Our hotel rented us bikes for $2 USD a day which was nice. The town is totally flat and bicycles make the most sense for transportation. There is a status, though, with the moped. It looks like they all want one of those noisy, smelly, expensive maintenance nightmares. When you see a dude lugging his girlie around on the back, you know what it is all about. Bikes are quiet, cheap, and efficient. Oh, but you have to pedal. Big downer.
We made it to the dive shop to hopefully get fitted for dive equipment. It was 9:30 am when we arrived and the day was young. We would be diving the next day, so getting this fitting and paperwork done the day before is always a good idea. The shop owner, Mark, was there to help us and a few people in the office. The boat was out for the day, so we had the place to ourselves. The paperwork took only a few minutes and the fitting was easy. Then, Mark invited us to a beverage in the neighboring restaurant. This is where it became entertaining... We left at 6:00pm. Oops!
Mark is a very interesting guy. A little shorter than me, Irish, thick accent, in his 40's, light red hair, traveled the world, and is full of stories. We immediately hit it off when he mentioned living in Vegas and in Southern Utah. He has done work in Greece and in Asia as well. He now has a Chinese wife that is a gem. (The next day, she would be our dive instructor.) After one tasty beverage, came another. Some Malaysian concoction, remaining nameless. We joked for a while and heard about the dive business and opportunities that have arisen for him as well as what its like to do work in a foreign country. He does a bit of commercial work in neighboring harbors and that treats him very, very well. I found it interesting that in the States, he also had Native American foster children. What a tough guy! That would be some patience for sure. I think he said he had 4 to top it off. (More Malaysian beverage).
Oh no! Mark had a fit when he found out it would be Katherine's birthday on our second day of diving. And, he did not like it that I had already hit 102 dives and she would make her 100th dive on her birthday as well. In diving, this is the perfect party storm. Yes it was. (You know what kept coming to the table.)
Now we are super hydrated. He came up with a plan. He wanted Katherine to take the deep class for free in celebration and I would just do fun dives and sit out. Deep Diver is another certification allowing you to officially go to 130 feet. We have already dove this deep before, but some dive operations are anal about having the actual certification. A free class sounded like a great idea, and it was. But, I knew Katherine would not go for me not getting it too, since it would throw our training out of whack. We dive together all the time and taking classes together makes advancing easier. We would work on that tomorrow.
(We noticed plastic and aluminum get recycled here. Someone will make some coin with what's on the table.) Now it was coming up on dinner and there was no plan. We had to read the Deep Diver book that night to be ready for the class in the morning, so we had to ease out of there. That was not easy. We had now made a good friend and there was just WAY too much to talk about. Diving with this guy's company was going to be a treat!
We said goodbye and got on our bikes in search of some grub. The sun had pretty much set and we had no idea where to go. Also, riding the streets here is a death wish by itself. We cruised with traffic and against it. Cruised sidewalks, and rang our bells in delight of the lack of order. Somehow, we got back to our hotel area and got some dinner, and lots of water! There are consequences that come from hanging out with a friendly Irishman.
By 10pm we had the book read and the questions completed. I knew I would have to pay for the class, but that was fine. I just had to break it to Mark that I was going to crush his plan to stick it to me by treating Katherine on her birthday.
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That's right, stick it to the Irishman who was kind enough to keep you hydrated before a deep dive (this doesn't seem like a good idea...) and is giving you're wife a free dive lesson!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to Katherine!