Many start off the New Year pledging to try new things. I ended it fulfilling them. This past New Years was spent in Thailand where Ian introduced me to yet another new hobby: scuba diving.

(The only photo that exists of me snorkeling. Suffice to say that I haven’t quite got the hang of keeping water out of the snorkel. Goal for Hawaii?)

We stayed in peaceful Railay in a pleasantly non luxury resort area that was only accessible by water taxi. It felt like a grownup summer camp in a tropical forest. Scuba diving is by far the most peaceful and relaxing activity I’ve picked up. There are many safety precautions (I took a 3 day course to get certified), but this just gave me all the more peace of mind underwater. I knew exactly what was going on and quickly picked up how to gently move through the water. We went down as far as 18 meters – too far for Ian’s tough camera to travel! Perhaps my next big purchase will be a deep water camera? For someone who’s foiled childhood dream was to be an astronaut (curse you motion sickness!) the seafloor feels pretty darn close to outer space. It was an entirely different world. You can’t speak underwater. The only way to communicate is by hand motions. I found this so simple and reassuring.

More photos of Thailand here.