I woke up with a definite cold, but since I could still clear my ears so I decided I could dive. The first dive was pretty good, but I've gotten too used to the divemasters' behavior in Dahab - here it's a different story. The DM here fed a large moray eel that had obviously been tamed. He also grabbed several fish to hold them so that we could look at them - at least one was so traumatized it just floated on its side when he let go of it. We also saw a pretty big hawksbill turtle that got away when the Chinese couple tried to grab it. I found that if I swam at the front I could relax a lot easier since I couldn't see what was going on behind me. The highlight of the dive for me was a two foot sea snake. It was black and white banded and, I was told, is very poisonous - it's the first sea snake I've ever seen.
After the dive I felt very stuffy, just tired and out of it. We had a huge breakfast and then sat around reading and enjoying the sun. I was feeling somewhat better when it was time to suit up for the second dive and I was worried that my cold might get worse so I decided to take advantage of being able to dive right now. There wasn't anything too exciting about this dive. There was very little coral, rather it was among a tumble of rocks - it reminded me a lot of the dives in Lake Malawi. I really didn't enjoy the dive I was having major problems with my ears and sinuses and suffered a few attacks of vertigo. Even after the dive I continued to feel very stuffed up and a little ill.
After the second dive I caught a ride in to the beach on Koh Miang (Island #4) for an hour. There was perfect white powdery sand, intense blue-green crystal water, dense green jungle, and deserted! There were actually other people around off my dive charter and another boat, but I picked a nice little cove off to the side and had it all to myself - heaven. After an hour the runabout picked me up - perfect timing as even before we got back to the boat it had started to rain.
After the beach I felt a lot better, but still way under perfect so I decide to take rest of day off from diving. While the others went under I lounged about and read. When they got back it didn't sound like I missed much anyway. When the rain stopped we had a nice sunset - or at least the reflection of one in the clouds - the island blocks the sunset itself. Our dinner was fantastic - hot and sweet beef, tempura shrimp, stir-fried veggies, and some kind of soup. No one ended up going on the night dive. Instead we sat around and watched the video of Mr. Magoo and then went to bed before nine.
