Today is my twelfth day without diving, and 6 days to go, not that I'm counting or anything :)
Today and tomorrow is the Save Koh Tao Festival:
http://www.newheavendiveschool.com/koh-tao-news/koh-tao-festival/
I'd love to go over to Sairee and participate but after a 14 hour shift yesterday I'm feeling pretty tired. Maybe I'll go there tomorrow instead.
Working at the dive shop is going alright, only one day was really a pain in the ass, but otherwise things has run ok. Things are a bit disorganized, bookings not put in the hotel-booking-schedule (bookings made that I'm not involved in), misunderstandings with pick-ups etc, luckily I've managed to fix things so that the customers seems to be happy. I love to have it organized around me, and I try my best to do the same while working in the dive shop. I see a lot of things that would improve with a bit more planning and organisation, but since I'm only there for a short time there's nothing I can do except telling Dev when he comes back about my thoughts.
A few days ago I had the most warming words from one of our hotel customers "Without you, my experience here wouldn't have been as great as it was, you made my visit to Koh Tao fantastic"
The stormy weather we had recently has finally died down, so it was a really hot day at the dive school today. I got to close earlier today due to the festival and the boat guys and Zo (the jack of all trades who keep everything running when it comes to the dive school) have had the whole day of.
One of our three boats are broken and can't leave the bay where it's moored up, my experience in logistics will be helpful for the next couple of days until the boat is repaired I think. I also have Zo to help me out.
Even though I loved the windy and stormy weather we've had for a few days, I hope it will stay sunny and calm cause with one boat less we really need good weather so that both our conservation team and our other customers can get a great experience.
I've moved my office in the dive school outside, cause there are like a billion mutaded mosquitoes living under the desk and shelf where I'm supposed to sit. I've tried mosquito repellant, curls and everything and they still attack, that's why I think they must be mutants. Stand there for 2 minutes and you have 10 new bites. Before this work at the dive school I had a total of less than 10 bites :)
That's all for now and Happy midsummer to my friends and family in Sweden!
Wednesday 18 June 2014
Saturday 14 June 2014
"working"
Well...since the 10th of June I've been stranded on land, and will be that until the 24th. Really, really, really longing for the 25th to come so I can get back in the water with my conservation team!
I'm currently in the dive shop taking hotel bookings, arranging pick-ups, payments, check-in, check-out and also planning the dives for the next day, book in divers and new Open Water students etc.
Devrim, the owner, needed to go to England for a wedding and asked me if I could help him out since he didn't have anyone managing everything when he was away.
It is quite interesting and I do learn a lot about all things involved to run a smooth and organized dive shop.
Especially now when the dive boats can't go out from Chalok, instead the are taken by car to a drop-off point where the longtail take them out to the dive boats.
Luckily I have people around me who can help me out with the dive planning. Planning fun dives and dive courses are very different from the conservation dives I normally do.
It's busy in the morning before the divers go out, then it is a bit slower during the day untill the divers come back.
I will be here 15 days straight from 7.30 til 19 every day :) If it is a night dive I don't leave the dive shop until 21 :)
I have realized how hot and sticky you get when you can't go into the water anything during the days.
So you will all have to wait for new under water photos :)
The weather has been a bit on the windy, rainy and cooler side for a few days, it was really nice. But today it's hot and sunny again. But according to the weather forecast the wind and rain will be back shortly.
Cloudy, rain and strong winds are just what we need for the corals that are already showing strong signs of bleaching. Hopefully the ocean will cool down a bit if the strong winds, rain and clouds continue for a while.
Can't belive I'll be going home soon, it feels so strange. I'm happy that I'll get to end my stay here with 3 more weeks of conservation.
All is very well here and so far I've managed not to blow the dive shop up :) And customers, co-workers etc seems to be happy with how I manage everything :)
I'm currently in the dive shop taking hotel bookings, arranging pick-ups, payments, check-in, check-out and also planning the dives for the next day, book in divers and new Open Water students etc.
Devrim, the owner, needed to go to England for a wedding and asked me if I could help him out since he didn't have anyone managing everything when he was away.
It is quite interesting and I do learn a lot about all things involved to run a smooth and organized dive shop.
Especially now when the dive boats can't go out from Chalok, instead the are taken by car to a drop-off point where the longtail take them out to the dive boats.
Luckily I have people around me who can help me out with the dive planning. Planning fun dives and dive courses are very different from the conservation dives I normally do.
It's busy in the morning before the divers go out, then it is a bit slower during the day untill the divers come back.
I will be here 15 days straight from 7.30 til 19 every day :) If it is a night dive I don't leave the dive shop until 21 :)
I have realized how hot and sticky you get when you can't go into the water anything during the days.
So you will all have to wait for new under water photos :)
The weather has been a bit on the windy, rainy and cooler side for a few days, it was really nice. But today it's hot and sunny again. But according to the weather forecast the wind and rain will be back shortly.
Cloudy, rain and strong winds are just what we need for the corals that are already showing strong signs of bleaching. Hopefully the ocean will cool down a bit if the strong winds, rain and clouds continue for a while.
Can't belive I'll be going home soon, it feels so strange. I'm happy that I'll get to end my stay here with 3 more weeks of conservation.
All is very well here and so far I've managed not to blow the dive shop up :) And customers, co-workers etc seems to be happy with how I manage everything :)
Sunday 1 June 2014
Fun dive yesterday
Yesterday I went for 2 fun dives together with New Heaven.
First we went to Chumpon in the hope that the whale shark spotted the day before was still there, but of course it wasn't.
I dove with a few from the conservation team, it was a nice dive. After Chumpon we went to White Rock where only me and Rahul was diving together. It was so nice, relaxing and wonderful. Of course, being conservationists and all, we also did the secco-disc in three different depths :) Secci-disk is a black and white disc that you use to check the visibility in the water.
It was absolutely fantastic and it was a real joy just doing a fun dive.
I also got to practice on my underwater photographing, I still need to take loads more pictures, but at least I'm slowly slowly improving :)
In the evening I went to Bizarro and enjoyed Tapas and glass of red wine.While I was there thunder, lightning and heavy rain come in over Koh Tao, it was amazing!
Today I've spent the entire day at the dive shop uploading photos and my blog, internet is pretty slow today so it's taken most of the day.
Tonight I'll make myself a feta cheese sallad and watch Sons of anarchy
First we went to Chumpon in the hope that the whale shark spotted the day before was still there, but of course it wasn't.
I dove with a few from the conservation team, it was a nice dive. After Chumpon we went to White Rock where only me and Rahul was diving together. It was so nice, relaxing and wonderful. Of course, being conservationists and all, we also did the secco-disc in three different depths :) Secci-disk is a black and white disc that you use to check the visibility in the water.
It was absolutely fantastic and it was a real joy just doing a fun dive.
I also got to practice on my underwater photographing, I still need to take loads more pictures, but at least I'm slowly slowly improving :)
In the evening I went to Bizarro and enjoyed Tapas and glass of red wine.While I was there thunder, lightning and heavy rain come in over Koh Tao, it was amazing!
Today I've spent the entire day at the dive shop uploading photos and my blog, internet is pretty slow today so it's taken most of the day.
Tonight I'll make myself a feta cheese sallad and watch Sons of anarchy
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| Redbreasted wrasse |
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| Emperor fish |
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| Longfin bannerfish |
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