It all started in August in a corridor Up North between 3 friends... and it finalized in January after I recruited more divers from all the places that I could think of. So the group didn't all know one another but they all knew me, except for the Finns who were D's recruits after he met them at the Outgames in the summer :)
9 divers
7 days
27 dives ie. over 24 hours underwater
5 cameras with underwater housing
7 gigs of photos and movies on my IPod
Lots, lots, lots of mantas at Koh Bon
And even more quantities of pure FUN!!!
Holly Molly it was a great week! The weather was cooperative, tremendously so, and so were the mantas!
1) Arrival in Phuket: Tuk-Tuk, Massaaage, Tuk-tuk, Massaaage...
After working both holidays and catching the obligatory cold, I was finally off. We were 4 leaving home on the same day, S, N and I on the same flights and R on different flights and the same schedules, so we kept on finding one another in Chicago, then Tokyo, then finally in Bangkok. Thank God for that comfortable bed at the airport hotel in Bangkok!!!
Then the next day we arrived in Phuket and got a massage right away at the guesthouse...
2) Dancing the night away in Patong Beach
D was in Phuket after his tour of Japan and Thailand, and his lovely friends from Finland had joined him. We found ourselves in Patong Beach dancing the night away in a club full of ladyboys. That cured the jet lag for me!
3) 'You are mother to us all'
So apparently because I organized most of the logistics of this trip until we got to the boat, that was my title (Yes R, you said it!). I take it as a compliment!
A made it to Phuket the next day minus *all* his luggage. We spent the day shopping for same-same boardies, flip-flops and beer-themed t-shirts :)
And finally M came in from Malaysia, a little late because of a plane delay. I finally breathed, everybody was in to catch the boat the next day
4) The PowerPuff Girls
The boys went shopping and found themselves a theme. This is what they were wearing when we picked them up at 6h30 am the next day!
It stayed as a theme for the week of course, and we all became THE POWERPUFF TEAM! That's how the boat boys called us when it was our time to jump into the water!
LIFE ON THE BOAT
Was pretty relaxed. 4 dives a day, we sometimes got to pick from 5 dives scheduled, but we inevitably chose the night dive.
Thank God we had chosen South Siam 4 with access to mainland, because A's luggage magically appeared on the boat after 2 days. Phew!
Things we did: jump off the top deck - a mere 10 meters into the water! Some of us were a little scared, some of us less, but all of us ended up doing it! Kris our instructor for the week was of course the most daring and award-winning :) he'd obviously done this before :)
The food was good albeit a little repetitive. Especially the drinks, which were limited to Pepsi and the Thai spin to Fanta, in a green and red variety. It was a combo for reflux, along with the coconut milk and the curries, and all the anti-gravity experienced with our favourite activity of the day. Vive le Zantac!
There were arrivals and day-trippers speed-boated from land 5 days out of the 7. On the day that the Russian group left, there was a *lot* of curiosity from the XX part of the group about the German and Swede arrivals!
*Somebody* had some fun while I was passed out between dives:
