No Mantas for Eric yet

No Mantas for Eric yet

Toppy Bar 

Eric has just one week to go before he’ll leave for Sweden again. We haven’t fought or been in a bad mood with each other, which is weird because usually at home we have this typical big brother VS little brother situation, but here I feel like me and Eric are getting more close and having a really fun time together. Maybe it's because just me and him living and diving together. Eric said to me that he wanted to see a turtle and we did. But when I promised Eric about mantas we didn’t see any . Maybe it’s Erics bad luck or just that we were unlucky. We will try again on Sunday.

Eric have found his favourite spot while I’m on the boat. He will always go to Toppy Bar for a Shake and swim in a pool with probably one of the best views on Koh Lanta.

Other than that, during this moment Me and Marika are looking around for work as a padi instructors around the Mediterranean ocean. It’ll be closer to home and many shops is searching for Swedish speaking instructors.

A good thing is that Anti Gravity will start their instructor course in the end of february, which I will I feel so good about. The plan was to start it in the end of March but now, even better, they’ll do one in february, which means that I’ll hopefully be an instructor one month earlier than I planned, which could be very good for me. Maybe if I’m lucky I could get a course to instruct on where I know everything and have the routine in the dive shop and dive site to start with. So now I’ll start studying and try to really nail this IE test. I’ll tell you more about that later on when It’s getting closer.

I had a day off with Marika and Eric, where we focused on working on our CV and enjoyed our time here. So we had some time to explore one of Koh Lantas most beautiful beach. I think it’s so important not to forget where you are and the people around you. Time flies around here and even if it’s the diving I’m here for, it’s important to remember to enjoy all of what the paradise is offering you.

Eric is as whiter than the sand....

You want to see the sunset with me?

Erics OW & Singapore

Erics OW & Singapore

Eric has started to be settled in and is also a certified diver now! He had one day dedicated to working on the theory, the second one consisted of practicing in skills in the pool and the third day he went on the boat to finish off his course. The next day I guided him at Koh Bida.

I’ve been diving there plenty of times this season but never have I ever seen this much sharks around as it was this thursday.

In the beginning of the dive we went shallow and I told everyone to really prepare for the sharks. Five minutes into the dive 5 sharks was showing up and cruised around us, It’s amazing how they look. The movie soundtrack from JAWS went through my mind at that point.

For the third dive we went to Hin Bida, famous for leopard sharks that use to sleep in the shallow waters behind the little rock that pointing up in the middle of the sea. We went very shallow the whole dive to look for the shark and ten minutes into the dive I saw Mat calling me, he’d found one. Lucky for my brother on his first fun dive to actually see both black tip reef shark and leopard shark. We also saw octopus and cuttlefish along with other beautiful creatures in the ocean.

I’m in Singapore at the moment for my Visa run and Carli let me stay at her place which is super nice of her. The flight and getting to Carli was super easy and everything went so smoothly. She took me to her favourite food place where we had very good food. Carli needed to go to work and then I went to the Gardens by the bay, really worth a visit. The layout and the big park was full with fountains and flowers. In the evening they had a light show in the artificial trees. It was  beautiful. The trees were switching colors to the music and the show lasted 30 minutes.

Carli was cooking the next day and invited Lynette for a dinner. She was cooking really good chicken satay with a greek salad and own baked bread. We talked about what I wanted to do after my season in Thailand and Lynette actually gave me some good advice and contacts that I could try to contact.

Beer run in the rain

The time is going by and I'm starting to see how quick the time goes here. I'm having such a good time so I don't even think about time. I've started planning what to do when this season is over. I want to keep on diving and travel for a couple of months after this season in Lanta. I want to get a work somewhere, if I do my instructor course it will get easier to find work around the world I hope. The question is just where. I've start to look around for some work in Malaysia, Europe and some other places.

Tomorrows dive site ( Koh Wean) 

It was a really rainy day the other day and we’d just got back from diving. Everyone was stuck in the shop and we needed someone to go and by some beers/drinks. No one wanted to go, but being stuck for probably two hours, everyone wanted something to drink. Thanks to Sam, everyone got what they wanted. He took on a wetsuit and a scuba mask, jumped on his bike and went off to get it. He looked very bad ass I think…

My brother Eric just got down and started his Open Water Course. It’ll take three days and I think it will be easy for him to manage the course. It's so fun that he his finally down and visiting me. Will be exiting to show him everything and everyone that I hang out with.

Eric have starting to meet my friends around here the first day Ili and Steve invited us to theirs and they was cooking and having a BB for us. Tonight we will go to Mels place for another BBQ. As I have been saying before BBQ here are amazing, such a nice atmosphere.

Jurgen and Lena two friends to our family also arrived and we have been spending some time with them as well on the afternoons. I also invited them to my place and then dinner in my "town" Kantiang. We ate at Drunken Sailor and then we took some drinks at Aqua bar. Very good evening

2018

2018

Happy new year to my family and friends. I hope everyone had a good start of the new year. I had a really good night. We started the day by going to a dive site called Hin Muang, Hin Deang. It took about 3 hours by boat, everything was fine – until we headed back to Koh Lanta.

The waves got very big and the wind picked up. The captain decided that we skip the third dive and go straight back to Koh Lanta. After a wavy ride we finally reached shore. When all the work was done we all met up at the restaurant Ban Kantiang for dinner.

After dinner it was time to celebrate the new year. Why Not Bar and Aqua Bar always has big parties at the beach. It's almost like a festival, walking around meeting up with people and everyone having a great time. Even the other company Raya divers came down to Kantiang Bay to celebrate. The fireworks was really huge and colorful.

It was also nicely different from home, where you freeze in a large winter jacket, whereas here I wore only shorts and a shirt, not freezing all. When the hours began to get late we decided to head up to Freedom Bar and end the evening there. Thanks to everyone who made the start of 2018 awesome.

The boat is still full everyday and work is still good. Koh Haa is finally getting the visibility back from the bad weather we had here last month. Been having goosebumps the last few days. When diving with more than 20 meters of visibility it's hard to have a boring time. It's like diving in a big aquarium and it's hard to miss things as octopus, turtles and other cool fishes.

In one week my brother will arrive in Koh Lanta, it’ll be fun. He will become a certified diver and live with me for almost a month. I need to buy him a mattress. I was thinking that it would be nice to sleep in the same bed with him for maybe two days. After that it’ll get a little annoying. Will see how fun he thinks it is. Maybe he stays here and becomes a Divemaster.

Photographs from our lovely photographer Lucy Pearsson