Diving 2011

Diving

     

Photoalbum Khao Lak

 

Tuesday March 1, 2011: Diving day 1: Boonsung Wreck

Today is the first dive day: yes, I have been looking forward to diving in Thailand. The first time here, curious to see what it will be like. And then also the first time to dive alone, that can be very positive for my social skills. Now you need to speak to other people, but that will not pose a problem. Timo is already awake at six and gets out of bed at 06:30, very quietly, because Linda and Patrik are still asleep. Timo takes his laptop to the reception to read the reports again, perform som

Photoalbum Travel Khao Lak

e changes and send some e-mail. There is not really someone online on Facebook now, so he does not stay there very long. A few messages later he returns to the room. Linda and Patrik are awake and Timo packs his stuff (camera, dive computer and other things): the rest of his gear is already at Sea Bees. That was left there yesterday.

First quickly a coffee and breakfast, a couple of pieces of fruit (watermelon and papaya) and bread with cheese. The coffee is very strong and the breakfast is good. The breakfast was also available on the boat, but Timo takes it at the hotel. After breakfast I go to the reception, because Sea Bees picks up the divers between 08:15 and 08:30. Another couple is waiting: a German lady with an Italian guy. Timo can immediately exercise his English, German and the little Italian he understands. Ten minutes late the van arrives and we drive to the harbor, about 20 minutes further. There are in total eight divers in the van, but Timo is the only one diving with the Runaway today, the others go to the SimilanIslands with the Stingray.

At the harbor it is very busy, there are about seven or eight diving vessels and a bus with a whole bunch of snorkelers are arriving. We need to go against the direction, luckily this is not a one way road, otherwise we would have to make a detour. The reception is nice and friendly, they collect eh shoes, the diving gear is already on the boat and there are only four divers today. Three and I make a normal dive and the other diver takes a few adventure dives, to get to know the specialties that can be done after AOWD. When the last person arrives we can leave. First we climb over the Stingray and then we get onto a small fishing boat, big enough for four divers and two guides and two crew members, but when there would be 12 divers (which is the maximum) it would be a bit crowdy. We prepare our gear for the first dive, everything is present, also the adapter from an INT to a DIN connection of my first stage, which is nice, otherwise there would be no dive.

Then we leave. They explain everything in German, because everyone is German-speaking, except the Thai guide that is Thai-glish. But even the briefing what there is to see and the boat-briefing poses no problem in German. We hope to see some nice stuff, but we’ll see about that. After one hour and twenty minutes we arrive at the diving spot (wreck). It is an old tin dredger that sunk about twenty years ago. After the tsunami in 2004 it broke into different pieces and now there are five or six diveable parts. The first dive is the southern part and the second will be the northern ones. According to the briefing there is plenty of fish, but we’ll see that when we’re under water. On our way there we see many things floating on the water, many wooden things and also bamboo and also small bottles, no idea who throws this into the water.

About ten minutes before our arrival we get our gear ready and once the Runaway has reached the dive location, we can start. Timo, Markus and Rolf dive with Bum, the Thai guide. Everything is going OK, only Timo stays a bit behind when descending, but that’s always the case: he slowly descends to a comfortable 16 meters. We submerge and immediately see the wreck and notice they were not telling any lies during briefing, because the wreck is surrounded with fish, unbelievable how many there are. Once we reach our depth we follow the wreck at our right hand side and dive to the end. Many lionfish swim here freely or rest on the wrack. We don’t dive into the wreck, but just besides it. The guide points out a few things: scorpionfish, lionfish, one stonefish and then he swims away from the wreck. As we are good buddies we follow the guide to an anemone with a few anemone fish and also a couple of small crabs. These porcelain crabs are really magnificent. Then we swim back to the wreck and see a couple of moray eels. They all are spread over the wreck and it’s actually loaded. White eyed moray, honeycomb moray. According to the German dive guide, who was on the boat for some adventure dives, Bum was a specialist in finding ‘Naktschecken’, but until now only Timo has spotted one; a beautiful animal.

