Day 129. Leanne & Kyle joint blog.

We awake early for our day’s adventure which is to dive and snorkel to a few local islands.  Our dive instructor, Danae, is a millennial originally from Oklahoma whose got more body art than Allan Iverson and thinks she’s a heck of lot cooler than any of us because of it. She gives the vibe off as if she’s super experienced but we duly note she was working at the dive desk just yesterday. Add to that she looks not a day over 12.  Hmm, adventure awaits! 

Danae shares she’s been living in Thailand for five years and has no intention of returning to the states. She says she went back for a visit once and that was it.  Eschewing her old life, she told her parents that if they want to see her, they must come to Thailand to visit her.  She has permanently opted for the laid-back island life of a scuba dive guide. 

It is a bit of a rustic dive experience in a long tail boat.  A long-tail boat is akin to a big canoe with a motor on a stick that someone dips in and out of the water. There are dozens of these long tail boats captained by the local Thais over all over the bays, coves and harbors. 

Unfortunately, Ashley fell ill overnight so big brother John offered to stay in with her today.  However, it works to our advantage as with 5 of us, another family of 3, 2 dive guides, 3 local Thai’s operating the boat, 15 dive tanks and scuba and snorkel equipment, the long tail boat is busting at the seams over-crowded. There is only a little shade as sit on hard wood benches.  It’s close quarters.  It’s “everyone’s butt may be your full view at some point today” close.  “Your feet need to rest on the dive tanks” close.  “You better like the stranger whose lap your practically sitting in” close. And you have to literally fall backward off the boat to enter the water with all your dive equipment because there is no room to stand and jump in.  

As a result of the close quarters, we can’t help but get to know the other family on board.  The dad is a very cool American whose an athletic director for the International School in Bangkok.  He’s lived all over the world (Shanghai, Cameroon, London, Kenya) in similar roles at similar International schools and he is already looking for his next gig possibly in South America. He reminded us of the nice teacher we previously met in Split, Croatia who led a similar traveling / teaching life teaching English at international schools around the world.  Sort of permanent nomads in a sense but living lives fulfilled and immersed in the global world. 

The first dive is not that great.  Visibility is limited and the majority of fish must be on holiday at another island as we see on scattered fish here and there. Kyle isn’t looking that hot after the first dive. His peach complexion now bordering off white ivory.  The second dive was a significant improvement with great visibility and fish teaming everywhere.  Apparently, this is the island that the fish from all the other local islands go to.  We see stingrays gliding off into the deep blue as they effortlessly flap their wings, poisonous lionfish, giant pufferfish and schools of yellow lined silver fish that form a five meter wall.  Danae gets super excited and starts snapping the underwater camera away.  “Cool, she must have spotted a shark,” Kyle is thinking as he goes over to see what she has found which is… a 3 inch sea slug.  Later on the boat, Danae will gush on about how there are over a 1,000 different types of sea slugs and she has never seen this one before.  Kyle thinks interesting but donde estan el tiburones?

Kyle is looking truly exhausted after dive two and even a paler shade of fuchsia than before.  So much so that he stumbles back to the hotel room with an emerging emerald green tint about him; fortunately he allows himself a rare afternoon nap. 

John informs us that the lobby called and the hotel’s Grotto restaurant is actually now available tonight for our family due to a last minute cancellation. We take the opportunity for this highly sought after reservation as our special family dinner for the week.  

The Grotto is a quite pricey ($120 a steak kind of pricey) restaurant set in a cave overlooking the ocean, the cliffs and dozens of nearby islands.  Sunset reservations are even more difficult to secure as there are only tables in the cave for about 30 people. The cave setting and sunset views are so stunning, the restaurant could easily charge $40 for moldy stale bread and it would probably still book up a month in advance.  However, the food is surprisingly delectable— and, partly because we told the teens to try vegetarianism on tonight — we somehow emerge the evening without sacrificing the kids’ college funds. 

Kyle doesn’t fare as well as the truffle fries that Justin devoured.  After ordering his meal, he’s now a shade of periwinkle and fallen quite ill. He retires early to our room before his food arrives.  So it’s Leanne and the teens with a whole bunch of honeymooning couples trying to romantically eek out views of the last visages of the natural light splashing on the islands.   But equally as mesmerizing are the well positioned artificial lights catching the crevices of the hanging tan and brown stalactites above us that resembles wax oozing from sides of well utilized candles. 

Leanne returns to the room to now groaning lavender-tinged Kyle trying to retrace his water and ice intake to figure out exactly where he picked up this vicious little colorful bug. It’s the worse Illness he’s had on the trip and another reminder that our American immune systems are quite delicate when exposed to unfamiliar germs.  Only problem is he’s not quite sure if he should blame India or Thailand for this one.  

Will this ruin his week in this paradise? It’s only 8 pm. Leanne stays up to catch up on the global news on BBC. Russia and Turkey agree on ending strife in Syria after American departure. Trump Impeachment looking more likely. And more civil unrest and protests all over the world — including some on our list to visit.  Ah too much reality, Leanne goes to bed praying for healing both for family and the world and more importantly praying for Kyle to wake up in the morning not resembling an exotic color found in a box of 164 crayons.