Abu Dhabi, a dreadlocked Hungarian, & a piece of paradise

Anyone who has read the book 'The Celestine Prophecy' should remember the following lesson of life that it presents to you on the journey of reading it. It states that every person walking the world may have a piece of information that would benefit you in some way. In all probability, they wouldn't know it, and wouldn't stop to talk to you unless prompted. In this respect, it is almost worth talking to as many new people as possible, as you never know what helpful piece of advise you may find out.

My plan for returning to travels was to get straight into the lifestyle again and tick another thing off my 'list'. In this instance, my goal was to complete a PADI Open Water Diving Course as soon as I got back to Thailand. I wasn't sure where to go or how much it was going to cost, but why worry about such inconsequential details in life?

My return flight from England to Thailand would once again stop in Abu Dhabi, but this time the airline was paying for a hotel for the night. Once we had reached the nominated hotel, we all queued to check in, and I got talking to a dreadlocked Hungarian, who similar to myself, wanted to get some food and explore what Abu Dhabi had to offer. I told him about my diving plans and he told me that he was a scuba diving instructor on a tiny island that enjoys some of the best diving available in Thailand. A quasi-coincidental signature of fate like this should never be ignored. After dinner, I researched what I could find on the internet about this diving paradise, and emailed Luke with the plan immediately. Without knowing Luke's response, and indeed, what he was planning for the coming days, I decided to just go to this island, trust that this was the right move, and hopefully meet him there.

I spend the 2nd part of the flight back to Bangkok, talking to Denes (the dive instructor) about Ko Nang Yuan (the island) and where I had traveled so far (read the blog ;) ). Once we arrived, neither of us wanted to stay in Bangkok any longer than absolutely necessary, so went straight to work in arranging travel to the island. This would consist of a train journey down to Chumporn and a catamaran to Ko Nang Yuan. Least, in an ideal world it would. Our optimism was not rewarded, and after buying the catamaran ticket, we arrived at the train station to discover there were no tickets available for the next 24 hours. Denes said he needed to get there as soon as possible and I said I needed to leave Bangkok as soon as possible. So, what do you do when there are no planes, trains or buses going where you want to go, when you want to go? You get a taxi to take you the 500km, and buy enough booze to put you to sleep for as much of the journey as possible. I don't remember a lot about the journey. I remember drinking the whiskey. I remember sleeping on a bench in some building waiting for the catamaran to arrive. I remember feeling very sick as the catamaran took us to the island, and I just about remember shaking the hands of a few of Denes' mates when we arrived at 9am, but apart from that, my memory doesn't work again until waking in the room at half four in the afternoon. This was the view that greeted me when I left the bungalow and walked to the beach.


Fate was definitely smiling down on me again. I enjoyed a lush dinner that evening, watched the sun setting over the ocean, and got an early night.

The next day, I awoke and left the bungalow with cardiac arrest inducing speed and jumped on a ferry to Koh Tao (the nearest big island – one which actually had more than one restaurant, internet facilities, and roads!). After a successful trip to an internet café, and consequently finding out that Luke thought the island sounded spot on and was on route, I spend the rest of the day on the beach at Koh Tao, and watched the sun stroll lazily across the sky until Luke's arrival.