Seminyak, the area of Bali we are staying in is known for
its shopping and its party scene, since I’m not really interested in either of
these things (I would be interested in the shopping if I had any money) there
isn’t really a whole lot for me to do here. With that being said I had a pretty
uneventful day yesterday.
I went for a couple of walks to try and take up some time
but if I'm being honest I spent most of the day in bed. On one of my walks I
went to the beach, they had giant red flags erected signifying that it is not
safe to swim so there were only a few people in the water. I also did some
window shopping and found myself a bikini I really want to buy. It is a deep
purple with a fringe, and start shaped studs, describing it in text makes it sound
pretty awful but I promise you it is amazing and I am proud of myself for
resisting the urge to buy it.
On one of my walks there was a scooter accident right beside
me. I didn’t see what happened as I was busy looking in a shop window I just
heard a loud bang and looked up to see a scooter fall, a helmet go flying, and
another scooter tear down the wrong side of the road. Luckily no one was hurt
but I really have no idea how. I stood in silence for a few minutes waiting to
see how things were going to pan out, I figured for sure an ambulance would be
needed and the cops would be called but I don’t think either of those things
happened. Once I figured everyone was okay and the scooter was only slightly
mangled I carried on with my walk but felt better about my choice to bail on
the scooter adventure in Phuket.
The one exciting thing I did yesterday was register for a PADI
open water certification (like SCUBA but you don’t need a guide just one other
person who is also certified) course starting today. I emailed back and fourth
with someone for a while before confirming I would like to start and they told
me they would have a book delivered to my hotel so I could get started. It was
about 5pm when I was told this and received the book around 10pm with a note that
said to complete as many of the knowledge checks as possible. Are you freaking
kidding me? I have to be up at 6:30 to be ready in time for tomorrow and you
want me to work my way through a 300 odd page book? I decided I was going to finish the first section
before bed but I didn’t even accomplish that goal, I am a slow reader and the
way the book is laid out is kind of wonky and by midnight I had stopped
absorbing what I was reading so I gave up and called it a night.
There were two other people in the van on the way to the
dive centre this morning so I asked if they had made it very far in the books,
I felt a sense of relief when they told me they didn’t have books and went
straight back to feeling worried I hadn’t done enough when I found out they weren’t
taking the dive course, they were only going snorkelling.
When we arrived at the dive centre I met my instructor Koko,
a small Indonesian man with a booming voice. He told me it was fine that I
hadn’t completed much of the book and we would go over it later. I filled out
some paperwork as we waited for the other two people taking the course to show
up. Soon Daily and Jasper arrived, a nice couple from the Netherlands, who had
finished the first three sections of the book but it took them a whole day.
We spent the morning watching instructional videos and I
tried to fill out the book as we went along but I was struggling to keep up and
was missing out on important information and so eventually I gave up and just
focused on the video. We watched about three hours of instructional video and I
felt like my head was going to explode. There was so much to take in and I
don’t think I even took in half of it. Luckily Daily said she felt the same
way, making me feel a little less like an idiot.
After lunch we started the confined diving portion of the
course, which meant learning to use all of the gear in the safety of a swimming
pool. Breathing underwater for the first time is a very odd feeling, I kept
wanting to stand up and get my head above water because it just felt wrong but
I managed to stay below water for the entire ‘first dive’ and successfully
completed all of the skills we needed to demonstrate and I was feeling pretty
good about myself.
The fun ended there though, dives two through five were not
nearly as successful. I even missed out on one of the dives because I wasn’t
able to equalize and my right eardrum felt like it was going to burst. I was so
frustrated and felt like a complete failure. We are diving a shipwreck tomorrow
and are supposed to dive to depths of 20 meters, how am I going to do that if I
can’t even make it down 3.5 meters in a pool? I also failed at several other
tasks, growing increasingly frustrated with myself, even fighting back tears at
time. I really want to enjoy this experience, but I’m scared I'm going to drown
due to incompetence but the reason I keep screwing up is because I keep
overthinking things and then I start to panic.
We are doing two dives of the shipwreck tomorrow and when I asked
how long each of the divers were Koko refused to answer telling me I need to
stop worrying about things that can go wrong and instead I need to make a list
of all the things I want to see tomorrow like Nemo, and sea turtles. He probably
has a point but I am really having a hard time letting go of my fears.
Between the van rides, the video lessons, and the pool
adventure I was gone for almost 12 hours before getting back to the hotel and I
am absolutely shattered. To be honest I am still on the fence about going back
tomorrow. I know Koko will be there to make sure I am safe but I feel like a
lot more can go wrong in the ocean than in the pool. Plus even if I manage to
do everything perfect what if I cant equalize again and am stuck bobbing up and
down at the surface while everyone else goes exploring for however long it
takes to use the 200bar of air in their tanks. Whatever I decided to do I am
going to need some positive thoughts so if you could send them in my direction
it would be greatly appreciated.
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