After half an hour of dive time we reach the end of the wreck and then start our way back, a bit shallower to the boat. One of our buddies was almost without air, but he breathes from the tank of the dive guide and then performs his safety stop. He’ll be out of the water after about 40 minutes. The three of us dive further and we see a juvenile of a sweetlip, many glassfish and three moray eels together in a bottle, which is really a funny sight, the three of them in a small bottle, nice and crowdy. On the wreck there is not much of coral, but we see some from time to time and some shrimps have made it their home. Many porcupinefish swim above the wreck and we see some more morays and at the end we spot another nudibranch. Just before we have our safety stop we see a large school of squid, but they are too far away to take pictures. At the end the camera behaves strangely, but we’ll look at the later on. The safety stop is also very nice, because we have a view over the complete wreck and the thousands and thousand of fish swimming above, around and in the wreck; really you don’t get bored for a single second here, not even during the safety stop.

Then the first dive in Thailand is over and we go to the surface, after a dive time of about 55 minutes. The first dive was a good one; this is something we will remember. When we arrive at the boat we prepare our tanks for the second dive and then have a rest, a drink, a meal and a cigarette. We have a surface interval of 90 minutes and we already chat about this dive and also about other dives my buddies did here earlier. The meal is a plain sandwich and we can drink as much as we like. That was arranged very well, we drink water and cola and need to ensure we have enough. Especially during dive days this is advisable and even more in a climate like this.

Fifteen minutes before we start our second dive, we prepare everything. The buddy-teams remain the same and we first get into the water. We immediately see the number of fish is still the same and we like it a lot. Again plenty of lionfish, three kinds of nudibranches, of which Timo spots two. A couple of species of blennies are also photogenic and it’s always nice to see them on a bigger screen later on. We dive along, over and through some of the wreck pieces and the guide points out some interesting stuff, but we also see things of our own: scorpionfish, morays, and a red kauri on coral. And then suddenly the guide points a large moray. He swims freely and that’s always a special sight. Lizardfish have also discovered the wreck and one magnificent sea slug. During this second dive time flies even faster, we think the dive is even shorter, but that is not the case at all. Eventually we dive 57 minutes. Just before we perform our safety stop the guide takes Timo’s camera and takes a few pictures of him, so he has also a picture of himself. We more or less see the same things during the second dive, but it is a great opportunity to dive here. We are being told that the dives on the Similans are even better, but we’ll see about that later.

We first look at the wreck and enjoy the view and then head fort he surface, do our safety stop thoroughly and then go all the way up. We take off all the gear and then quickly check out the pictures, have a drink and put all our gear in their boxes. We just are on the boat and the skipper already leave back for the harbor, one hour sailing, we sign the logbooks and stamp them, fill out the most important things and time flies, because we already see the harbor. The fishing boats leave all together to the open sea to earn their money and we can get off on the wharf. Our driver Sung brings us to the hotels, we talk in the van about the dives and dive licenses and other related things and after 20 minutes Timo is already back home. He looks for Linda and Patrik, because they have the bungalow-key. A shower and a break on the terrace with a beer Chang Classic, Product of Thailand and we really enjoy it here with the nicest weather. The sun has returned, because it had been cloudy all day, so enjoy it. In Belgium it’s raining and much colder, so we need to get some of the warmth and later today we’ll go out to eat.

First Timo goes surfing the internet at the reception, there’s free wireless available, then have another aperitif on our terrace and then we go out for dinner. But first we want to book an excursion. We walk along the main road, because Khao Lak is not more than one single busy road. We see one restaurant next to the other, the same with massage saloons, tour operators and dive centers. This is the prime focus of the village. We search for a good tour operator and Patrik had found that Khao Lak Land Discovery (Outdoor Eco Adventure Tours: http://www.khaolaklanddiscovery.com) was a good one and we enter there. For tomorrow we book a trip to a bay close by. A van will pick us up at our hotel, then we drive to the harbor and then we continue with a longtail boat. After these visits we continue with a canoe and then have lunch on a floating village. We’ll see, probably is good.

