A breath of fresh air, underwater!

Dear Fam and Friends.

We've made it to the full moon party! We're currently on Koh Phan Ngan or also refered to as the full moon party island. I'll catch you up from the begginning and start off by saying that this is day nine I believe that it has rained off and on!

We left Koh Phi Phi which was by far the most beautiful place I've ever been in my entire life with the most beautiful people hands down! I also loved the island because it was on the Andamen coast side which was sheltered from the monsoon rains that have followed us from Surat Thani entering the gulf side. The bus ride to the ferry was quite quick from Surat Thani and I met a beautiful girl from Isreal who turned out to be quite sweet but a little ignorant about certain things. As soon as I told her I had a best friend from Jordan and Pakistan she definately winched which was really dissapointing and frusterating. The ferry ride to the island we were at prior to getting to Koh Phan Ngan took us to Koh Tao. The ferry ride was on an old school 1960 model boat and was by far the scariest boat ride I've ever been on as we thrashed through towering waves crammed into a sleeping room on the ferry. The storm got the best of us as it through us around making sleep difficult and during the middle of the night water seeped in through the windows which made it that much more real. Getting to the island in the morning after 8 hours of hell we arrived at Koh Tao which is world renowned for diving and diving is what we did!

We took a four day course that brought us to the class room the first day as Jay, Joe and a dutch girl reopened a chapter in our life reminding of us school that we didn't want to embark upon! It was good though in the sense that I haven't read anything educational in awhile and I do miss learning through literature so it wasn't that bad. The second day we had class in the morning and then took to the pool for our first breaths under water which opened up a whole new world to my life. We practiced breathing without our masks just through our respirators and also using our BCD's to control our buoyancy and float. The next day we went on two dives, both to 12 meters or roughly 30 feet! The storm surrounded the island and made the first dive a little blurry as the wind and current knocked the sand around a bit but the second dive was incredible. We saw blue spotted sting rays, massive trigger fish, angel fish and the coral was spectacular like nothing I've ever seen. The feeling of breathing underwater and being weightless I image is similar to being in space! We did some more training and got to master the art of meditating and floating underwater. The rush and sensation is indescribable so I'll just leave it at this, just like sky diving it has changed the way I look at life forever. The last day we dove to our maximum depth which was 18 meters or roughly 60 feet! As we descended through the erie dark shallows we finally reached an abyss of life filled with vibrant colors and heaps of life! On this dive we saw puffer fish, sting rays and tons of other fish! The community that is diving is filled with such warm hearted opened minded people and that's exactly what our instructor was like. Hannah was from England and such a beautiful person that it saddens me I might not ever see her again which I promised I wouldn't let happen. Not much happened the four nights because you can't drink while you are diving or you might get narcosis but I did manage to meet some super cool Irish girls and a really cute one that I bumped into last night and had a blast with.

Speaking of last night, I'll spare you the time and jump right to the island we are currently on. The crew (Will, Lucy, Joe, Zoe and Jay of course) took another terrifying ferry ride to where we are now, Koh Phan Ngan, three days ago. Since we hadn't drank in four days not to sound like and alcoholic cuz I assure you I'm not, but we went straight to the buckets for what we call "bucket thirty!" The buckets if you remember are a mixture of red bull (which has emphadamines in it) whiskey and coke! The nights have been rain free so of course everyone is kean on going out so to the beach we went. There was live music, lots of dancing and a really good time. I some how managed to meet and hang out the whole night with the only other American girl I've met on the island. Her name is Kendra and she is from Michigan and a really cute sweat heart who is here teaching English to little kids. She has some of the most beautiful eyes and an incredibly sexy voice which I am in love with! Anyway, had a fun night and the rest of the gang liked her a lot which was good too. Side story, I managed to burn my hand the first night while lighting a plastic bag on fire which is what happens when it doesn't stop raining and their's nothing to do! But that is nothing compared to my dear old chap Will who discloated his shoulder doing what else? Jumping through a giant ring of fire on the beach! We all about died and I think he did too from the pain but it was just too funny to let him get off the hook that easy so he's been taking alot of crap from all of us! The second night I managed to fall asleep at about seven o'clock and never made it out so I'll skip to last night. After dinner we went shopping to stay inside and avoid the rain so we bought some wicked glow in the dark neon colored head and wrist bands. We went out last night with them and drew a lot of attention and got some really good laughs. It was Joe's birthday yesterday so the entire day we told every person we saw so by the time the pool party came that night everyone probably knew it as Joe's birthday party instead of the obvious pool party. I ran into my American girl and managed to screw that up by accidently bumping into the Irish girl and hanging out with her the whole night, real smooth Grant! Anyway I better be off as I am a little distrought right now from bucket thirty and I'm sure my writing is compelet crap right now so I appologize. God, there's so much to say and I honestly can't remember a lot of it but we're having a blast despite the rain and the full moon party is in two days so we're taking tonight off and having a movie night. Traveling is the best rush in the world and I hope I never stop, I'm in a sereal mood right now and I don't want it to wear off so I best be off!

Cheers,
Grant