Year of Broken Dreams
I'm currently in Hong Kong right now... How did that happen?? Well let's see...
Had a great Christmas and New Year in Hong Kong with my family, Ling and Kosh, who came to visit before a trip to China. Did the usual and spent Xmas at home with some friends over, and New Year's Eve at the FCC (Foreign Correspondant's Club). Spent Xmas Eve at Ling's place, and Ling, Kosh and I also took an overnight trip to Macau before New Year. I don't have any photos of Macau since I hadn't planned on going and only at the last minute Ling and Kosh dragged me along, so no camera (probably a good thing after the debaucherous time we had)! Had a great time there, with all the casinos, bars and the overnight stay at the spa! It's changed so much since I last went 13 years ago, now with all the huge Vegas style casinos and spotlights etc. They're even building a massive Venetian there, just like in Vegas!
The last couple of months before I came back to HK for Xmas had been really good. I had been working freelance for a couple of dive shops plus Ban's Diving, earning good money and keeping myself real busy. When I came backto Koh Tao after Xmas and New Year, I was straight back in for a few days, until a certain little event kind of messed things up.
I was diving with one Open Water student, a lady from Germany, at a site called Twins, when I spotted a 50kg anchor crashing straight into the corals, and dragging through them, creating a wake of damage half a metre wide and a metre long. The immediate thing I did was to swim over, pull out my dive knife and cut the anchor line. It wasn't secured, it was damaging coral, and could have killed me and my student, or any diver that could have been under it. Basically, if you drop anchor, it should be in the sand 20m off the dive site at least, not right on top of a dive site with up to 60 divers in the water.
From there, we continued the rest of our dive, and after 30 minutes, we came up our buoy line and before we got onto the boat, I asked my student not to say anything. She agreed and even gave me a kiss on the cheek and said she admired and understood what I did.
So much for that. Later that day, she told a couple of the divemasters at New Way Diving whom I was working for, since she thought they would appreciate the events, and they in turn told Peter, the Master Instructor there, who was not impressed by my actions, and told Easy Divers, whom the anchor belonged to, and within a day, everyone on the island knew about the event.
Suffice to say, I ended up being blacklisted from every dive shop in Koh Tao, since noone knew the full story, thinking I had cut the anchor line for fun or for wahtever reason. I had to lay low for a week as the captain of the Easy Divers boat wasn't too impressed and had sent out a couple of armed goons to find me (no joke), until Santi and Jonas from Ban's Diving calmed the situation down for me. I eventually went down to Easy Divers to apologise, although I made sure they understood their mistake. They were fine about it which surprised me, although I guess the captain still isn't too pleased.
So, no more work, the only place I could work was at Ban's Diving, but the huge amount of instructors there means getting your foot in is tough.
Talking about feet, not one week after the anchor event, I woke up one morning, in absolute agony with a pulled muscle in my leg. No idea what happened, I must have slept in a bad position. That kept me out of diving for another week. When I recovered from that, I managed 3 days of work at Ban's, then promptly broke my big toe on my right foot stubbing it falling down stairs. That kept me out for almost 2 weeks. Plus Sev and I spoke with each other for the first time since we broke up last year, although it was more like her talking and me babbling away in tears! Not much got said, and she promised to email me, but I haven't heard from her since.
So as well as all that, with no work in January (I earned 6000 baht, about 80 quid), my bank also decided to screw me over. Oh, and they've screwed me over again a few days ago for 150 quid which I don't have at the moment for being 56p overdrawn the last 20 days without even notifying me. Can you believe they've been charging me 5 quid a day for being overdrawn 56p??
Well, at least February was a good month. I did quite a few courses for Ban's Diving, pretty much working there full time, and really getting into the fold there. Not getting big classes mind, but getting work nonetheless. Times are tough, but high season is round the corner, about 2 months away, with loads of work.
So why am I in Hong Kong anyway? Well, I needed to get my passport replaced as it was only valid for another 5 months (need 6 months minimum to enter a country) and my visa for Thailand was running out. I came up to Bangkok to replace my passport at the British Embassy only to find out I needed a whole load of details, like my dad's passport number, date and place of issue, plus my mum's, plus my birth certificate AND it would take 10 working days, basically two whole weeks. I would end up overstaying in Thailand, being fined 500 baht a day, plus I still had to get a Cambodan Visa, enter Cambodia, get a Thai visa from there, and come back into Thailand.
