Flying Fish

Thursday was the queen's birthday. I figured it was the perfect chance to use a vacation day and enjoy a 4 day weekend back at Koh Tao for more diving. I was joined by 2 friends who came on my first Koh Tao adventure with me.

Upon arrival to the resort we had stayed at just 2 weeks previously, the staff greeted us warmly welcoming us by name, expressing their excitement to see us back so soon. The found us rooms in the otherwise booked resort and we spent the first day relaxing at the beach, soaking up the sun. The second day we went for a 3 dives. The location was one we were excited about. It was raining when we loaded the boat and it was pouring as we made our way. Unfortunately, the first dive was terrible! Visibility was less than 5 meters and we had to stick close together so we didn't loose each other. We weren't able to see much on that dive. The original plan was to do 2 dives at that location but due to the visibility it was decided that we would move on to another location where visibility was reported to be 10-15 meters. On our way to the site I was sitting by the side of the boat looking at the water (it had stopped raining finally). All of a sudden I saw something leap from the water and skid across the top of the water and then disappear. I was not entirely sure what I had just seen! I looked a bit longer and it happened again but this time, whatever had skid across the water appeared to have glided across the water and then disappear. I looked at my friend whose back was turned to the water and tried to describe what I had just seen. She chuckled and said, "you mean, you just saw a fairy?" I didn't know how else to describe to her what I had seen. YES! a fairy! It must have been a fairy! She laughed and I swore to her that I saw something fly across the water. One of the dive masters came by and heard our conversation and said, "oh, did you see the flying fish?" Flying fish? Just at that moment more fish jumped out of the water and flew across the top of the water only to disappear again. Finally my friend believed me! No, it wasn't a fairy but it was truly flying fish! I had no idea such a thing really existed! We spent the rest of the boat ride enjoying the entertainment these silly fish provided.

The dive site proved to be equally entertaining! It was the first time I had experienced such amazing visibility! I was able to see so much and really enjoy the surroundings. It was a completely opposite experience from our last dive. The colors, the fish, everything was beautiful! The 3rd site was equally beautiful! Although I'd been there about 5 times before it was as if it was the first time! Everything looked so different in such clear water.

That's all I can write for now...the mosquitoes are eating me alive!!

Swinging Through the Jungle

I had the most wonderful day today! I signed up to go with the American Embassy on a trip 90 minutes outside of Bangkok to an adventure park called "Flight of the Gibbons". A gibbon is like unto a monkey. I has short legs, long arms and no tail. Since it has such short legs it prefers to do less walking and more swinging through the trees. The adventure park is named after the gibbon because it is made up of about 20 or so zip lines above, and though the trees of the jungle. We would make our way to each one. So cool!

I was with a group of 8 other people and 2 guides. The group included a family of 3 plus a friend (mother, father, daughter and daughter's friend...11 years old), a mid 50 year old woman and about 4 of us women in our 30's (one happened to be a good friend of some friends of mine...we'd never met before but became fast friends). With the exception of one of the group members, none of us had ever zip lined before so we were a bit anxious and some to the point of down right nervous! We started on the first zip line and there was a lot of screaming! Once we got over that, and looked around us at the tops of the trees and saw the butterflies flittering about beneath us we became more and more comfortable. Personally, while I've only been on a little zip line AGES ago, I just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed swinging from tree to tree (not without my fair share of screaming mind you).

The surroundings were beautiful!! Dense vegetation, tall trees and the music of all sorts of different birds. We also heard the laughter and screams and squeals of other groups we knew were out there somewhere but it was impossible to see them through all the trees. It added to the suspense as we wondered what was making the groups ahead of us scream so much!

I had such a great day enjoying the beautiful scenery that Thailand has to offer in a bit of a different way than your typical jungle walk (but we did that too). Playing Tarzan was a blast! And the image of the butterflies of various colors and sizes floating among the tree tops is one that will stay with me for awhile.

