zanemay Posted December 7, 2001 Report Share Posted December 7, 2001 November 29, 2001 Surin Islands National Park Thailand I am up before the sun this morning and watch the crew hoist anchor. We have spent the night in the leeward bay of a small, pristine island. At sunset yesterday two sea eagles called and played. The weather has been unusual for Thailand. There have been days that the mercury stayed below 85. Usually it is 80 all night, 85 by 10:00 AM and pushing 100 at the 2:00 in the afternoon. Two weeks ago the "lum now" (cool wind) came. My Thai friends complain that this season has been stronger and cooler than usual, but Thai's never seem happy with the weather. It is either too hot or too cold and they don't like rain. But for me the lum now has made the weather perfect. I tell them: "Chop agat yen. Mai chop rawn mak mak tuk wan." (I like it cool. I don't like heat every day!" This morning the wind is light and we are cruising through half-meter swells on an eleven kilometer jaunt to Richelieu Rock, a world famous dive site. The dry board tells me that we will go in at 7:30. We have been out for two nights and two days now, embarking at 6:00 PM from Phuket and cruising overnight to our first dive site in the Similan Islands National Park. We have made four dives a day into the most beautiful marine environments imaginable. With nineteen dives in my career I have enough experience to be comfortable diving but still am at the point that the underwater environment is new and fascinating. My favorite dives are through coral gardens - wonderfully colorful and varied seascapes of swaying soft corals and rigid hard corals. Swimming through them are the most beautiful tropical fish from one inch long to one and half feet. The floor is home for sea slugs seven inches in diameter and two feet long. I saw one that was iridescent black with white highlights - a truly beautiful animal! The thrill for the veteran divers are the sightings of sharks and sting rays. They would consider me lucky to have seen three sharks in my few dives and yesterday we saw the biggest ray the dive master had ever seen. Usually the sharks cruise just close enough to be visible but far enough to be indistinct, but we saw a leopard shark close enough to make out his spots. Oh...my group leader is calling us for our pre-dive briefing. Later... An excellent dive with beautiful coral gardens of predominately light-purple soft corals. We had a good sighting of barracudas when we started. The larger fish come here to feed in the morning we were told in our briefing. The Moray Eels are always fun to see, and this time we saw a monster head snaking out of crack that looked far too small for the body that was inside. Most of the dive was at twenty to twenty-five meters and my deepest depth was thirty-one meters. We wear dive computers like wrist watches that tell us everything we need to know to be safe from nitrogen poisoning. We watch how much air we have in our tanks on other gauges. With modern equipment and good sense, diving is very safe. The DiveAsia crew wears T-shirts that say, "Do you remember when sex was safe and diving was dangerous?" Good news, bad news. Scuba diving is a rather odd activity. Besides enjoying the underwater world, the main goals is to do as little as possible. On a good day, it is less exercise than playing right field in little league. In scuba you want to minimize effort to maximize oxygen. You only have a little. Never use the arms, just frog kick with the flippers now and then. You also want to take shallow breaths to control your depth. When you fill your lungs you expand your air space and you go up. If you get excited, take an involuntary deep breath and don't exhale, you really go up. A good diver breathes correctly, a little deeper to clear obstacles. Exhaling takes you down to inspect things more closely. Even, shallow breaths keep you on a level course. New and excitable, I bob a lot and when I see something really interesting, sometimes float away entirely. We cruise in the twenty-eight meter Dive Asia boat. The food is good, but the company, myself included, is strange. Nine Germans, two Swedes, a Japanese man and me. I am the oldest by fifteen years. A few people speak good English so I can have just a little conversation. Otherwise I can't understand anyone. Thirteen divers on a boat made for twenty. It is early in what will be a slow tourist season. Good for me as I have a cabin to myself. Food is served as if we had a boat full of lusty young Germans. The last day of diving proved to be most educational and challenging. We had to dive early to leave time for the seven hour haul back to Phuket and we had dives scheduled for 7:00 AM and 9:30 AM with breakfast in between. We were all tired from three days of diving. What made it really difficult is that we encountered strong currents on both dives and swimming against current is exhausting. In my case I was supposed to stay with a twenty-eight year old Japanese girl dive master who was my diving "buddy." But after three days she was a bit tired of baby sitting the old man and tended to swim off on her own. On the first dive the current was moderate and I kept up, but the effort took its toll. On the second dive I reached a point that I had to stop. She was quite a ways ahead at that time and seemed about to swim away entirely. She finally looked back to see me holding onto a rock. I signaled that I had to rest and she came back to me. At that point we headed back "downstream" floating along with the currrent. Getting exhausted sixty feet under water can be dangerous if you