Underwater Playground
From Travels to SE Asia, possibly China and India for ?? Months! in Ko Tao, Thailand on Sep 14 '07
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I decided to do 2 mornings of diving, each with two dives. The first day, up and at the dive shop by 7am, was my fun dive day. A fun dive doesn't count towards any certification and instead of diving with an instructor, you dive with a dive master. I have to admit, I was definitely nervous, mostly about being a newbie and the possible impact that would have on other divers. Turns out there was only three of us along with a dive master and a dive master trainee. The other two divers had their advanced certification, so I had Becky, the dive master trainee all to myself (with the others not too far away).
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We headed out for Southwest Pinnacle but due to the very choppy waters we had to go to our second dive site first, Shark Island, which actually has no sharks! From what I was told the shape of the island is supposed to look like a shark, although, looked more like a turtle to me. Due to strong currents, we had to be dropped off on the east side of the island. All suited up, in we went. I had a little difficulty equalizing, but we did make it down, slowly. Once swimming around it was amazing to really be able to spend time looking at the fish and plant life. Becky was really helpful in pointing out things, although sometimes, she did hand signals to let me know what something was called, but I had no clue what she was doing! After 48 minutes we returned to the surface. Once on the boat, Becky told me that she was concerned about me at first since I managed to suck down a 1/3 (70 bar) of my air in the first 10 minutes but then I only sucked down about 1/6 (30 bar) in the next 30, so she knew I was going to be OK! I guess it just took me sometime to get used to it all.
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Our second site now was Him Ngan, a shallower site as you always go from a deeper site to a shallower site from one dive to the next. Once in, I was jealous of the other 2 divers that had a camera because the surroundings were so beautiful, so picturesque. I just had to be happy with my memories! One good thing is that my buoyancy was getting better which really helped because I felt much more comfortable getting closer to the coral without hurting it. There isn't too much you have to be concerned about watching out for, except for trigger fish, which are very protective of their territory that is a cone shape area above the fish (what they can see from their eyes). The good thing is, that they give you about 3 warnings by putting up a fin from behind their head before they bite you - plenty of time to move on. After a 47 minute dive we headed back to the boat. With two real dives under my belt, I was excited for the next day, for which I had signed up for two adventure dives, these would go towards an advanced certification, if I so desired.
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Up again early, the dive shop was buzzing with people. The first dive site, Chumphon, is a favorite for most divers, especially if you have your advanced certificate which allows you to go to 30 meters (99ft) which is important here because you are more likely to see sharks. I had chosen a naturist dive for Chumphon. As with any adventure dive, you go with an instructor. I chose the instructor I had for my open water certification. One because I was comfortable with her, but more importantly because when she talked about diving and aquatic life, she was always so passionate about it and that is really the person you want to be with on this kind of dive.
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Once in the water and down (this time equalizing was no problem at all), it was easy to see that Chumphon has a very different landscape than what I had seen before. Although it was still great, I can see why you would want to go deeper. We did, however see a reef shark - but it was some distance away - which was fine by me, not sure I am quite ready for a close encounter with a shark! It was a little strange having to traverse water that is so deep as all of my dives so far (except the first hellish one - but I don't remember the depth really) had been close enough to see, if not reach the bottom. We had about a 47 minute dive and once we surfaced, my instructor commented that I had only used 10 bar more than her - I was quite proud of myself.
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Between dives, you need to switch tanks. When I did this, I noticed as I was clearing all the air out of my regulator from the first tank that it stopped at 30 bar, instead of 0. Not too much of a worry I guess since you usually don't get below 50 bar in dives and even with 20 bar you would have enough air.
The second dive was supposed to be at Green Rock which I was very excited about because there are caverns to dive through. Unfortunately, once there, it was determined that the current was too strong, and so we had to go onto Twins. I was bummed, not only because of the caverns, but also because I had been to Twins before, however, once under the water, I never would have known I had been there before! For this dive, my adventure was photography. Now my buoyancy skills had definitely improved, but this was still gong to be a challenge, to keep as still as possible to take pictures. I was having a great time snapping away, although you do see less because you are so preoccupied. Unfortunately, only a fraction of the pictures came out, vaguely looking like something recognizable. I definitely need more practice.
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My instructor found a blue spotted ray hiding under a rock which was really cool, but nearly as good of a photo opp as the day before where I saw one in a cavern with excellent lighting behind it. Oh well! Once I had finished taking pictures of the ray, my instructor motioned for me to come over and started pointing to something. I had thought it was something on the sea bottom and had no clue what it was. Then I turned to my left and lo and behold, what was there but a huge turtle! Yeah, I had finally seen one! Apparently, despite the islands name, there are no only a handful of turtles left. The turtle was so amazing, hanging next to the coral, munching away, quite oblivious to us just a few feet away gawking at it. We spent a good while watching it and it made me so happy that I had a huge grin on my face, which only led to my mask filling up! Now I could really leave Ko Tao happy :)
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We also saw on the bottom a fish that has a symbiotic relationship with a shrimp. The fish guards the shrimp's home, since the shrimp is nearly blind, as the shrimp clears debris from it's home. Unfortunately, it seems like the fish causes most of the debris since it hides in the home when a predator comes by. Anyhow, it was so neat to see the shrimp at work. I know I saw many more amazing things, but this is what stands out to me the most. Oh, I must say that the bannerfish was probably my favorite fish (look at this picture as mine doesn't do it justice - http://chaloklum-diving.com/images/trips/3%20Dive%20Spesh/Bannerfish-longfinbest.jpg) Unhappy to have to go back up to the surface after a 47 minute dive, because it was my last, for now, my instructor and I did have some fun trying to take pictures of the two of us as we waited for three minutes at the decompression stop. Unfortunately, we didn't do a very good job.
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Once of the surface and making our way towards the boat, my fin strap came off and wouldn't go back on. Thankfully this didn't happen on the dive, but was still quite a chore going against the current with only one fin while holding the other fin that was still on my foot. In retrospect, I probably should have just taken it off, but I was a little distracted! The biggest compliment I got was when my instructor told me how much she had enjoyed our dives together and that it was like diving with a friend, not like an instructor/student relationship. I don't think she knew just how much that meant to me, especially after the hellish first dive just days before.
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Well, as much as I would have loved to have spent much more time in Ko Tao and diving (I see now how people get sucked into this place), with less than 2 weeks left on my Thai visa, I needed to move on. As it was, I had already spent 8 days in Ko Tao.
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