Phuket Diving, day 1

Diving off the coast of Chalong Bay was something else today. The port harbor was intensely humid without a breeze and the commotion of the previous day was nonexistent at 8:30am. The massage parlors and eateries were still closed as we walked our way to the dive shop. Once there, we boarded the shuttle that took us out to the pier. At the end of the pier was the Excalibur dive boat. This vessel was about bring us to the distant island of Koh Racha Yai. The bright yellow Excalibur slowly pushed through the large swells. I could only think about how the surfing would be on the west side of Thailand. The swells were consistent and uniform. Our boat was slow and steady, just rolling with the great big blue. I am probably better off not knowing what it was like with those swells breaking over a break somewhere far away. Somewhere, someone is getting some great surfing, and if Kevin is reading this, I am dead. Enough of that! We were on a dive boat off to see what is underwater, and not to go surfing. Sooner than we knew it, we were doning our gear for the first dive of the day.

The water was clear and the bottom sandy. Martin, our guide, gave us a great dive briefing earlier on the boat, and now we all glided along through the surreal underworld. We started by exploring artificial reef fragments in a series of cubes. After the Tsunami much of the reef was damaged or destroyed. They also had an El Niño year where water around 35 deg C came in an bleached the place out. Even with this, the dive was not bad at all. Where the was corral, it was full of life. This is obviously a reef in the making. I have a detailed review of the dive in my log book, but the highlights were seeing a stonefish, tender guppy and shrimp, and the always impressive clown fish. Lunch was on the boat during the surface interval between dives. The local Thai boat crew whipped up an Indian curry chicken dish and a broccoli and shrimp plate. There were also egg rolls like none other. It was a roll of ham and cheese deep fried. You can't go wrong with that!

The evening started with a stop at the 7/11. No joke, this place is littered with them. The 7/11s carry all the necessary items, but what stood out to me was the funny liquor they carried. Who has ever heard of Hong Thong? There was a knock off Red Bull item as well in a dark brown medicine jar. That might be more than a morning pick me up. I will just stay away from that.

We finished the night reviewing pictures over some more Thai food. There was so much food on the boat that Kath and I just shared a meal and Michael has his own. My dinner attire was full length pants and shirt treated with the bug killer Permethrin. Under the table was a mosquito coil and a fan blowing on high above. It was quite comfortable, I must say.