Diver Diver are you okay, Inflate you BCD!!!

So after a few days I decided to do my rescue course to a) give me something to do and b) because you have to if you want to be a divemaster. The rescue course is HARD. Its a lot of theory, which you don't really do in the advanced, and a lot of skills. The point is the divemasters and instructors you go down with just mess with you and make your life not fun. I thought it was going to be easy since I'm a lifeguard and such, but it wasn't. Bummmmerrr. Overall I really enjoyed the course. It was fun, cause you'd be chilling on the boat and hear a splash and have to save somebody, and it really was about teamwork. I had a nice team, including Ollie the German and Stuntman, and we had a lot of fun. Its interesting, because most dive realating anything could be avoided pretty easily. The worst part was practicing rescue breaths and bringing somebody up from the surface. Its really difficult, but I am now certified, even though if you have to do rescue breaths on somebody you just brought up from 20meteres, lets not kid ourselves, you're not doing anybody any good.
ANyway Patience,Faith and STOP JUMPING IN IF YOU CANT SWIM I"M HAVING A SNACK
ERINJ

WHENS THE NEXT FERRY?????

So someone wise said its not the destination, its the journey. That person was never crammed into a minibus for 11 hours with 14 other people. We decided to go from Penang to Koh Tao so Tina could get open water scuba certified. After a border crossing and 10 hours in a mini van with a piece of paper saying we paid somebody, we arrived in surant thani ready to be on beach paradise...but alas alack! We arrived at 5:10. The next ferry was at......11Pm. After getting some 7-11 Changs, we ate dinner and watched a huge dog try to mount a tiny one and that brought us to...8pm. At that point I was so over that day I called it quits, popped some sleeping pills and woke up in Koh Tao...my favorite island! There we signed Tina up for some scuba action and met up with Abdullah, laid on the beach, and really just hung out for the day, enjoying KT. After Tina's theory lesson we took on the island in all of its bucket glory, took part in some extreme shenanigans, including (but not limited to) trying to take over a long tail taxi and some night swimming.......
This continued for the next few days while Tina the trooper took a PADI course. Good girl....
Patience, Faith and a LOT of sand,
EP

PENANGGGGG

I know, I know, these are going to be hella backlogged but its the best I got. Luckily for you, Its rainy in Saigon so I'm stranded with my computer. UNluckily for you, the card with all of my pictures from Bma, Singapore and Malaysia has been screwed with so until I can see whether or not I can get it recovered, NO PHOTOS FOR YOU (but contain your excitment, I have all the pics from Vietnam on a different card so when I get there you'll get a visual FEAST unlike anything you've seen before.
When I last left you, Tina and I were off to Penang, malaysia with a new friend from the hostel who will be reffered to as "Tour guide Tom-TGT" for the remander of this post. Air Asia screwed me over and made me check a bag and that made me angry-GET WITH THE CUSTOMOER SERVICE people!!!! But we got to the hostel which wasn't great, but in a nice enough location with some nice guy running it. And it was across the street from the beach. We played in the water, which wasn't clean but okay. Wewandered to the market to get delicious cheap food, and I ended up eating sting ray, which was actually solid in a weird typpa way. That night there was some extreme chillage and it was all around swell. The next morning at the crack of dawn a mosque started screaming at us, which lead me to believe there was Jihad in my room. Note to Muslims: Maybe thered be less extremists if you prayed at reasonable hours! (THis is a joke people, I <3 all religions!) After a little more sleep we went to the post office where my math degree came in handy (Ask Tina) and then onto Georgetown. I am not a fan of georgetown, but TGT pointed out all the sites. Dear Unesco...stop putting your name on everything!!! It was just a port town. We ended up walking aroudn and playing Hot or Not with the ninjas (think of a group of people who may look like ninjas)because "you never really can tell" Thanks TGT. We went to a museum, and learned a little about it. malaysias cool cause all types of people live here, of all religions and are okay with eachother. I think thats awesome, and rare to see in a place. We hung out in the city, drank a starbucks before heading home and going back to the market for super cheap and super yummy food. After that we decided we have had enough and book and all day journey to KOh Tao, Thailand for the next day....Goodbye Malaysia!!!