Back to the Similans! And more tsunami stories...

So on a bit of a whim, back to the Similans with a different bunch of divers!

Interesting post found in Patong

patong, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

This time it was with GF from Vancouver and IG from Malaga, met in Kapalai. A mere 3 days on the South Siam 3 boat, elbowing the day-trippers, and the same playful mantas as in January in Koh Bon. Actually, there was even a whale shark which we must have missed by about 2 minutes. The managing team of the boat seemed to enjoy producing decibels and ordering about. Thankfully we got N, a Thai divemaster who was like Buddha in the water - he would come back from the dives at 100 bars while GF and I were at 50 bars!

The boat manager J recounted us his experience with the tsunami in 2004. It was rather interesting. They were diving off Breakfast Bend, one of the famous dive sites, and because of strange currents the dive had been cut short. They were doing their 5 m surface interval when the tsunami arrived. Breakfast Bend was literally falling apart: reefs were torn away, and fish and sea snakes were dying in front of them. The water became dark and all of a sudden the computers indicated 40 m depth when they had been at 5 m seconds previous. J grabbed the least experienced diver, who had saucer-size eyes by that time, and took control of his buoyancy. He indicated to everybody that they were to fin as strong as possible to surface, which they all did. They had to fight some serious currents as it happened, and from the surface, they could see the boats fighting strange vortexes and doing roundabouts. Finally after 20 min the boat picked them up and still, nobody knew what was going on. Only when the boat got closer to shore did they hear from the Thai navy, and even then, they thought that there would be another wave, not that they had already gone through it. The liveaboard continued its trip onto other undamaged reefs in the Similans. Paradoxically there was minimal damage to the dive sites (except for Breakfast Bend which had been thoroughly destroyed) but the season was ruined as everybody cancelled their trip afterwards.

On South Siam 3, there was also T from Germany who was a divemaster on South Siam when the tsunami hit. The boat was on Koh Bon when it happened and they were on surface interval. T was turning his back to the Koh Bon opening when one of his guests said 'Look! The hole has disappeared!'. He didn't believe it. But indeed the hole was sunk under 8 m of water, upon successive waves. Not much else happened - no vortex here, just higher water than usual. It also took them a while to realize what had happened. This is T's first time coming back since the tsunami. Thankfully he was greeted in Koh Bon by a whale shark, his first sighting!

The hole in Koh Bon

hole koh bon, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Elephant Head Rock, Similan no. 7 - Hin Pusa

Elephant Head Rock, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Where's that boat picking us up?

where's that boat picking us up?, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

IG checking out the manta

igmanta, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

watersun, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

In Fiji in 2002, I learned that this little critter is quite skittish. Finally I managed to capture one on digital film:
Long-nose Hawkfish

longnose hawkfish, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

mantasun, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Back to vacation mode in Khao Lak

We said goodbye to the Aussies yesterday and went to Khao Lak, which is the city where the boat from the Similans trip (in January) was departing from, North of Phuket. We spoiled ourselves with a little stay at a five-star hotel. The next day, still in hyperactive mode from racing, PV and I went elephant-trekking in the nearby Ko Sok National park. Our elephant was a 34 year old female named Thandee; she used to be a wood-logging elephant somewhere in the North of Thailand; there were still scars on her forehead from when her old trainers used to hit her (with spears and knives!) to make her work more. Thank God she is here now at an elephant-trekking facility!

We learned a few things from the little guide who accompanied us in the Songthaew to the elephant trek site. Back in 2004, they had 8 elephants at the time; the morning of Dec 26 2004, at 5 o'clock in the morning, 2 elephants started crying, which was very unusual. Then 10 minutes before the first tsunami waves hit, some elephants managed to get out of their chains and climb up the hill. Business has been bad ever since so they had to rent out the rest of their elephants, but it is slowly picking up. They are acquiring new elephants slowly - only 2 right now. Each elephant usually has his own 'mahood' or trainer to whom he responds best. Thandee's trainer was out of town so there was another guy who was doing it, but we could certainly feel how passive-aggressive she was - she was really lagging behind going uphill.

thandeecorrected, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

This is the end of my stay in Thailand this time and I am saying goodbye to RP, Vini and PV to head off to Malaysia with other diving friends in my other favourite playing ground: Sipadan. My housing disappeared in the fifth dimension in my new apartment so you will have to put up with pictures taken with the old camera which will hopefully still work.

