Hi, I’m Howard and I’m from the UK. I am currently staying in Kamala, Phuket and training to be a PADI divemaster with Merlin Divers. I hope you enjoy reading my blog about my experiences and impressions of scuba diving on Phuket, Thailand.

Welcome to my blog: Introduction

Hi Everyone,

My name is Howard and I have recently arrived in Phuket, Thailand and will be staying here for the next 4 months or so and completing a PADI Divemaster internship programme at Kamala Diving Center. I will be keeping a Blog over the coming months to share my experiences of life here in Thailand.

First of all I’d like to tell you a little bit about myself and how I’ve managed to end up here on Phuket in Thailand, many miles away from my friends and family back home in the UK.

I am 29 years old and have lived and worked in England my whole life. I started my early working life in banking and commercial finance where I enjoyed working in customer service, sales and business management. Despite having a very successful career in commercial finance; office life didn’t really suit me and so in 2006 I decided to follow my heart and pursue a career that I was passionate about. I traveled to India and lived and worked as a martial arts instructor there for 4 months. When I returned to the UK in 2007 I continued teaching martial arts full time and ran my own martial arts academy. I also have worked as a volunteer at an Outdoors Centre where I have managed and developed Youth activities and organizations and built an infrastructure for the training and development of Young people and Youth Leaders.

I have felt a little stuck and lost over the last couple of years as since I left the commercial world I haven’t really settled in a career that I want to pursue. I have learned many things about my own working habits and the type of environment and challenge that I need to provide the fulfillment and sense of purpose that I am looking for. I concluded a long time ago that I was always happiest whilst working in the outdoors and also helping people to learn and grow. Being in an instructors role suits my skills and abilities very well.

A little while ago I had the good fortune to meet and work with a Thai martial arts Grandmaster who inspired me a great deal. He encouraged me to work hard and be myself but also to believe in myself and that I could make my dreams come true.
I remember when I was young I would read about scuba diving in books and imagine that I would one day be a diver exploring the underwater world. That dream seemed like a long way off and for many years that dream was forgotten and pushed aside.
Whilst  talking with my fiancée Sophie about what my dreams and ambitions were, it became clear that I would love to do some more traveling and perhaps even learn to dive. Sophie encouraged me to follow my heart and gave me her blessing for me to pursue my dream.

Thailand seemed like a natural choice as it has some of the best scuba diving sites in the world and it is a country that I have always wanted to visit.  I began doing some research on the internet about where and when were the best places to travel. I initially looked at Koh Tao as a possible location as it has a great reputation for diving and is relatively quiet and unspoilt. I wanted to travel from late October through to February so when I did my research about the weather and diving conditions in Koh Tao I found that their monsoon season would cover most of my travel time and therefore I wouldn’t get the best conditions. I learned however that on the West coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea that the monsoon season comes two months earlier and is usually over by early October and it also has some amazing dive locations and is ideally suited to traveling up and down the coast to the beautiful islands that pepper the coastline from Burma all the way down to Malaysia. Of all the travel guides, diving forums and websites that I read it seemed that Phuket was centrally located, has some of the best scuba diving in the world and would be a perfect place for my travels. I began to research dive schools and it was then that I got in touch with Robert from Merlin Divers and my travel plan started to take shape.

I will be writing regularly here on this Blog so that you can follow me on my journey from Novice to PADI Divemaster here on Phuket in Thailand and along the way I will try to share with you my experiences of what life is like here too. I hope that you enjoy reading about my adventures.