breathe too much oxygen and hyperventilate. Then you have problems breathing period. You also use up your air supply very fast when you work as hard as I was. So I stopped before I caused myself a more serious problem. I was prepared to surface on my own if I lost Kowli. What would have happened if I had surfaced there alone lies in the realm of the unknown for me. I would have bobbed about with my orange buoy until the boat found me and picked me up? Certainly! Or certainly? Or could currents have carried me off, in which case they would have trouble finding me? No! Or no? Oh well, it was something to think about... Living onboard a boat was interesting, especially in bed, the place where I spent most of my off time. One meter wide with two feet of headroom, I was worried about rolling out of that top bunk or sitting up in the dark without thinking. I never did either one. The first night the "lum now" was strong while we cruised to the islands and the waves splashed high as the boat sloughed through. I went airborne in the bunk three or four times and was rocked like I was on a high tech ride. None of this disturbed my sleep. I also never had a hint of seasickness and got up early to eat my first breakfast of fruit and cereal as we rolled, yawed, swayed and bucked. The most important person aboard any ship at sea is not the captain or the dive master, but the cook. On our boat a little, wizened dark-brown Thai boy who walked with a limp and wore a support bandage on a misshapen arm cut, cleaned and cooked huge servings of delicious, basic food. One memorable meal consisted of a big salad, deep-fried shrimp in heavy breading, beef with gravy and mashed potatoes. All consumed while anchored in a beautiful tropical lagoon. No one was complaining. How can I not love Thailand? It is November 29, 9:00 AM. There are a few wispy clouds in a beautiful sky and we cruise through pure azure water. I have just had my coffee and second breakfast - bacon, eggs and toast - while island-hopping in paradise. It is 80 degrees with a light breeze. I have a girlfriend in Bangkok and one in Pattaya. The golf courses are excellent and the caddies are cute. This four-day, four-night trip with food, drink, equipment rental and fourteen dives, cost $480. Apart from excursions such as this one, I spend most of my time in Pattaya, a touristy beach town where I rent a condo. Life is good there. I am in a golf club and a pool league, and even go bowling for a dollar a game. My girlfriend An is charming, mature and the most agreeable person I have ever met. She loves pool competition and I have got her a spot on my team. She's the only girl and last week she was the first person to win a game for our side. Needless to say, she's a hit with the boys. Every couple of weeks I either go to Bangkok to see my longtime girlfriend Noi or with apologies to the agreeable An, I have Noi come visit me in Pattaya. Three weeks ago I took Lek on a little trip to Ayuthya, the ancient capital of Siam (old Thailand.) There are magnificent temple ruins everywhere. The city is on a bend of a river on a big, flat island. Bicycles are ideal and they rent for 65 cents a day! And An loves to ride - slowly, slowly but for a long time. Ha! We had a great time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 8, 2001 Report Share Posted December 8, 2001 Zane, I don't know anything about diving but your post makes me want to give it a try when I get a chance. PS: The title of your post states "Surin Islands National Park." As I read the first few paragraphs I was desperately trying to reconcile the little that I know about Thai geography with the concept of "Surin Islands." :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zanemay Posted December 8, 2001 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Mad Max: The title of your post states "Surin Islands National Park." As I read the first few paragraphs I was desperately trying to reconcile the little that I know about Thai geography with the concept of "Surin Islands." :-) Max - I had the same response from someone else. The Surin Islands are a small group near the Similans in the Adaman Sea. Quote from internet promo: "XXX Dive Co. offers liveboard trips to the Similan and Surin Island, along with PADI IDC training." Zane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted December 9, 2001 Report Share Posted December 9, 2001 Eventually, I want to get to the point where I have the time and resoureces to do that. Right now its not possible. Its a week or ten days at a time. However, I have a plan where I'll be there for 3 months, then I can do all the fun stuff and get to know the country better. Thanks for the report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kohMarco Posted December 9, 2001 Report Share Posted December 9, 2001 I've dived all over and love the Similan and Surin islands, they stand up to anything in the diving world. I also love the golf in Pattaya and Hua Hin and the nightlife of Bangkok and the relaxed lowlife of Pattaya. It's all there, but like Choco-Steve, gotta settle with the shorter trips for now. But in a few years.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 9, 2001 Report Share Posted December 9, 2001 Hmmm..Just got my PADI open water cert...Might as well use it in Thailand since I'll be there for a month. Funny never thought about diving in Thailand until now. For a moment there all I was going to do for 30 days in LOS was as many girls as I can Now I'll have something else to do. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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