We’re late for dinner, so we go to the same restaurant as yesterday. There is still room for three; we order two beers and a glass of red wine. We eat seafood with vegetables and rice, chicken fritters and noodles with chicken. The taste again is very good and not expensive at all. It’s really great for eating, all good, fresh, good service and very cheap. We don’t stay up too late, because time is already past ten when we get to our bungalow. We have a last drink at the reception and go to sleep at about eleven. Tomorrow we first have breakfast and then at 08:45 we leave for our trip. Good night!

 

Thursday march 3, 2011: Dive day 2: Similan Islands, Island 7

A night without mosquitoes, we did not completely sleep through, but had enough rest. And if it was not sufficient, then I would have gone diving anyway. It is almost a tradition, first at about seven to the reception with the laptop, then a small breakfast and then I wait for Sea Bees Diving to pick me up at about 08:15. That is the intent anyway. Linda and Patrik are just waking up and Timo is already on the road for some action. Today we go to the SimilanIslands and it will take approximately two hours. Today we dive at Island 7, I’m curious to see what it will be like. At 08:20 the van of the dive center is there and it brings us to the peer. Timo is the last ne getting in and then it goes quick as hell to the starting point for today.

The reception is very friendly and professional and Timo gets a briefing about the boat from his dive guide: Roger from Luzern. It is about the same as it is on every boat, without a lot of things specific to this one. Today we leave with the Stingray, which is a bit larger than the Runaway and it can accommodate more divers. When everyone has arrived, it is like a beehive, maybe that’s the reason for the name of the dive center. First Timo prepares the camera, leave it inside the cabin safely protected in his bag, then he prepares his diving equipment and after a few minutes everything is OK. The connections to stage 1 are INT and to connect the DIN Timo needs an adapter. It’s easy to use and you don’t need any explanation. The upper deck is partially smoking area, so once everything is OK, Timo heads that was, together with Rolf, one of the divers of two days ago.

It will take approximately two hours before we reach the Islands, so Timo starts talking to some of the divers, instructors and in a short timeframe we speak German, English and Dutch. One of the German instructors lived in The Netherlands for 18 years, so then you can speak the language. Time passes by quickly, because you’re busy talking, so that’s nice. It’s mainly about diving, traveling and the things we’ve seen already. For some this is really a way to brag big time, but Timo is a modest guy and does not want to impress too much. LOL. After about two hours indeed we arrive at the first dive spot, the head of Island 7, but the dive site is called Deep Six. We get a briefing in English, because there is a Swiss lady, a German guy, an Italian guy and me. The easiest way is then English.

Sea Bees works as a perfect machine, because everything follows perfectly and everything is well arranged: your seat is there and yours there and don’t try to change, because that interferes with our planning. First Roger gets into the water, then Timo and then the other three. First a quick check and then we go for our first dive. We descend slowly, which is good for Timo, because during other dives he stays a bit higher and goes down slower than the others. Paolo and Timo are a buddy team and the Swiss woman and German guy too. Roger guides down us very slowly and we immediately arrive at a spot where he has seen something. Well, seen: he just knows that here in the coral there is a frogfish: a very small fish between the coral and you need to look very closely to see it. A picture is very difficult, because he’s hidden between the branches of the coral. This dive spot is mostly known for its big rocks that form a reef and against the walls some corals grow, but there is no abundance. The spot is very nice with its several swim throughs. It really gives a great feeling to swim underneath because it is high and broad enough so you don’t have to be afraid to bump against the rocks. Timo has some trouble with his mask, because there’s fog all the time. It costs energy to clear it, and that also costs air. A few times he thinks the problem is within his camera, but it’s just his mask. Some snappers find their way very well between the rocks and the corals and also pufferfish and porcupinefish swim this area too. A couple of hawkfish rest on a piece of coral or on a rock and they are very nice to take pictures from. The general impression is that in the past there would have been more coral gardens, because there were table coral, but quite a lot of it has died. This also is the result of bleaching, but also from the tsunami, they tell us later. Timo puts in a lot of effort to keep up with his buddy, but he dives from left to right and back, takes pictures and then suddenly disappears. Timo then decides to play it safe and keep up with the guide, then there is always someone to help when there is a problem. The Italian guy will need to stand by himself.

