Getting the blog up to date!
Have just spent three days in Ao Nang on the Andaman coast in Southern Thailand. Went diving and on a speed boat tour of the Phi Phi islands. Both days were good, apart from the rides home in the boats (one was a longboat with a car engine strapped to the back, and the other was actually a speed boat with three huge engines) both trips were pant-fillingly scary and I wasn't sure that we'd make it home during both trips. However, we did but have sworn off boats for a few days while the weather is so changeable.
The diving was ok, it was good to get some in, but the visibility was awful. We kept losing the guide as he swam off ahead of us. fun. but I found nemo and stingrays and other cool things, so wasn't all bad. The trip back in the longboat was terrifying. Mental note: never, ever, ever, ever, ever, and once more for good luck everevereverever go diving off a long boat. EVER again. The guide was also a bit crazy and it looked like he'd had some sort of brain surgery at some stage as you could see the scars on his skull and scalp. He also didn't really speak english - kind of a hybrid between english, german (mostly german, he would start in english and continue in german for the most part, but also threw in a few made up things as well, like niceynicey and other such things) thanks to my rudimentary German I was able to ascetain what the hell he was talking about in most circumstances (as for the rest!? Who knows!)
The speed boat trip was awesome for the most part, we went to Maya bay where The Beach was filmed but couldn't land because the sea was too rough on that side; bamboo island where we swam around for a bit - your typical idyllic thai island with stunning white sand beaches and clear blue water. Then Pileh bay where there's this amazing deep lagoon in the bay - really warm, but no fishies. Had lunch on Ko Phi Phi, which was beautiful, but some full on reminders of the tsunami. Apparently 8000 people died on the island (there had been around 20,000 people there before it) and there's still a lot of rebuilding going on. There were a few pictures up of the area just after the tsunami hit. scary. From there we went to Monkey bay where the shore was filled with monkeys and we got to feed them - so cute! have posted some pics on flickr. And finally some snorkelling off the coast of phi phi island. After that we got back on the boat to head back and the waves were about 5-6m and the guy at the wheel had a death wish apparently. It was made a lot worse by the fact that you couldn't see land in any direction because of the clouds and the rain. Once again, terrifying. I actually thought Simon might have a heart attack at one stage, and I was fairly sure I was going to fight the skipper for the lifejacket that was on his seat. I reckon I could have taken him! Still, near death experiences make you all the more glad to be alive and sure bring on the appetite, and the food has made everything ok again. Especially the mango, sticky rice and coconut milk dessert... yum.
We decided to flag Railay bay for this trip as the weather was really crap and headed to Ko Samui for a bit longer than we'd originally planned. However, that idea also changed and because of the large amount of fat sweaty tourists with "lovely" thai ladies and we took the catamaran to Koh Tao. Got to watch "the prince and me" on the way there. really stoked about that! :S We had four days on Koh Tao, and spent two days diving. Wicked. in seas that didn't scare the shite out of us. amazing visibility and lots of cool fish etc. sea snakes and sting rays and lots of tropical fish. it was fantastic. the skies were beautiful and blue and the water a balmy 30 degrees. sigh. we wished we didn't have to leave!
From there we went to Pattaya to see Jasper. It was great seeing her. She lives in Thailand at the moment, so it doesn't happen all that often. Otherwise, Pattaya is a hole. It's full of ugly fat old tourists with young thai girls on their arms. its creepy how many of them there are... It was a bit of a comedown after Koh Tao. We rented a scooter in Pattaya and spent 3 days busy trying not to get ourselves killed on the crazy pattaya streets. apparently there aren't any road rules in Thailand. it wasn't so bad in smaller places like Samui, but in Pattaya - madness.
We left Thailand on the 2nd July for Malaysia for some more diving (where I am writing this from). Currently I am sitting in the dining room (we get WiFi! yay, but for some reason gmail doesn't like it and we can't send emails from there, boo!) eating a plate of pasta and drinking watered down juice from a tiger beer glass. classy. We have now been here 5 days and have done 13 dives. We had a morning off this morning because there was a huge thunderstorm and if our little tiny stick bungalow (held together with chewing gum and drawing pins) was swaying in the wind. The loudest thunder I think I've ever heard (directly above us) and lightning. not our ideal diving conditions. especially when the trip out there would have taken about 45 mins in huge seas! shudder.... We went for an evening dive though. around this old oil rig that's now a dive resort (more of the dive, less of the resort). We are staying in paradise. honestly. it's amazing. I will blog one of my photos as proof. We have our last day of diving tomorrow. I will write a post about what we've seen in the big blue sea at some point, but have done enough typing for now...
