Koh Samui

I ended up making an overnight trip to the nearby island of Koh Samui to visit the hospital there. Now, before you all get worried, I'm fine. I promise. I woke up in the night with a searing pain in my lower left side through to my back. I tried to ignore it but it got steadily worse so I went down to the bar (it was 2:30am, it's still open then) and asked Kelley and Nando what time the nurse opened. Nando insisted I get on his bike with him and we go right now and Kelley came as well. The nurse was useless, both in English and at medicene so she gave me some painkillers and said if it didn't go away to go to the hospital. Well, it's not everyday you get pain bad enough you can't walk or stand up so I decided to go to the hospital the next afternoon regardless of how I felt. Nando gave me his raincoat and biked me back to my room in some absolutely pouring rain. He and Kelley really were champs that night. Well, those painkillers (I looked them up on the internet later) were morphine derivatives (opiates) and they knocked me sideways. Man, I don't think I would have felt it if you chopped my arm of with a butter knife. The doctor in the hospital said it was either 1) kidney stones or 2) a kidney infection. He gave me some antibiotics and told me to drink lots of water. I'm still a bit sore now, but I've stopped taking the painkillers and managed to do a confined session in the water today, so I think I'll be alright. Apparently the tests showed nothing worse than a high white blood cell count in my kidneys and urine (indicative of an infection, though I have no fever). While I was gone I missed one hell of a party at BANS too since all the IDC kids graduated (they are instructors now).
Samui as an island is not nearly as nice as Koh Tao. It's much more developed, more expensive, and lacks the island atmosphere. If you ever travel to this part of the world Samui is nice for shopping, but I think Koh Tao is a much nicer place to stay.
Hmm... what else, not much really. I have 5 things left to do to finish my DM: 3 exams, a skill circuit, an underwater equipment exchange, 2 swim tests, and a rescue assessment.
I've decided to come back to the US as previously planned because I just have too much to come back to at the moment, BUT... I'll have some free time again in 2007 so you may be hearing plans for another romp around the world. After all, there is so much I haven't seen yet!