Day 5 / Tag 5 Getting wet

9 am. Sea Dragon sent a car to pick me up at the Hotel and take me to the dive shop. I have plenty of time to check my regulators and pressure gauge on a tank, all works fine.
After a cup uof tea we all hop on the "Dragon Wagon", the truck I showed you in "Day 4", loaded with tanks, meals etc. , and off we go to Tap Lamu Pier

The Dragon Wagon

Careful with those tanks

On the Road to Tap Lamu

The Longtailboat with Captain Dan is waiting, we load it with the tanks and our dive equipment and head out for the dive site, supposedly called "The face of the sleeping King". There are four Advanced OWDs, an OWD course with two students and me with a personal guide, Silvan from Switzerland.

Cannot say too much about the diving, the water is not clean here close to the port and mainland, but it is enough to get used to breathing through a regulator again and do some weight checks. I started with 6 pieces, but these are not 1 kilo, but 2 pounds, that is around 900 grams. So I had 5.4 kg, definitely not enough with a bone dry wet suit. I was working hard to stay down, and signaled to ascend again. On the surface I got another 2 pound weight which made descending a lot easier. I had booked this dive for these checks anyway.

Longtailboat from Vo Sta on Vimeo.
One hour surface time, fried rice with chicken in reusable Tupperware style box with metal spoon (reduce waste!) and down for the second dive even closer to the port, dive site called "Homerun". I had put another 2 pound weight in my pocket and this time it was right.
We all unloaded the boat and on our way back to the dive shop the driver brought me to my Hotel, where I dropped my dive bag in the shower, changed clothes and rushed out again. I had an appointment with TJ.
TJ is a wonderful Lady and Dive Buddy from the Lofoten, Norway. We dived together last year from Koh Lanta to Ko Lipe and back. She works for a Norwegian Airline, halftime, so she gets tickets at very nice prices, and she has time.
We met at "La Piccolo Maria", an italian restaurant close to Nang Thong Supermarket. It is such a beautiful sensation to meet somebody after a year, who you had a good diving time with.
We chatted for two hours, ate bruschetta and fabulous pasta, they sure can cook! Best italian restaurant in Thailand so far.
TJ had some interesting points to tell on the Flying Seahorse incident earlier this year...
We had the waitress take photos of us two,

Meeting TJ after one year in Khao Lak on her way to the Similans

sent them to Dive Buddys of last year, then I took her on my scooter to the dive shop, where she started her 4 day Livaboard trip to the Similan Islands.
She wanted to give me the card for the National park in Raja Ampat, but it is personalized, so not useful.

Have a safe trip, TJ! And Chok Dee!

After dropping off TJ, I went to the Hotel, had a sunset Mojito, washed my equipment, logged the two dives, started writing this post and fell asleep at 10:30pm.

Can't waitto get on board with Beto and Fernando in two days...
Good night everybody,

See you under water