Worked out it was cheaper for me, and easier, to just fly to Hong Kong the same day, get my passport replaced and get a Thai visa here. The British Consulate here doesn't need all the info from my dad and mum or my birth certificate, plus it only takes 5 working days to get it replaced. Still this whole thing has cost me a fortune I don't have, I had to borrow cash from my sister and mum. The 150 quid my bank took from me was supposed to pay for the passport and visa trip, although the extra cost of flying to Hong Kong I still would have needed.
So what are my plans from now? Seems things the last two months haven't really worked out so well, so I think I'm going to weather out the high season which is coming soon, and then pack my bags. I'm going to start thinking about coming to Hong Kong and looking for a job, although I 'm not keen on doing so, working in IT. I would return to England, but there's a few things that I want to avoid doing, which I know I'll do if I go back to London (like jumping on a Eurostar).
But you never know, things do sometimes work out in some way. I have to stay a bit longer anyway, as I still owe Ban's Diving some dosh for bills before I can leave.
So yeah, it's been pretty messed up, seems the New Year doesn't like me. Funny that. I read my Chinese horoscope for this year, and although it's the Year of the Golden Pig, full of prosperity and good fortune, seems my horoscope, the Year of The Snake, is the only sign that won't work well with this year, and it certainly has shown so far!
Anyway, enjoy the photos, I have some there from the Koh Tao Underwater World Festival, a two day affair with live music, stalls, good food, drink and a good party all round. Worked both nights behind the bar to earn money (but as you can see from the photos it wasn't all bad with all my female friends from Ban's Diving there too!). Also did some clean up operations on the beach and dive sites which are also in the photos.
Hope the New Year is finding you all a lot better than mine!!
Had a great Christmas and New Year in Hong Kong with my family, Ling and Kosh, who came to visit before a trip to China. Did the usual and spent Xmas at home with some friends over, and New Year's Eve at the FCC (Foreign Correspondant's Club). Spent Xmas Eve at Ling's place, and Ling, Kosh and I also took an overnight trip to Macau before New Year. I don't have any photos of Macau since I hadn't planned on going and only at the last minute Ling and Kosh dragged me along, so no camera (probably a good thing after the debaucherous time we had)! Had a great time there, with all the casinos, bars and the overnight stay at the spa! It's changed so much since I last went 13 years ago, now with all the huge Vegas style casinos and spotlights etc. They're even building a massive Venetian there, just like in Vegas!
The last couple of months before I came back to HK for Xmas had been really good. I had been working freelance for a couple of dive shops plus Ban's Diving, earning good money and keeping myself real busy. When I came backto Koh Tao after Xmas and New Year, I was straight back in for a few days, until a certain little event kind of messed things up.
I was diving with one Open Water student, a lady from Germany, at a site called Twins, when I spotted a 50kg anchor crashing straight into the corals, and dragging through them, creating a wake of damage half a metre wide and a metre long. The immediate thing I did was to swim over, pull out my dive knife and cut the anchor line. It wasn't secured, it was damaging coral, and could have killed me and my student, or any diver that could have been under it. Basically, if you drop anchor, it should be in the sand 20m off the dive site at least, not right on top of a dive site with up to 60 divers in the water.
From there, we continued the rest of our dive, and after 30 minutes, we came up our buoy line and before we got onto the boat, I asked my student not to say anything. She agreed and even gave me a kiss on the cheek and said she admired and understood what I did.
So much for that. Later that day, she told a couple of the divemasters at New Way Diving whom I was working for, since she thought they would appreciate the events, and they in turn told Peter, the Master Instructor there, who was not impressed by my actions, and told Easy Divers, whom the anchor belonged to, and within a day, everyone on the island knew about the event.
Suffice to say, I ended up being blacklisted from every dive shop in Koh Tao, since noone knew the full story, thinking I had cut the anchor line for fun or for wahtever reason. I had to lay low for a week as the captain of the Easy Divers boat wasn't too impressed and had sent out a couple of armed goons to find me (no joke), until Santi and Jonas from Ban's Diving calmed the situation down for me. I eventually went down to Easy Divers to apologise, although I made sure they understood their mistake. They were fine about it which surprised me, although I guess the captain still isn't too pleased.
So, no more work, the only place I could work was at Ban's Diving, but the huge amount of instructors there means getting your foot in is tough.