Roger points a nudibranch to us and then a special kind of grouper and then some other things too. Timo spots a starfish himself, and emperor angelfish and he loves the small worms that dig into the coral, really beautiful yellow, red and blue. Almost at the end of the dive we see a turtle, but without picture, because the camera really is struggling. That will probably be related to the temperatures and the humidity. Once the turtle is gone he’s back up and running and then hundreds of sergeant majors gather in front of the lens. That’s nice to make up for the missed turtle. Then it’s about time to get to the surface again and Roger releases his buoy, we dive away from the island, have our safety stop and then slowly go to the surface. The first dive is over and was a very good start of the day. The boat picks us up and it really is amazing that you see a large vessel like that coming into you, but right on time he turns and you can climb on board. Cool and very good service from the crew.

We prepare all our gear again for the second dive, have lunch and take some rest. The lunch is vegetables, chicken and rice and it tastes good, but Timo does not eat too much. The surface interval is not as long as two days ago, because already after one hour we start to get completely ready. The dive site is now West of Eden and is located at the western tip of the island. Probably there will not be much difference to the first dive, but we’ll see. Again we start in the same sequence, first Roger, then Timo (gets his camera from the crew), then Paolo and then the Swiss lady and the German guy. “Alles klar” and we go down. Now Timo has cleaned his mask very well with “Taucherspuck’, hopefully it will not get foggy. We dive next to a steep wall that is full of gorgonians and soft coral.

It is just great to dive here and the amount of fish is also higher than the first dive. The current is mild and it takes from the front to the back and then back again. If the current pushes you back there’s nothing you can do, because you can’t win against the ocean. The first thing worth mentioning is an octopus that has found shelter in a hole and then Roger sees a spiny lobster. He’s hidden deep in a crack in the rock, but if you look closely, you can see it very well. While the others are trying to get pictures of these animals, Timo is looking at the small things on the reef. It’s really magnificent, small fishes hide between the living and dead coral, small fan head worms and all those little creatures. During this dive we don’t see any sea slugs, but no worries. A pufferfish comes passing by very closely, but very often turns his back and tail to the lens.

A very large cornet fish swims by in a distance, but nobody has seen it, except for Timo. Roger points a kauri to Timo and he reaches it first. Then in the corner of his eye he sees something long and narrow and it’s a sea snake. Yes, my first sea snake ever. Timo shows it to the others and he’s very proud that he spotted it first. Well done. Then Roger sees a second sea turtle today and Paolo, Timo’s buddy, has left the group again. He is swimming twenty meters away, but Timo thinks: let him be, I’m not going to chase him. The most important thing is that the turtle has been seen. Then it’s again about time to stop the dive and after 57 minutes and a good safety stop we get out. Again the same drill, Roger surfaces his buoy and we slowly ascend to the surface, the boat picks us up and the we can fill out the logbooks, have a drink and chat about the dives. Again it was a good day with two very nice dives, a day to remember. The snake was marked on the dive map during the briefing, but it’s nice we’ve seen it in reality.

Two hours later we arrive at the harbor and then we get dropped of at the hotel. Laguna Resort is like previous times the first in row and that’s very nice. Tidy up, have a shower, write the dive report, look at the pictures and then we’ll go for dinner. That will be OK, because Timo is hungry after a day of diving. Linda and Patrik make a walk and then it’s dinnertime. When they return from the beach we get ready for dinner. Close to the hotel, so not too far away and very good and very cheap: the same restaurant as the first and second evening. We order a beer and red wine. We eat yellow Thai curry chicken and bamboo shoots, nice and spicy, pork fritter sweet and sour and a chicken noodle. The food tastes very good again and the curry is very spicy; luckily Timo ordered medium spicy, otherwise he would have been completely on fire. We have another beer, pay and then return to the hotel. We have a last drink there and go to bed. Especially Timo is tired due to the dives and Linda and Patrik have been in the sun and the heath and the humidity all day and that’s pretty tiring too. At about ten we go to sleep. We use the airco otherwise it’s unbearable. Sleep tight!

