Koh Tao, Thailand – The Koh Tao Pub Crawl and Changing Our Perspective On The Dive Industry

It's amazing how fast things change on the road. We were in Roatan, Honduras and finished our Divemaster Training and now are Certified PADI Divemasters.  Dive Professionals if you will. One of our Instructors worked in Thailand before going to Roatan and worked as a Divemaster for Big Blue Dive Center on Koh Tao and she liked it.  We loved Thailand and can't think of a better place than Koh Tao.  So the plan is to go to Koh Tao and try to find work.  Things don't work out as much as you would hoped and plans change in a day while on the road, sometimes and instant.  We will see how things change when we get to Koh Tao. 

Roatan to The USA

We left Honduras for LAX to take care of somethings; bills, taxes, take Buddha to the vet and to see friends. We took a small puddle-jumper from Roatan to San Pedro Sula that was an interesting experience, but saves us loads of time and stay over in San Pedro Sula. We had to spend the night in the airport because our flight didn't leave until the next day.  We were exhausted and got little sleep.  There aren't even benches to sleep on and even people who work in the airport were sleeping in corners of the airport.  We took some chairs from the Dunkin Donuts and fashioned a bench and got a few winks until they came in at 4am to make the donuts and kicked us off of them.  We boarded the flight for Miami International Hell. Out of all ports of call and border checks we have encountered through the 1st 2nd and 3rd world countries, I would have to say Miami International is the worst!  We made it to our posh hotel with a 42 inch big screen just in time to watch the disappointing finale of the Voice and order some pizza.

9 Days In California

We got to LA the next day and rented a car for the 9 day stay in California. We pre-booked a hotel on Hotels.com at the Hollywood Historic Hotel. A great place to stay for the history of the place. It was also the cheapest place capable of calling a hotel a few blocks from the Thai Embassy in LA. We wanted to be close to get there when they opened in case we ran into the ticket-taking lines that we had in Thai Embassy in Vientiane Laos. Quite the opposite experience. It was incredibly friendly, efficient and easy experience we could have asked for and left with a 3 month education visa stamped in our passports. We then spent the next 8 days in California taking care of everything we needed to do in the states before leaving again for another 6 months.

The Best Sushi In The World

We went down to Oceanside and stayed with our old friend Ben.  He made us feel at ease and saved us a boatload of money by letting us stay in his decked-out motor home in his driveway. It was perfect!!! I cannot wait to do it again. It was great to spend time with them and feel at home. It's important to get the feeling when you can as so many places make it impossible to feel that way around the world. We also had a killer BBQ with more friends we haven't seen in a while. We also ate at our favorite places like Sushi and Joy. (We ate there twice actually) Amazing time in Oceanside with amazing friends!

We hopped a plane after taking care of Buddha's revised paperwork for his International Health Certificate, also in LA 9 days later. We were ready to get back on the road and travel some more.

Singapore Airlines Trans-Pacific Flight

We departed on Singapore Airlines for Tokyo Narita Airport and the dreaded anticipation of cramped quarters with Buddha below our feet, drifting in and out of sleep. Actually, this was the best flight we've had ever. Singapore Airlines is AMAZING! Their inflight service is great, the seats are great and the entertainment in the headrest of the person in-front of me was like a window to the universe.  I didn't sleep the entire flight, and neither did Shelly. We watched our own movies, played texas hold-em against each other, saw television shows and documentaries.

We drank and ate until the point when I finally refused the last meal because I couldn't possibly have eaten more. The bathrooms came equipped with toothbrushes, paste, and mouthwash. Warm towels passed when you need them. It was an amazing coach flight. We then spent 5 hours in the gorgeous Singapore Airport and hopped our next plane to Koh Samui, Thailand.  There was a small problem with Buddha, but once we showed his paperwork and Silk Airline's pet policy to the airline manager on duty, we were allowed to board with Buddha and overall one of our best Trans-Pacific travel experience.

Koh Samui 

Koh Samui was nice. We got a place at the Carpe Diem Hotel in Fisherman's Village, Bo Phut Beach, Koh Samui, Thailand. The addresses here are long! Egg, was the name of the man who worked at the front desk. We loved Egg. Great guy, awesome concierge, speaks great English and spent time teaching me things in Thai like; "Mai Tong, Tam Quam Sa at Hong". Which means do not clean my room, and "Pom Chet Bai", which means I am going. I use that one all the time now. All the numbers are coming back to us and our Thai is getting surprisingly decent. We try to learn a phrase per day.