Thailand- scuba day!

I start my day off with extra prayers as I'm a little nervous. I know that God will be with me and keep me safe. Plus...I know that my prayer warriors, Rob and Julianne are back home in prayer as we speak for my adventure to be safe. 🙏

I get to the buffet at 6:30 to get a quick bite and give them the wrong room number which causes me to be turned away😮‍💨 John to the rescue! He gets it figured out and breakfast is saved! 🍌🥞🥓

The van arrives to pick me up and .. Guess what? The same blinged out model of van as the one in phuket.  We pick up a few others and head to the dock. 

The boat ride to phi phi is a little more than an hour. The waves are super choppy and I am officially sea sick by the time we arrive. 🤢

I tell my instructor that I'm not feeling well and feeling some ( a lot) anxiety. She reassures me and I gear up! In the water, I immediately start to breath faster and my chest is getting super tight. This is NOT good. I convince myself everything is fine and it's just my panic. I got this, right? 🤨 Things are going down hill fast for me with certain death impending. (Added for dramatic effect!)

The team lead gives the direction to start descending. He apparently had faith in me🫣.

I'm not doing great, breathing rapidly and my instructor locks arms with me and holds me until I get myself under control. Which feels like forever! It was probably less than 30 seconds but time stands still when you are in a full out panic (under water!!!)

 Okay....I'm doing better! I got this😬.

Now we descent to the bottom and go through the drills/ refresher course that was required as it's been maybe three years since I've dived. This is readily apparent by my initial reaction to getting started. I have to fill my mask with water and clear the air out on my own. 🤿 Then, I have to remove the air regulator, loose the line, then find it again, put it back in my mouth, clear the water, and start breathing... All while breathing out slowly as to not hold my breath. 

Done! The drills actually went very well. I had no problem once I got far enough under. Weird, huh? It was only near the surface that my fears were overwhelming.

The dive ended up being good... Not great. I saw a shark 🦈, puffer fish 🐟, swam in a school of yellow fish 🐠, and saw lots of other beautiful fish. I even saw what appeared to be a huge caterpillar 🐛. It was a sea cucumber.

Back on the boat for a one hour break before our next dive. I consider not doing the next dive due to sea sickness. Another instructor reassures me that it goes away under water ( it did last time) and that if I stay on the boat, the waves are sure to make me sicker! I do the dive. This time I see a huge turtle 🐢, lion fish, and many more interesting creatures. My instructor tells me I did much better on the second dive. She is right. Not nearly the panic attack that I experienced on the first dive. I'm finding my groove!  

Back on the boat! Long ride back and I forgot my towel. Ugh!!!

Wet momma! I think I might be getting too old for these shenanigans? I am super tired, beat, wet, and probably a little pink from the sun. My hair is sticky from the salt and standing straight up. I met John at the pool for a quick lie down on the chaise in the shade. I tried to get in the pool for a quick rinse and cool down but it was way too cold!!! 

I take a shower and lay on the bed. I feel like I have just done a three hour pilates class! My head hurts ( probably from dehydration), my neck and shoulders hurt ( from holdng all my tension all day), and I'm starving!  

We head to dinner to the same cafe that we've been eating at each day. Is clean and dependable. When it comes to food, we don't end up being the adventure couple we thought we were. Many of the businesses are without running water right now. 😬 Let's hope they are using reasonable cleaning procedures with their buckets of water.

Dinner was good we head back to the room because I need to go to bed.

I watch a movie...(the quiet place), kinda scary. John goes to 7-11 and gets me top ramen, because I'm hungry again. I wanted chicken flavor. He comes back with green curry. That's what they had. Nothing simple 🤨. What I want smart enough to figure out and John didn't suggest until it was too late was that I could have just held back on adding the curry packet. I eat it anyways. It was super good! Just really spicy!

Good night!