 

Saturday March 5, 2011: Third and last Dive Day: Koh Bon: Manta rays?

Today should become the climax of my diving adventures in Thailand. Sea Bees is diving at Koh Bon and there are manta rays and it’s the right season, so we have high hopes. Timo wakes up first again, already al 06:30 and goes to the reception, then he takes all his stuff to go diving: camera, underwater housing, computer and then he has breakfast. Two pieces of bread and the coffee is still very strong, so you wake up immediately. At a few minutes after eight he’s ready and waiting for Sea Bees and at 08:20 they pick him up and they need to stop at one other hotel at the other side of the road. Nobody shows up, so we leave to the peer. It’s not as busy as the previous days there, but still plenty of people, because many arrive to go diving and snorkeling. Three boats are ready and we get onto the Stingray. Rolf is there too and also Soeren, who dived with me earlier on Runaway and Stingray. We need to wait for a few moments until the two arrive that missed the pickup: apparently there was an incorrect agreement on the pickup location.

The captain of the Stingray blows the horn and with a delay of half an hour we depart to Koh Bon. That should take about one hour and forty minutes. At that time the four divers diving with Matthias already prepare themselves: Timo, Soeren, Rolf and Hans-Jürgen, all German guys. The preparation of the gear is not easy today, because the tank of Soeren and Timo is loosing air, but that’s mainly caused by the INT-adapter and the o-ring of the tanks. Matthias arranges everything and after ten minutes everybody is ready to go. Before that we were on the sundeck and speak about different things. About half an hour before the arrival Matthias starts the briefing. We will be dropped at the middle of the reef, North Ridge, and from there dive with the current, go to the deepest point to spot manta rays and then depending on the air that’s left stay longer or go shallower.

We receive very clear information on what there is we could see and also how we should behave when manta rays are seen. That will not be during the first dive, damn, now there’s no surprise anymore. Anyway. We enjoy the nice weather, the free drinks, a cigarette and arrive on time at the drop-off point. Two divers are going to start here, but most of us will go to the middle of the reef. Five minutes after the first group it’s our turn. Everybody ready, jump!. The first quest for manta rays can start. We dive and go towards the reef at a depth of about twelve meters and then go deeper, first over the sand than in the blue water, because in total this spot reaches forty meters and we don’t want to be there because there’s not enough time to dive within limits. Matthias notices that Timo descends slowly and wants to give him some more lead, but that’s not needed: Timo always does it slowly. He did warn Matthias upfront though.

We dive for a few minutes against a mild current to 30 meters, watch out and try to spot something in the blue water, but we don’t see anything. I mean we see plenty of fish, snappers, lionfish and others, but no manta rays. We continue our dive and still don’t see any. We can’t stay at this depth too long, because we’re reaching deco time and it’s not the idea to go into deco. So we go to a higher level and not against the current now, but with the current. We notice that the current is getting harder and harder by the minute, until we reach the tip of the island. There the current is just amazing. Until now we haven’t see a lot, especially because we were too far from the sand. One moray eel show its head, but not for long. Then we reach the tip of the rock and we need to continue without current, but two of our buddies already have less than 80 bar (even with fifteen liter tanks), so we need to adapt our planning. Matthias guides us over a high rock, but that is against current again. We need to hold onto the rocks and need to pull us forward with the rocks and also with the corals. Luckily most of it already has been suffering from bleaching. That is a real disaster here, unbelievable.

We clamber/dive further until we have passed the strongest current and from there it’s a lot quieter. We did see a scorpionfish and a sea slug where the strongest current was though. Not easy for taking pictures, but we manage even with difficulty. And then suddenly one of our buddies needs to use the tank of Matthias, because he’s out of air. He asks how the others are doing on air and that’s still OK, so we continue a couple of minutes and then perform our safety stop. Matthias has now completely run out of air, so he needs to stop his safety stop after 2 minutes: luckily we were diving within limit. We finish our stop safely and after 52 minutes we’re back on the surface. Matthias waits for all of us and the Stingray picks us up quickly. A very nice dive, not easy with the current, but fun, a pity there were not manta rays.