Life after PADI certification

After becoming certified it was time to go on a "fun dive" meaning I didn't have to pass off any skills, I could just enjoy swimming in the water looking for cool fish. So, I signed up to go on Wednesday. We had to meet at the equipment room at 6 AM to get suited up and catch the taxi to the pier. No sleeping in for me! We were on our way before most of the city had woken up. Our group consisted just of myself and the friend I'd gone with and our dive master who would be our guide. No other divers on our level had signed up which was terrific! I put all my skills into practice, sunk to 18 meters and had a look at some neat stuff but my darn mask kept fogging up! So, sadly I missed out on seeing other cool stuff...darn mask! Mostly it was just fun to swim around and look up to see that you're in the middle of a school of fish.

We did 2 dives and were back to the resort by noon. I logged in my diving log book that we had gone for one dive at 18 meters for 32 minutes and a 2nd dive at 17 meters for 47 minutes. I wrote that we saw trigger fish, the cutest little, yellow box fish, butterfly fish, glass fish, parrot fish, eel, banner fish and the list goes on!

We decided not to go diving Thursday to give my friend a break who had been experiencing seasickness on each dive from concentrating too hard setting up equipment while the boat was rocking up and down. I decided that throwing up each day of vacation is pretty harsh so we opted for a day of snorkeling to mix things up. It turned out to be a super decision! The morning was cloudy and rainy. We boarded a boat with about 50 or more other snorkelers and hit 5 different areas throughout the day were we were dropped off for about 40 minutes of exploration, loaded up again and moved on to the next spot. While I did feel like cattle to some degree the underwater exploration was beautiful! The coral was different in each location as were the fish. I even saw a shark at Shark Bay! After swimming in Shark Bay for about 15 minutes without seeing any shark I began to wonder why they called it Shark Bay. Just then a shark swam right in front of my nose! I began to panic and then realized that if it were dangerous they wouldn't have brought us to this area to see them! So, I calmed myself down and went looking for more! :-)

Unfortunately, with the sun hidden behind the dense clouds I didn't remember to reapply my sunscreen and am now suffering severely from sunburn. Let's just say my back side is a lovely shade of purple! Which has made sitting a little uncomfortable and sleeping a challenge.

The last stop of the day was a group of 3 islands connected by a sand bar that washes away in high tide. It's a beautiful location where the water is crystal clear! It really is paradise! By the time we got there I could feel the sun beating on my skin so I tried to stay hidden under a beach umbrella after a short snorkeling excursion.

Friday was the last day of diving. We had signed up for another 6 AM dive but I was so sunburnt I wondered if I would possibly be able to get into my wetsuit and put that superheavy tank on my super-burned back! I decided to give it a try and was successful...with minimal wincing and whining. It turned out to be a beautiful day for diving! The visibility was much better than in previous dives. Again, our group consisted of just my friend and I along with with out dive master. During our 2 dives we saw scorpion fish (I pointed that one out to the group...they are very well camouflaged!), more eels, big grouper, trevelley, a blue spotted ray, pipefish, a sawblade shrimp and the highlight was a mom, dad and little baby clownfish in their anemone home! It was breathtaking. I'm so glad I'd found a way to keep my mask from fogging up!

Saturday we left the island in the afternoon so we decided to spend the morning at the spa. I found a place that offered an aloe vera massage. I went inside and told them about my painful sunburn and they told me they could do this aloe vera massage. I told them I was not interested in the massage since I knew I was burned beyond the point of massage...that would have been torture! They kept assuring me that it would be soft and not painful. Finally I showed them my purple back and they agreed that a massage was not what I needed. Instead they covered me with a layer of cold aloe and then a layer of cucumbers. It felt so good! I just laid there and let the aloe and cucumber creep into my skin to remoisturize it. The sweet women offered to take a photo for me to post on facebook but I graciously declined such a photo! Unfortunately, when they removed the cucumber and had me wash off the aloe vera the pain returned. I was then coated in a layer of coconut milk and sent on my way. The reality that I was going to have a miserable 8 hour bus ride back to Bangkok set it. Luckily I survived.

So, I've now completed 8 dives and I'm already planning my next trip back to the island for more diving. Since we will be celebrating the queen's birthday next thursday, I've taken off Friday as well and will make it a nice 4 day weekend! I should be able to get about 6 more dives in! It's kind of addicting! I may need to rethink my budget! :-)