Salt monster, a lost book and a new mask
I didn't remember how much fun scuba diving could be! One day trip to Raya Yai started 7.30 yesterday morning, when my mobile phone woke me up from light sleep. I had been sleepwalking on a couple of the previous nights, and the night before yesterday was the worst. I started packing my stuff at 5 o'clock in the morning for no reason...
It took one and half hours to get to the island, though it seemed much less as I watched some of the most beautiful landscapes I've seen in a long time appearing from in front of the boat as we passed the uninhabited islands in front of Shalong, south of Phuket. The sun was shining so brightly I had to cover myself with a shirt, as we approached our destination. My instructor was a short, cute Thai guy who showed us our tanks and told us to get into our gear as quickly as possible. AND...off we went!
Schools of fish swam around me as I descended into deeper waters with 5 other people. The brightness of the sky slowly changed into a shade of blue that surrounded us from everywhere. Distances were difficult to define. we did two dives alltogether, and the funniest thing I remember from them is when our instructor drew a smily garden eel on his underwater writing board. The American guy next to me said later that he could hear me laughing aloud. Also he took us far deeper than the allowed 18 meters...Divers are crazy!
Well, Karen was taking her open water diving course in the pool while I took the trip, and today we both set off early in the morning, BOTH of us sleepy and willing to stay in our beds - once more to Raya Yai. I'm doing my ADVANCED open water diver course now! This day was, if possible, even better than yesterday. We have a guy from Essex, James, and a girl in our age, Vicky, from New Zealand, as our instructors, and today they made us do all sorts of things. I had to navigate by using a compass and a blubber line that is attached to it. First I had to dive, count the distance and make a u-turn back to where James was. After that, I did a square. It went really well (forgot some bloody hand signals though), so next I did my FISH spotting with Vicky and underwater slides. I saw SOOO many fish: Cardinals, parrot fish, giant puffer fish, trumpet fish, trigger fish that was staring at us in a very threatening manner, a school of sweetlips ( one particular SWEET individual kept coming back, biting me and swimming away in a hurry - several times in a row! What a nastee little bugger), Brasses (REALLY COOL COLOURS!), yellow damsel fish and a white one that kept on attacking one of my instructor's purple fins in an aggressive manner. Why do all the smallest creatures ALWAYS think they're bigger than they are???
Oh, and I saw a rabbit fish too, which was a good spot, but no lion fish, though I really wanted to see one! Karen was doing her tasks for the day and as it was the first time for her in the ocean, I believe she was quite carried away by all the life around us!!! Well, I can't say I wasn't. I'm hoping to see sharks tomorrow, they say there is a leopard shark around King Cruiser... The last one I saw was 3 meters long and escaped from us as soon as we had eye contact. Tomorrow, I'm going to do my deep diving in 30 meters, hoping to see more underwater animals. I've now decided that I will become a diving instructor. I will teach English in Thailand first, save some money, and do the courses. Also me and Karen want to build tree houses on an empty island and make it become an eco resort.
It is sad to see, though, how some people just hit the corals with their fins, wiping away a hundred years of growth and not giving a damn about it.
SO REMEMBER: ONLY TAKE PHOTOS AND LEAVE BUBBLES BEHIND!
From your future diving instructor SALT MONSTER (I've had monstrous hair today, cause I haven't washed the salt off...)
After Patong Beach to Chalong and from there to...who knows where? The whole world is there waiting for you, so what are YOU waiting for?
There are some sleezy men here trying to sell stuff to me and Karen, and asking if we're married. We tell them we've married TWICE and that we know we're hot stuff :D:D:D Some really cute guys here too though. Angela, you'd like this place! You know what I mean............POCKET SLAVES. MUHAHAHAH. HA.
It took one and half hours to get to the island, though it seemed much less as I watched some of the most beautiful landscapes I've seen in a long time appearing from in front of the boat as we passed the uninhabited islands in front of Shalong, south of Phuket. The sun was shining so brightly I had to cover myself with a shirt, as we approached our destination. My instructor was a short, cute Thai guy who showed us our tanks and told us to get into our gear as quickly as possible. AND...off we went!
Schools of fish swam around me as I descended into deeper waters with 5 other people. The brightness of the sky slowly changed into a shade of blue that surrounded us from everywhere. Distances were difficult to define. we did two dives alltogether, and the funniest thing I remember from them is when our instructor drew a smily garden eel on his underwater writing board. The American guy next to me said later that he could hear me laughing aloud. Also he took us far deeper than the allowed 18 meters...Divers are crazy!
Well, Karen was taking her open water diving course in the pool while I took the trip, and today we both set off early in the morning, BOTH of us sleepy and willing to stay in our beds - once more to Raya Yai. I'm doing my ADVANCED open water diver course now! This day was, if possible, even better than yesterday. We have a guy from Essex, James, and a girl in our age, Vicky, from New Zealand, as our instructors, and today they made us do all sorts of things. I had to navigate by using a compass and a blubber line that is attached to it. First I had to dive, count the distance and make a u-turn back to where James was. After that, I did a square. It went really well (forgot some bloody hand signals though), so next I did my FISH spotting with Vicky and underwater slides. I saw SOOO many fish: Cardinals, parrot fish, giant puffer fish, trumpet fish, trigger fish that was staring at us in a very threatening manner, a school of sweetlips ( one particular SWEET individual kept coming back, biting me and swimming away in a hurry - several times in a row! What a nastee little bugger), Brasses (REALLY COOL COLOURS!), yellow damsel fish and a white one that kept on attacking one of my instructor's purple fins in an aggressive manner. Why do all the smallest creatures ALWAYS think they're bigger than they are???
Oh, and I saw a rabbit fish too, which was a good spot, but no lion fish, though I really wanted to see one! Karen was doing her tasks for the day and as it was the first time for her in the ocean, I believe she was quite carried away by all the life around us!!! Well, I can't say I wasn't. I'm hoping to see sharks tomorrow, they say there is a leopard shark around King Cruiser... The last one I saw was 3 meters long and escaped from us as soon as we had eye contact. Tomorrow, I'm going to do my deep diving in 30 meters, hoping to see more underwater animals. I've now decided that I will become a diving instructor. I will teach English in Thailand first, save some money, and do the courses. Also me and Karen want to build tree houses on an empty island and make it become an eco resort.
It is sad to see, though, how some people just hit the corals with their fins, wiping away a hundred years of growth and not giving a damn about it.
SO REMEMBER: ONLY TAKE PHOTOS AND LEAVE BUBBLES BEHIND!
From your future diving instructor SALT MONSTER (I've had monstrous hair today, cause I haven't washed the salt off...)
After Patong Beach to Chalong and from there to...who knows where? The whole world is there waiting for you, so what are YOU waiting for?
There are some sleezy men here trying to sell stuff to me and Karen, and asking if we're married. We tell them we've married TWICE and that we know we're hot stuff :D:D:D Some really cute guys here too though. Angela, you'd like this place! You know what I mean............POCKET SLAVES. MUHAHAHAH. HA.