Sunday, February 18, 2007

Kung Hay Fat Choy

We're halfway through our dive trip, having done eight of the fourteen dives. I've done a liveaboard before, and described it to a fellow Californian here on the boat as 'if recreational diving is like jogging; then liveaboards are like a combine'. A very intense experience. Meaning, all we do is eat, sleep and dive. Really, if we're not doing one, we're preparing for teh other. On deck, we're either huddled around the table for our next meal, dozing on the sun deck or reading a book lazily. All of the activities start to blend together. You're underwater at 50 or 60 feet before realizing... 'wait a second, I'm underwater again...' The routine sets in and your brain goes on autopilot from all of the nitrogen floating around up there.

There are twelve customers on the boat; three Brits, three Swedes, two Frogs, one Norweigan and three Californians, ourselves included. We're about the average age for the group and surprisingly, the only married couple. Our dive master is Han, from South Korea, who is an absolute zen master. He hardly moves, both on the boat and in the water. We've been lucky that the other couple that was assigned to Han have not been feeling well, thus not diving much at all. This gives Peggy and I full access to Han all by ourselves.

The diving itself has been fantastic. Water temperatue has been a bath-water 85 degrees. Wetsuits optional. We have seen quite the variety of fish, the highlights being a huge manta ray with a 12-foot wingspan, and a giant octopus. Oh, and a jellyfish the size of a basketball almost landed on my head until Peggy motioned for me to get out of the way. No whale sharks as we had hoped, but there are still more dives to do.

The food has been good as well. We've been having a mix of western and Thai food every meal. Always some good fried vittles mixed in with every spread to munch on. The crew is usually sight unseen, but work very hard. They're always at the ready with helping us with our gear, having the meals prepared and moving the boat to and fro to pick up surfaced divers. Today is Chinese New Years, not sure if there will be celebrations of any sort. There are a half-dozen different dive boats just like ours surrounding us at each location, each with crews of their own. Maybe there will be some sort of get-together amongst them.

At night the horizon is aglow with the dozens and dozens of squid boats on the water. They use their floodlights to mimic the moon, tricking the squids in coming to the surface. From a distance, it looks like a minature city in the middle of the sea. Other than the fisherman boats and a scattered few diving charters, there's not too many people out here in the middle of the Andaman Sea. Quite the distinctive experience.

posted by ncawthon at 11:54 AM