Talking about feet, not one week after the anchor event, I woke up one morning, in absolute agony with a pulled muscle in my leg. No idea what happened, I must have slept in a bad position. That kept me out of diving for another week. When I recovered from that, I managed 3 days of work at Ban's, then promptly broke my big toe on my right foot stubbing it falling down stairs. That kept me out for almost 2 weeks. Plus Sev and I spoke with each other for the first time since we broke up last year, although it was more like her talking and me babbling away in tears! Not much got said, and she promised to email me, but I haven't heard from her since.
So as well as all that, with no work in January (I earned 6000 baht, about 80 quid), my bank also decided to screw me over. Oh, and they've screwed me over again a few days ago for 150 quid which I don't have at the moment for being 56p overdrawn the last 20 days without even notifying me. Can you believe they've been charging me 5 quid a day for being overdrawn 56p??
Well, at least February was a good month. I did quite a few courses for Ban's Diving, pretty much working there full time, and really getting into the fold there. Not getting big classes mind, but getting work nonetheless. Times are tough, but high season is round the corner, about 2 months away, with loads of work.
So why am I in Hong Kong anyway? Well, I needed to get my passport replaced as it was only valid for another 5 months (need 6 months minimum to enter a country) and my visa for Thailand was running out. I came up to Bangkok to replace my passport at the British Embassy only to find out I needed a whole load of details, like my dad's passport number, date and place of issue, plus my mum's, plus my birth certificate AND it would take 10 working days, basically two whole weeks. I would end up overstaying in Thailand, being fined 500 baht a day, plus I still had to get a Cambodan Visa, enter Cambodia, get a Thai visa from there, and come back into Thailand.
Worked out it was cheaper for me, and easier, to just fly to Hong Kong the same day, get my passport replaced and get a Thai visa here. The British Consulate here doesn't need all the info from my dad and mum or my birth certificate, plus it only takes 5 working days to get it replaced. Still this whole thing has cost me a fortune I don't have, I had to borrow cash from my sister and mum. The 150 quid my bank took from me was supposed to pay for the passport and visa trip, although the extra cost of flying to Hong Kong I still would have needed.
So what are my plans from now? Seems things the last two months haven't really worked out so well, so I think I'm going to weather out the high season which is coming soon, and then pack my bags. I'm going to start thinking about coming to Hong Kong and looking for a job, although I 'm not keen on doing so, working in IT. I would return to England, but there's a few things that I want to avoid doing, which I know I'll do if I go back to London (like jumping on a Eurostar).
But you never know, things do sometimes work out in some way. I have to stay a bit longer anyway, as I still owe Ban's Diving some dosh for bills before I can leave.
So yeah, it's been pretty messed up, seems the New Year doesn't like me. Funny that. I read my Chinese horoscope for this year, and although it's the Year of the Golden Pig, full of prosperity and good fortune, seems my horoscope, the Year of The Snake, is the only sign that won't work well with this year, and it certainly has shown so far!
Anyway, enjoy the photos, I have some there from the Koh Tao Underwater World Festival, a two day affair with live music, stalls, good food, drink and a good party all round. Worked both nights behind the bar to earn money (but as you can see from the photos it wasn't all bad with all my female friends from Ban's Diving there too!). Also did some clean up operations on the beach and dive sites which are also in the photos.
Hope the New Year is finding you all a lot better than mine!!
posted by Dominic Giles | 1:26 AM
7 Comments:
Never say "don't tell anyone", just kill those who know too much ;)
BTW, I can lend you 50p if you want, I'm sure you can find the remaining 6p :D
It can only get better, man !
Hey Sweetheart!
You're more than welcome to join me on Pemba Island. tanzania for some fun and sun!
I miss you, chin up. big hug... XX
Van :)
PS There's more to life than Koh Tao
Fire snakes - you and me both, grin and bear it and watch out for the opportunities, we should get several this year!
Chin up and smile,
Adam
Never say "don't tell anyone"; looks like Jerome and I finally agree on something.
I've also collected the other 9p for you :) Now who's got a stamp...
Hi, Dom! Hope to see you ones before ou go away from Thailand.
This year started so bad not only for you (even horoscope told me the same to you - I'll be lucky, good fortuned and successful this year:))) But I hope that was just to shake us up so that we can take everything from this year that it owes us:)
Good luck
P.S. Missing Hong Kong so much!!!!
Missntk
Hey Dom, if its a UK bank, take the bastards to court. its going mad over here in the county courts, bank are having to pay back loads to dosh, you can probably claim back ££ from your student days... check it out. all the best Annette.
Hi Dom! Haven't heard from you for so looong time!!!!!!!!!
I've just completed my OW Diving course! Hehe! hope to dive with you soon!
Keep in touch!
Missntk
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