Thailand

Goodness I thought I'd spend most my time in Thailand when I first came to Asia and I ended up only spending my last two weeks here, how plans change! After China and having an end date, I'm a bit burnt out of the travel world, I think your brain starts to check out after a while once you know it is ending. When I arrived in Bangkok, I was just mentally exhausted and I spent a whole day helping a friend get a visa in which nothing went well, so the exhaustion just made me homesick (for whatever home I had) and just sick of travel. After another exhausting bus ride, I am in Koh Tao, an island in the south, which is really gorgeous and supertouristy, so it's actually quite nice to relax in. I used to desire a bit more authentic experiences (yes, I was being one of those travel snobs), but now its so nice to have everything in english and be able to access everything easily. So hurrah!

I'm taking a dive course to get PADI certification since it's the cheapest dive course in the world so I thought I should take advantage, especially since its something I've always wanted to try. I'm really looking forward to it since I think I was meant to be a mermaid in another life. I did 4 hours of theory today, not the funnest, but tomorrow we go into the pool and then two days doing dives! I'm staying at the place that I'm getting certified at, and it's on the beach which is gorgeous, though the free room is not what we'd call luxurious (or decent...or clean..), but like all travel experiences, it's all temporary and the location is worth it!