As many of you already know, we had a long weekend ("Mid-Autumn Festival") from September 22-26 and we decided to travel to Thailand. We've already been to northern Thailand and Bangkok, so this time we decided to explore a tiny corner of Southern Thailand. We chose Phuket. We flew directly there after work on Sept. 22, returning to Hong Kong on the evening of Sept. 26. We had a blast and did loads of stuff, but in this first post (there will be a total of two), I'll just discuss our seaborne adventures.
We spent two days of our time in Phuket aboard a dive boat. Although I (Brad) am the only one of us that dives, Emily came along as well to do some snorkeling and relax onboard the boat.
Our first day on the boat was spent in the Phi Phi islands, where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. (The name is pronounced "pee pee" - feel free to post your jokes in the comment section). I (Brad) did 3 dives: Koh Doc Mai, Koh Bida Nok, and Koh Bida Nai ("Koh" means "island" in Thai - hence the similar names). While I wasn't initially impressed with the visibility in Thailand (as compared to the Red Sea in Egypt), we were very impressed with the variety of sea life.
At Koh Bida Nok (above), I (Brad) had a great "drift dive." I saw all kinds of barracuda, coronet fish, and even sting rays. It was much different than diving in Egypt, with strong currents carrying me all around the island. But it wasn't the currents or the colorful fish on the reef that made the dive memorable. The most memorable part of Koh Bida Nok was the jellyfish. While getting out of the water, a detached tentacle from a jellyfish drifted across my face. It was an electrifying experience. I'd never been stung by a jellyfish before, and I found myself bombarded by advice from the veteran divers in my group: "You got stung by a jellyfish? It often helps to urinate on the affected area." I calmly explained to the good samaritans around me that I had been stung on the face. "Oh," they replied. "Well, I suppose you'll have to find yourself some vinegar then." I sought out a crew member who quickly ducked into the galley and returned with a gallon jug of vinegar. We were off to our next dive site.
...Where Emily decided to go and find her own jellyfish. Not being covered in neoprene, she was less fortunate than me, and was stung on her leg, arm, and lip. Fortunately, we knew where to find the vinegar.
Our second day took us to the island of Racha Yai (pictured below), which is about an hour and a half south of Phuket by boat. We saw loads of sea life, including 2 sea turtles and a sea snake (both of which would be a rare treat in Egypt). It was a more relaxed day of diving, with only 2 dives on the itinerary. Much of the day was spent relaxing and chatting with divers who had come from around the world (there were divers from Iran, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Germany to name just a few).
When lunchtime rolled around, the crew prepared a delicious buffet of Thai curries, rice, and salad. It seemed like the fish somehow knew that it was lunchtime, because as we finished our morning dive and climbed aboard the boat, I noticed a school of damselfish and triggerfish gathering around our boat. Once lunch was served, I realized why. When finished with lunch, passengers began absentmindedly dropping their scraps into the water. The fish loved it, and although I don't have an underwater camera, I was able to snap a picture of some of Thailand's sea life:
Jellyfish and all, it was still a relaxing couple of days. Emily is convinced that out of all of our travels, this holiday saw the most beautiful sunsets of all. I'll try to include some of those in our next post. I would, however, like to add that after 2 days on a boat, Emily did not get sick.She did, however, sunburn her bum so badly that she couldn't sit down at the airport on the way home:
Feel free to comment with either "Phi Phi" jokes or statements of sympathy towards Emily's sunburnt bum.
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