The diving was ok, it was good to get some in, but the visibility was awful. We kept losing the guide as he swam off ahead of us. fun. but I found nemo and stingrays and other cool things, so wasn't all bad. The trip back in the longboat was terrifying. Mental note: never, ever, ever, ever, ever, and once more for good luck everevereverever go diving off a long boat. EVER again. The guide was also a bit crazy and it looked like he'd had some sort of brain surgery at some stage as you could see the scars on his skull and scalp. He also didn't really speak english - kind of a hybrid between english, german (mostly german, he would start in english and continue in german for the most part, but also threw in a few made up things as well, like niceynicey and other such things) thanks to my rudimentary German I was able to ascetain what the hell he was talking about in most circumstances (as for the rest!? Who knows!)
The speed boat trip was awesome for the most part, we went to Maya bay where The Beach was filmed but couldn't land because the sea was too rough on that side; bamboo island where we swam around for a bit - your typical idyllic thai island with stunning white sand beaches and clear blue water. Then Pileh bay where there's this amazing deep lagoon in the bay - really warm, but no fishies. Had lunch on Ko Phi Phi, which was beautiful, but some full on reminders of the tsunami. Apparently 8000 people died on the island (there had been around 20,000 people there before it) and there's still a lot of rebuilding going on. There were a few pictures up of the area just after the tsunami hit. scary. From there we went to Monkey bay where the shore was filled with monkeys and we got to feed them - so cute! have posted some pics on flickr. And finally some snorkelling off the coast of phi phi island. After that we got back on the boat to head back and the waves were about 5-6m and the guy at the wheel had a death wish apparently. It was made a lot worse by the fact that you couldn't see land in any direction because of the clouds and the rain. Once again, terrifying. I actually thought Simon might have a heart attack at one stage, and I was fairly sure I was going to fight the skipper for the lifejacket that was on his seat. I reckon I could have taken him! Still, near death experiences make you all the more glad to be alive and sure bring on the appetite, and the food has made everything ok again. Especially the mango, sticky rice and coconut milk dessert... yum.
We decided to flag Railay bay for this trip as the weather was really crap and headed to Ko Samui for a bit longer than we'd originally planned. However, that idea also changed and because of the large amount of fat sweaty tourists with "lovely" thai ladies and we took the catamaran to Koh Tao. Got to watch "the prince and me" on the way there. really stoked about that! :S We had four days on Koh Tao, and spent two days diving. Wicked. in seas that didn't scare the shite out of us. amazing visibility and lots of cool fish etc. sea snakes and sting rays and lots of tropical fish. it was fantastic. the skies were beautiful and blue and the water a balmy 30 degrees. sigh. we wished we didn't have to leave!
From there we went to Pattaya to see Jasper. It was great seeing her. She lives in Thailand at the moment, so it doesn't happen all that often. Otherwise, Pattaya is a hole. It's full of ugly fat old tourists with young thai girls on their arms. its creepy how many of them there are... It was a bit of a comedown after Koh Tao. We rented a scooter in Pattaya and spent 3 days busy trying not to get ourselves killed on the crazy pattaya streets. apparently there aren't any road rules in Thailand. it wasn't so bad in smaller places like Samui, but in Pattaya - madness.
We left Thailand on the 2nd July for Malaysia for some more diving (where I am writing this from). Currently I am sitting in the dining room (we get WiFi! yay, but for some reason gmail doesn't like it and we can't send emails from there, boo!) eating a plate of pasta and drinking watered down juice from a tiger beer glass. classy. We have now been here 5 days and have done 13 dives. We had a morning off this morning because there was a huge thunderstorm and if our little tiny stick bungalow (held together with chewing gum and drawing pins) was swaying in the wind. The loudest thunder I think I've ever heard (directly above us) and lightning. not our ideal diving conditions. especially when the trip out there would have taken about 45 mins in huge seas! shudder.... We went for an evening dive though. around this old oil rig that's now a dive resort (more of the dive, less of the resort). We are staying in paradise. honestly. it's amazing. I will blog one of my photos as proof. We have our last day of diving tomorrow. I will write a post about what we've seen in the big blue sea at some point, but have done enough typing for now...
posted by grublet at 11:43 PM
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