always, it was great catching up and it’s very very nice to chat with them weekly.

I went over to Taco Shack for breakfast. I wanted to have some Thai food to start my day, but they weren’t serving any till 11am because they were preparing food for the divers. So I got a muesli bowl, it’s always a nice treat.

While I was eating, I was messaging with my friend Pauline. She suggested that we do a beach cleanup today and I thought that was a great idea! I hadn’t joined her on one since I was volunteering at Taco, so I was excited to help.

I wrapped up eating my breakfast, chatted with some of the dive instructors for a bit, played some pool, and then met up with Pauline to spend some time cleaning up Sairee Beach.

We spent around an hour walking down the north half of the beach… and we picked up a ton of trash. There were plastic bottles, wrappers, cigarette butts, bits of rope, and even someone’s underwear (there was some pretty gross things but I’ll spare you the details).

This was a really nice way to start my day. Taking time to clean up one of the beautiful beaches on Koh Tao and also spend time under the sun, what can be better than that!

We worked up an appetite while picking up trash. So we made our way to a restaurant we like, called Bingo, to have an early lunch.

I ordered the traditional Thai dish, Laab, and also had some vegetable fried no name. I had never had no name before, but I had heard good reviews on it and I enjoyed it! Not much to not like about fried vegetables.

While we were eating, our friend Phil drove past us and then quickly turned around and came and joined us. He had just finished up his day of diving and was originally heading to find lunch elsewhere.

We all finished up and went our separate ways. I first stopped at a nearby fruit stand for a 50 baht smoothie. I took it to go, but they had extra mango in the blender so they gave me a cup of it to have there as well, it was very nice of them!

I then went home to take a nap. When I woke up I played some guitar! After a bit of jamming, it was time for an important part of my day.

I found out yesterday, that if I don’t have any more days off (outside of my one per week), my dive master training will finish on August 21st! So, it was time to finally book a flight for my next adventure, Australia!

It’s pretty crazy that my 10 weeks are almost up… time flies!

I took my laptop over to Taco Shack to make use of their wifi. I then sat down and started searching on Skyscanner for cheap flights that worked with my schedule.

I checked flights from Koh Samui, Surat Thani, Phuket, and Bangkok… it was a bit stressful. It’s been awhile since I’ve had to plan any travel. But it was fun to start thinking about the next phase of my traveling and moving on from Koh Tao (for now).

Yi, my friend and former boss, helped me out a bit too. He knows all the ferry timings and prices and knows some of the other bus and train prices as well. So he helped me find the cheapest route. I ultimately decided on flying out of Koh Samui because of the convenience factor. It’s close by and will only be a short ferry ride vs hours on a bus or train.

I ended up purchasing the flight too… on September 10th I’ll be saying “see you later” to this amazing island and flying to a much much much bigger island, Australia. I’ll be starting my Australia adventure in Melbourne, but more on that to come! I still have just over a month on Koh Tao and plenty of more adventures to come.

I then celebrated by playing a bunch of games of pool against my fellow DMT Chris.

I met back up with Pauline afterwards to join her to an opening party of a new dive shop. Pauline’s instructor for her instructor course just opened a new dive shop called Hang Loose Divers. A bunch of Pauline’s old diving coworkers were there and I thought it’d be fun to meet some more divers from around the island.

My mentor Chris was there and Kit and Kiki met us there as well. I met some new divers, but mainly just spent the next hour or so chatting with my friends.

The dive shop was very modern and aesthetically pleasing. A much different dive shop to ours at Taco. It was a nice way to end the day, but after a bit, I was ready for dinner and bed.

I said goodnight to everyone and rode back to Taco Shack for dinner.

Before going to bed, I had another weekly video call to have! My friend Dylan and I chatted for a while catching each other up on our week and what’s ahead. It’s really nice that we’ve been able to keep in such close contact even being on opposite sides of the world.

Every now and then I get new pictures from my friend Chelsea. Here are a few from this past week:

Tomorrow I’ll be taking out some more fun divers! Looking forward to a fun morning!

– Elie