Thai Mother's Day, Diving at Ko Pi Pi and almost walking on "The Beach"

I had a great weekend! I got my scuba diving certificate during my four days in Ko Pi Pi. I need two more dives to get my open water certificate. I would have done it, but we had to fly on Sunday. You have to wait at least twelve hours before flying after a dive.
There was a holiday because it was Queen Sikrit's birthday on August 12. Thais celebrate Mother's Day on her birthday also. They celebrate it much like we do in America. Farang (foreign) teachers at Chitralada (pronounced Chit-la-da) School were invited to her birthday ceremony. I saw the queen for a second as her motorcade of light tan BMWs drove by the Chitralada Palace. No pictures were permitted. I wasn't looking at her long because I was supposed to bow. Then she made a speech for a long time that none of us farang understood. There were Thais there from all over the country. His Majesty the King wasn't there.
The next day three of us went to Pi Pi. It has two main islands. The big one is Pi Pi Don and the smaller one is Pi Pi Lay. Maya Bay at Pi Pi Lay is where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. We flew to Phuket but didn't look around there. Then we took a taxi out to the pier, caught a boat to Pi Pi Don, and by then it was late in the afternoon. We had to find a place to stay the night. It was a little difficult. We were told all the guesthouses were full, so we had to spend more money than we wanted to. We stayed at a "resort". I would very loosely call it that. It had no A/C. But we found a cheaper place the next two nights.
Leigh and I signed up to get diver training at a PADI diving center, while Zach went diving since he was already certified. Our instructor was a big Swedish man. He was a good teacher and made it feel easier. A British girl joined us to get certified. We had to watch lots of videos that were corny like driver's ed. I was nervous about diving, but after doing it twice I have to say it's really fun. On the first day we stayed in shallow water and learned basic skills. The next day we went to Bata Nai, a small island near Pi Pi Lay. The deepest we went down was 12 meters and we stayed underwater for 47 minutes. It was weird breathing underwater. I couldn't inhale through my nose, which is hard to get used to. It was a little tricky equalizing the pressure in my ears too.
As you go down you have to pinch your nose and then blow gently about every meter. During the first dive we saw a leopard shark and many kinds of fish like trumpet fish, which are long, narrow and almost transparent. The leopard shark, white-gray with black stripes, was resting on the bottom of the ocean. Very lazy.
Then we had a break for lunch before we went to a site called Turtle Village. We were hoping to see a turtle but we didn't. Other divers who on the boat saw one. They also saw moray eels. Our group saw a scorpian fish. It was really cool. Our instructor pointed to it but I didn't see it. Then he tapped a rock and part of the rock was alive. The scorpian fish is very poisonous, but it doesn't attack without being provoked. It went back to hiding almost as soon as it moved. On this dive we stayed down a little longer but went to the same depth. We were under for 52 mintues. By the end I was getting used to hovering. You can control descent and ascent by just my breathing.
One of the things I love about diving is all the hand signals. You can communicate almost anything you need to say underwater with your hands. how much air? ok? go up, go down, follow me, look, i need to equalize, etc. If it's too complicated to say with hands you can use a thing that's like a dry erase board. I especially like the symbols for different animals. I learned signals for turtle, scorpian fish, lion fish, and shark.
The Andeamean Sea is really colorful underwater. I saw greens, purples, pinks, oranges, reds, and browns. It's not just the fish. It's also the coral reefs, sea urchins and other creatures. I want to go back. But I'll probably do my last two dives at Pattaya or Ko Tao. Pattaya is only two hours from Bangkok.
Since we coudn't dive the last day, we went on a snorkeling tour. We saw "The Beach" but we couldn't snorkel there because it was rough water. That was a big disappointment. But I took pictures. I guess I'll have to go back. Wow! Long post!