We grab a quick bite, and then chat about the dive and the absence of manta rays and the difficulty and air consumption. Timo is doing OK, because he gets out of the water with the same amount of air as a guy with a 15-liter tank. Well done. At 13:00 we get the briefing of the second dive. We will dive about the same profile, but not as deep. At 13:30 we’re ready to jump into the water: first Matthias, then Hans-Jürgen, then Timo, Soeren and Rolf. Everybody ready, dive! We dive not as deep now and the first ten minutes we don’t see a manta ray. There is more fish and more coral here. A scorpionfish comes towards us in a strange way. A moray eel hides in his shelter and two sea slugs do their thing on a rock. A napoleon fish (small one) swims a few meters away from us, but still no manta rays. There is a small problem with the camera, because water has gotten into the casing. Shit, no more pictures then the risk is less of complete flood. We dive to 25 meters, then to 15, because our computers said we were four minutes away from decompression time and then shallower to nine meters. This reef is the best we have been diving on during this vacation, many fish, lots to see, also a large hermit crab and a couple of smaller crabs that are hiding inside the coral.

And then almost everybody has used up the air in their tanks. Everybody has about 50-60 bar, one buddy even below already and then we see a large group of divers hiding behind coral and rocks and look into the same direction. So we dive that direction. A manta ray shows of at about 15 meters in full glory, unbelievable. Timo takes the risk to take a picture and probably that was the fatale one. Two not so good pictures and a flooded casing. But he did see the manta ray and that is really amazing. It hovers in front of us and stays there for a few minutes and then disappears into the blue of the sea. To see all of this we had to go down again to 12 meters and reach deco again. We see an anchor rope close to us and we dive there to do our safety stop. Timo needs to do 4 minutes, Soeren even seven. After a dive time of one hour we go to the surface and the boat picks us up. Everybody is almost without air: 30, 20, 40 bar, not really the way it should be. As last part of the dive we did see a manta ray for a full half-minute. A magnificent animal, however this was not really a big one, only 3-4 meters.

On the boat Timo sees that the camera is totally wasted and is in a real bad mood, but it’s better than it would have happened three days ago or something. If it needs to happen, then the best was today. We clean our gear and speak about the manta ray, the dives of today and what the others are still planning to do. For Timo this was the last day: bad and good luck in the same dive: flooded casing, but yet a manta ray. It takes again 1.5 hours to reach the peer. Timo drives all the way to the dive center to pay the bill and then the driver takes him and his gear to the hotel. The total is 13.000 Baht for the six dives and in the end it was really worth it. Loaded with all the gear Timo walks to the room and arrives with a sad face: expensive broken camera. He does not stay sad for a long time though. He cleans his gear one more time and a bit better this time and hangs everything to dry in the bathroom. On the terrace we have a drink and a cigarette while Timo does the report on his laptop. He can look back on a nice day. It starts to get dark and has started to rain. It cools down very little, but not a lot. We’ll have something to eat later on and then our last full day in Thailand starts: tomorrow.

By the time that Patrik and Linda have taken a shower it’s almost seven ‘o clock, so immediately after that we leave to the Thai restaurant. Today we eat at the neighboring restaurant of the previous days. We order, Chang-beer, Tiger-beer and a glass of red wine: that was almost the same every day.  We all order specialties of the house: duck with vegetables and rice, tiger-prawns with pasta (parmesan and garlic, very nice) and fish without anything. The waiter apparently thinks it’s very strange that somebody orders a dish without rice or anything. When we get the food we like it a lot. According to what we’re used in Thailand we need to wait for the food a long time, because normally they serve within a few minutes. Now they give us free garlic bread and after half an hour the food arrives. The taste is very good, except for the duck of Patrik: it’s not a big portion and the duck is tough, but that is normal for duck no? At 21:30 Timo leaves the restaurant and returns to the hotel to have a party, but that’s not possible, because there is nothing to see. From diving he’s pretty tired anyway, so he goes to bed early at about ten thirty. Then Patrik and Linda arrive and they also go to sleep. Tomorrow we enjoy our last full day here and will do nothing.