hey there folks, it’s been so long I’m not sure where even to begin!
i wrote my last blog in june! Jesus I really am a disaster! So much has happened and yet in real life so little has changed…that is…until last week!

Last week I finally got the medical go-ahead to dive!

Now it’s not without restrictions and it’s only like being given a provisional but hell it’s a start! It’s limited depths, limited conditions etc for what seems like forever but it is a start. And then fingers crossed, if we can see that over time there have been no negative effects with regards to my asthma, then maybe, just maybe I will really be able to pursue my dream.

I have now been in my “new” job at Visa Diving a few months already and overall it has been really great. Been working with a really good team and it’s been really nice to actually be in a diving environment full time. Money was great at the beginning and I even managed to save quite a bit and was feeling quite pleased with myself! I seemed to be quite good at selling without ever having to resort to the “hard-sell” and the manager Tom is just great, really works hard at keeping everything running like a family.
All was going great!

Liz and Dave had a holiday planned and i was going to join them for a few days in Koh Phangan, my first holiday in Thailand! Can you imagine!

Something like 2 days before I was due to meet them, I was diagnosed with Dengue Fever. It is one motherfu@#er of an illness and I only got the mild version! I lost nearly 2 weeks of work, nearly a stone in weight, all of my savings and of course my holiday and chance to meet up with the guys! Sooo disappointed!
Unbelievable eh?

Of course somewhere around the same time, Thailand decided to start fighting with itself again, airports closed in krabi and phuket and Bangkok became subject to #####. 30% of flights to Thailand were cancelled and those that did make it to BKK still couldn’t get to us!

Huge economic impact that we are still waiting to recover from. Have really not been making any money since and am really not sure when I will again. Things seem to be picking up this last week, so fingers crossed it will continue. As ever my return is dictated one month at a time!

Now before you get the wrong idea, it has not all been doom and gloom, I have been having quite a lot of fun these last few months! Re-discovering my “irish-ness” and my taste for singha beer, late nights and jagermeister and to my detriment a poisonous shot called fishermans friend.

Our dive-master Aiad and his wife, our videographer Cella have been running a local bar, Deco Bar ( or Upstairs Bar), where many divers go and few tourists, which when you’ve been talking to all day long is somewhat welcome for an hour or two!

The shop closes at 9 and without fail the majority head straight there, or at least directly after dinner. And it’s just never for one or two?!

It’s kinda like the cheers bar, individuals can come and go but without fail there’s always a few who can be depended upon to keep the party going.

They even managed to persuade divers from different shops to participate in a ladyboy night for a charity, and I tell you one thing for sure……ladyboy limbo dancing leaves images that stay with you for the rest of your life!!

My friend Dave had been living in bkk teaching, and before leaving for home he came down for a few nights. (he’s been a few times now, with Ger, and Caroline his sister when Sean and Jan were here) and I went to meet him in good old Patong for a night. And I think I can say with certainty that it was the best night out I’ve had in years! One of the funniest parts about it all is that it was mother’s day, and this brothel of a city was deserted! All the working girls had run off home to be with their moms or kids and you just had bars and bars full of empty poles! What a laugh!
we drank and laughed the night away, met some new best friends down paradise (gay strip) (what were their names again ; >), engaged in peacetalks and had a boogie with some Kuwaitis and Dave had a mini dance off with some thai aul fellas outside 7/11.fell home at stupid o clock in the morning to the gorgeous Baipho guesthouse and got about 3 hours sleep before having to subject myself to the nightmare bus journey to Penang, Malaysia on a visa run!

Worth It?

Hell Yeah!

I was back in Patong again recently too, we had a staff night out just a few nights ago and I’m still recovering!

It was decided that for the end of Ramadan we needed to close the shop for a day to allow our Thai staff to go home and celebrate with their families on this important day, and hell if the shop was going to be closed then we should be celebrating too!
Most of our group of 11 headed on the morning ferry meeting up with the others later that evening. We got a great deal on the the lovely Baanzhan guesthouse, not even 5 mins from the city center and off we went. I’m not sure why I was so shocked when Tom produced a large bag of cans on the ferry, it was 9am for christs sake! But hey, that was breakfast and the party had started!
It was a fun day! It was a little strange having to wear shoes again (not that that lasted long , I lost them b4 the night was out!), but nice to be in a city again with so many things happening all at once.
It’s so funny that there was a time that Paong was my idea of hell, but now after having had to live there for so long I really have developed a soft spot for it! I feel strangely at ease amongst all the chaos, and folks it really is chaos!
Whatever you want, whenever you want, in any flavour you want 24 hours a day!
Lights, girls, animals, bars, poles, poles, poles, poles. (and though I didn’t mean of the eastern European variety, I have no doubt if you wanted that you could have that too!)

We had an incredible meal in a hideaway restaurant called June Toppical, the best mussels and the best steak I’ve ever had. And then progressed from bar to bar to bar until it was just a blur of breasts, shots and at one stage a whipping frenzy!

Some of these places were nuts, for 1000thb (around 20euro) you ring the bell and that’s a round of shots for the bar, but of course once one person rings the bell it just keeps on ringing as a random “round” takes up momentum!
Tom was a phenomena and just seems to have kept his hand in his pocket all night. Dinner, drinks etc, and just made sure that everyone was enjoying their one and only night off in the year.
And we did!

There was no hiding from the Devil’s torment the following day!

Somewhere over the last week or so I got a surprise visit from Ed. I spent years working with Ed at home in cork and when I last got home from Thailand, he was just having his going away party, embarking on a years traveling. He’s been on so many adventures through India, Nepal, china. Vietnam etc and when he landed in Koh Phangan recently I’m glad to say he didn’t take too much persuading to spend his last few days in Phi Phi before flying home. Because of working we didn’t get to spend nearly as much time together as I would have liked but we did manage to pull off a few nights out and a disastrous afternoons snorkeling : )
He seemed to know nearly as many people here as I did, and so we had quite a social time! Particularly social last night which ended with a crashed bicycle, loadsa laughter and lots and lots of bruising!
Again, definitely worth it!

Now before you think I’ve lost my mind, you have to realize that these last 2 months adventures are so far removed from normal during my entire time here!.
It has been fun exactly because it has been so different.
And, I can’t say at all that I regret one single minute of it : >
How and ever!

I am burned out! My body is aching for something healthy! It needs to walk and hike and do yoga! It needs some good nights sleep and non fast food! (I knew the morning after the staff party when my body ran for burger king like a lost man in the desert would run towards a well, that finally, enough had to be enough ha ha ha)

Also if my first brush with diving yields anything other than positive results then my dream is over. So, first I need to get to my peak health and then start diving.
Unbelievably Aine and Orla are planning a 10 day holiday over new years eve ( with their respective Dave’s) and it will be Orla’s first time diving too, so I’m gonna wait and do mine with her. I’ve waited 2 years already, another 2 months is nothing, and honestly, I just can’t think of a better way to ring in the new year!

I am so excited, I can hardly sleep with anticipation!



(will upload photo's soon x)