Ugh! Thick head this morning. Our first dive this morning is at pretty much the same place as yesterday. We go down deep looking for sharks but it's hard to estimate depth visually and you can quickly drop below 30m. Helen reached 35m and became dizzy and thought she might black out (symptoms of nitrogen narcosis, not directly dangerous but as a side effect you lose control) and the shock of it made her want to come up and finish the dive early, which we did.
We then motored south to a lone island, Koh Bon, not part of the Similans but part of the dive rota. We had a couple of dives here with amongst others plenty of scorpionfish and strong currents. In one combination we had to haul ourselves up a crevice against a strong downward current -- quite often the strong currents are several degrees colder, fortunately not this one -- only 10m or so but it can be quite tiring. At the top, sat on a rock was a scorpionfish. Luckily, not on our direct path of hand holds but not far off. Cornelia, our terribly excitable Swiss friend, almost touched it when trying to point it out.
Having looked around at the top we looked out to sea at about 12m and within a couple of minutes saw a manta ray, rather dusky through the now murky water but still one of the great sights underwater. Another group, only 20m to our left saw it quite clearly and estimated a 4m wingspan. A good couple of dives to finish on a good dive trip.
[The absence of further diving meant that these weren't pruned as rigorously as previous dives.] Maybe I shouldn't have stopped to take a photo... This way! could be anything that's bright blue with black trim and hides under rocks notice the effect of different densities of water floating across the view erm...not sure it's...don't know no, no idea pufferfish don't usually come out to play everybody up! if you don't know what to look for, this is a (red chinned) scorpionfish staring straight at you from on top of a coral -- don't pat him on the head there are at least eight out of focus damselfish and an semi off screen anemonefish as well as a titchy one (about the size of the tips of four anemone fronds) near the centre of the picture -- at least the anemone looks good a picture of a big old giant moray eel peering out and a cleaner wrasse no idea Markus and Cornelia Ian and Helen -- I did ask the crew not to light me from above... Markus, Cornelia, Helen, Ian
We jump on the speedboat and head back to Tablamu where we jump in the bus with Sasson who has a seat on the 18:00 bus to Bangkok. We'll try to sneak on as well. At Kok Klai, the bus rendevous, the bus is full and Sasson spends twenty minutes uming and ahing before deciding to come back to Phuket and get a flight tomorrow. He doesn't like the bus. He has his preferred hotel at the end of Patong bay and we take a room there as well. There is an advert in reception for "Lady Joiner 500 Baht." It's not clear for how long a lady will join you for your US$11. I wonder if there's a lady brickie service as well. Much amusement from that sign including a very quick No!
from the manageress when Sasson offers her B2000 to be a Lady Joiner. But don't tell his wife.
We head out for dinner purchasing bus tickets to Bangkok for tomorrow at 6pm (a 12 hour journey) but Helen's not on top form and wants to go eat and go to sleep. She's settled on an Indian restaurant and to keep things quiet we separate from Sasson. I agree to catch up with him later. Down the alley and into the restaurant, the only diners. It's quite good and Helen perks up. We head back and catch up on the latest of day 4 of the Gulf War from BBC World. As in previous recent conflicts there's a curious mix of early 20th century war reporting and the latest high tech wizardry. Thanks to the general media blackout you only get the gory details of conflict a few days after the event. On the other hand, there's nothing the military can do about the dogged CNN team broadcasting live pictures of, in this case, nothing happening over Baghdad. In the meanwhile, the next to useless Channel 7 which has over half its nation anthem video [played at the start of each news broadcast] being Thailand's military prowess, insists on only ever showing the dullest of local news items in its broadcasts. There's a war on, what's this picture of a garden centre doing on?
A little after nine I call Sasson's room and have a strange conversation with someone who sounds very cautious and not especially like Sasson. He says he wants to study his books for tomorrow and might come down to the bar later. Oh well, I go down and slurp a beer before being hailed in a French accent from the road. It's Sasson on the back of a moped, just back from a restaurant. So who did I speak to? There's general confusion as Sasson thinks he's in one room, the three bar staff say he's in another and there really was someone else in his old room -- who we phone again to check and get a lady, perhaps a lady joiner? Ah well.
Ao Patong, Phuket N7.88626 E98.28982 Elev. 31m! Swiss Hotel, Ao Patong
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.
