Day 245! Holy moly… one week left?! Where did the time go. Today was another very nice day, but another cloudy and rainy one.

I didn’t need to pay for my fun dives today, because I was guiding a fun diver!

Because of the weather and wave conditions, our boat was at the Hin Wang pier. This was the first time I’d been at this pier in quite some time! Thankfully the conditions on the east side of the island were nice and calm.

My fun diver today was Sapir from Israel. It had been 3 years since she had done her advanced certification. But she had already done her refresh and some fun dives in Koh Phangan.

We made our way to our boat via a smaller boat taxi, and then we set out for our first dive.

I could tell Sapir was excited, but a little nervous too. I wasn’t nervous, but I had my own challenge ahead of me… I needed to guide a dive site I had only been to once.

We started our morning at Laem Thian Caves. The last time I was here, I led Sina and Kit around and we swam with a turtle for quite some time. I was hoping for that same experience today.

We in fact did not have that experience but we had a really nice time weaving in and out of giant rock formations. We also got to go through a number of swim throughs, which is one of the reasons why I like this dive site so much.

Our second dive was to Tanote Bay. This is usually an afternoon spot for us, but this was my first time diving it in the morning!

I was excited to show Sapir the giant school of fusiliers… but when we got to where they usually would be, they weren’t there! They were a bit further east than usual.

We saw those, moray eels, the motorbike…. But the visibility still wasn’t great so that’s pretty much all that we saw.

As we get closer and closer to peak monsoon season, apparently the visibility gets worse and worse. So I’m happy that I’ll be done diving before then AND that I got the conditions I did when I was diving.

When we ascended from the dive, the clouds were gone and the sky was sunny and blue… but that didn’t last long today unfortunately.

After our dives, I met up with my friend Immy for lunch! It had been a bit since we’d had the chance to hang out. But we had a lot to catch up on and discuss! She leaves the island in a couple of days and then I’ll shortly do the same… and then we’ll be meeting back up in freaking Australia!

It’s crazy that’ll well be seeing each other again in a third country. And not only that, we’ll most likely try and find a house with two rooms to enjoy our first stop in Melbourne together.

It’ll be really nice to have a friend around to make this transition a whole lot easier. We both really have no plan… but we’ll figure it out!

After lunch, I went back home and flopped into bed for a much needed nap. I’d been diving every day, for the past 11 days, and I was exhausted.

After I woke up, I went to Taco Shack to play pool and hang out with friends.

This ended up lasting a long time, maybe 2 hours of pool straight, and then a big storm rolled in so we got stuck at Taco Shack for even longer.

Most of us were happy for the rain though… maybe it’ll mean our water bills will be lower!

The night continued on and my friend Ash came to join us for dinner. Her friend Jessie joined us as well and we scarfed down some tacos and quesadillas as we caught up on the week.

They both left and my friends Tom and Chris joined. We ended up playing even more pool and started playing a different version of the game called killer pool that includes more people. All the Burmese guys played with us (Myo, Nam, and Kee), two girls from Germany (Helen and Kaja), and a Canadian guy (Brandon). It was a nice big group and a lot of laughter ensued as each of us got knocked out.

The fun continued as it was another karaoke night! Not many people wanted to sing, so Tom and I dominated the microphone. I don’t have too many karaoke nights left on Koh Tao… but I’m sure I’ll find plenty of excuses to go find a karaoke bar in Australia!

After singing till closing time (and literally singing closing time) it was time for bed! I decided to take the morning off from diving and to let my body rest. But I’ll get back into it the following day so I can still reach my goal of 200 dives!!

– Elie