Andaman Coast

Hmm, where to start?  Leaving Koh Tao was actually more difficult that I thought it'd be.  It started getting busy and lively again, and for some reason I became closer to the Thai staff in the last week or so before I left, which means I was leaving even more friends.  It was time for a change, though, and it looks like I'll be going back to Koh Tao for a period in February to help with a large group of customers from Hong Kong (hopefully won't be as bad as I'm predicting.)

Let me explain a bit how my big move came about.  As I had talked about previously, I was getting restless and unhappy on Koh Tao, and I wrote my parents a long email about it (after the disastrous skype session with my mom.  The bosses happened to be in the states for a dive expo in Vegas and were visiting my parents, who showed them the email... not the way I wanted the bosses to find out, but I'm glad my feelings were out in the open.  My parents and my bosses (who consider themselves my second set of parents) conferred and decided that because I didn't know what I wanted, they'd make decisions for me for awhile.  I am kind of going with it because I don't have any other good options.  Hadley sent me information about a great-sounding marine biology research program in New Zealand that could potentially involve diving, but it's molecular bio research, and I have to look into that in more detail.  It's a possibility for the fall of next year...

The plan is for me to train on the Andaman coast, primarily in the Phuket office.  I will be learning office work (sales, marketing, bookings for the many operations of Coral Grand) about two thirds of the time, and diving one third of the time, either on day trips or on the Queen Scuba Liveaboard (5 day, 4 night trips).  Somehow, they want me to be ready to work as a divemaster (i.e. take customers out fun-diving) by next month.  They have plans for me to take my instructor course sometime during the next six months.  So basically I am committing to the dive industry, both the business side and actual dive-leading/teaching side.  Scary, especially since it seems they have a long-term plan for me, where, after becoming an instructor, I will go to Indonesia with the Queen Scuba for the next season (where they do liveaboard trips around Bali and Komodo.)

I wasn't planning on taking on diving as a career, but in lieu of other good ideas, I'll try this path.  I'm scared, though, because their attitude is for me just to do it, and not think yet about whether I like it or not.  They have high hopes that I'll help a lot with the business side, yet I may just like diving as a hobby, hmm.  There are strong forces working on me, though, lots of pressures, so I feel a little bit like I have no choice.  I've bought basically all my dive gear (through the company, so I can pay through monthly installments), which feels like a HUGE investment (dive equipment is really pricey!).  I feel like I have SO much to learn before I start taking customers out, and have no idea how I'll be ready by next month.

It's been weird because I basically took a week break from thinking about all these changes during the first liveaboard trip I did on the Queen Scuba, with Heidi, as customers.  We had an amazing time, and though I tried to be in a working mindset, I really felt like I was on vacation.  Immediately after the trip, Heidi left for Bangkok, and I started settling into my room in Phuket, until the office manager told me to get on the next QS (Queen Scuba) trip to get some more experience of the dive sites.  So I've basically just come off a 10-day stint on the boat, diving 4 dives a day.  I'm a little out of it and having processed much.  And now I'm sleepy and not sure how much I rambled in this entry... better entry tomorrow?  With pictures?  Hopefully.