Racing in Bangkok

Greetings from Southern Thailand,

After yesterday, the Tortoise and the Hare finished in first place, won the Cambodia segment, and we slipped into fifth. Since all the other teams haven't used their Wild Cards yet (doubling your points for the day) and we have, we can only expect to fight for our spot. But hey, it's all in good fun!

So when we got into Bangkok, there was a manifestation anti-coup on the streets of Bangkok. The democratically voted government of Thaksin was ousted in January by a military government, but then again, the coup had been approved by the King and Thaksin's reputation was mostly of corruption, so it's not that simple. Since the 1930's, Thailand has seen its share of peaceful coups...

anticoup, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Everybody's favourite colour is the royal yellow, to wish King Rama IX, age 89, a long life. I hadn't noticed it in previous stays in Thailand but the yellow t-shirts were everywhere!

The day of racing in Bangkok had us run and sweat everywhere, from Khao Sarn Road all the way to Siam Center and beyond. We had to use boats, tuk-tuks, buses and skytrain.

At the Grand Palace.

grand palace, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Crossing the Chao Phraya on a ferry

chao phraya, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

A monk on a cell phone at Wat Pho. We went around the Reclining Buddha about... three times looking for our checkpoint!

monkcell, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Offering garlands at the Erawan elephant shrine.

magarland, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Required photo of a "Khatoey", who is, of course, a ladyboy. We found (with some help) the only ladyboy in Khao Sarn Road! Yellow Royal T-shirt again!

khatoey, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

And Vini had to paint his nails for the bonus points:

vininails, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Because of several detours and because we didn't plan well, we arrived last today. But we shot many of the required pictures and paid attention to the answers, so maybe we can gather some points there.

We took the overnight train at Hualamphong Station last night to head towards the beaches of Krabi, which is located in my favourite playing (diving) grounds: Southern Thailand.

Crossing into Thailand

We left Siem Reap by taxi one hot morning and had to race to the border. The checkpoint was just past Poipet at the Cambodian border into Aranya Pathet into Thailand. The road within Cambodia was awful, pure unpaved dust with tons of holes. Remnants of the Cambodian Civil War, I assume. Here are some of the required pictures that we needed before our checkpoint in Thailand:

Eating roasted frogs in West Baray, just out of Siem Reap. These Cambodians eat anything!

frogs, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Fisherman on the way, on the highway

fisherman, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Fixing the (very bad) road

vini road, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

A vehicle that we wouldn't ride for the life of us!

vehicle, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Riding pushbikes

pushbikes, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Poney and cart, still common in Cambodia

poney, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Scene of Cambodian countryside

cambodia, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Crossing into Thailand at Aranya Pathet was a huge contrast. Paved roads, new vehicles, food without keratin exoskeletons on the streets, and less poor-looking people and no omnipresence of the war or genocides. Cambodia was the country that I knew the least on this trip and on which I've read and learned the most. I wouldn't mind coming back whether to explore Angkor Wat or to do some humanitarian work, which I'm sure they still need.

Similans January 2007: POWERPUFF TEAAAAM!!!

South Siam 4 January 9-15, 2007

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!

Powerpuff girls.JPG, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

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!

Group pic on boat.JPG, originally uploaded by Galadryel17.

group on dive platfortm.jpg, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

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 :)

malv jumping.jpg, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

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!

boyz line up.JPG, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

*Somebody* had some fun while I was passed out between dives:

smiley tan lines.JPG, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

red malv.jpg, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Similans Jan 2007: Diving Life

Diving pictures from Similans trip, Jan 9-15, 2007

Bubbles in Andaman Sea.JPG, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Soft coral and S.JPG, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

little clownfish.JPG, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

clown triggerfish.JPG, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

There was a lot of current at Koh Bon around the corner, just when the mantas float above you!

stuck in current.jpg, originally uploaded by Galadryel17.

While we were trying to shoot a picture like this at Koh Bon,

best safety stop ever.JPG, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

This came to investigate us and showed us its belly!

curious manta.jpg, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

manta sun.JPG, originally uploaded by Galadryel17.

Becoming a divemaster in Koh Tao

Un petit mois à Koh Tao pour vivre la vie de divemaster intern..

Vue de Koh Tao

Une plongée inoubliable: Whaliesharkie at Chumphon Pinnacle

Palais Impériaux dorés de Bangkok