Maxin, Relaxin.... and shark hunting!

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February 8th 2010

Published: February 10th 2010

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Fatman

Malapascua Island

So spent a couple of days relaxing (on a budget) and started off the diving again. All the hype about seeing the sharks etc left a little too much to the imagination. Obviously your not expecting tens of them swimming by but it was pretty lame all the same. First dive, up at 5am(best time for shark spotting) went down to the cleaning station, just sat at 22 meters waiting for something to happen, odd bat fish maybe, but spent the rest of the time trying to find large shapes in the blue. Came up no sharks the better!

So next day, again a very early morning, same result! To be fair we did see some devil rays (huge) and a silhouette of something moving (shark) in the blue! But wasn't exactly a sighting. The next few days followed pretty much the same pattern, and on our 5th and final attempt we more or less saw a thresher. Huge thing with the huge tail following. Still terrible visibility though, not sure if I can really cross it off my list, did see the huge tail though!

All this said, the rest of the diving was lots of fun, and

Taking a stroll along the beach

loads of little stuff to see! A pygmy seahorse, dancing mandarin fish, loads of slugs, and loads of nice soft corals. In total did another 10 dives!

As I said we were on a tight budget so after deciding to stay a little longer, gave in a did a money run. So back onto a boat to the mainland, and negotiated a ride to Bogo. Both on the back of a motorbike! Not the most comfortable ride, and took a good 45 minutes even though at some points we were whizzing along at a good 60mph! Unfortunately also got off the wrong side of the bike and burnt my leg on the super hot exhaust...oops! Wasn't too bad and managed to salvage some ice from an ice truck but all the same ouch!

Kept it covered up during the diving though and until i managed to kick the blister off with my other foot was no problem. Couple of days on dry land and all was good....lesson learned!

After gaining some more funds we swapped accommodation and found ourselves a nice little bungalow on the quieter beach. Really cool island and very friendly locals, always laughing away.

Night Dive?

Up at 5am to find the illusive thresher shark, sporting a rather attractive leg bandage

Sooooo many cockrels (for the cock fighting) but seriously you couldnt go anywhere on the island at any time of day without hearing crowing coming from somewhere.

So spent a couple more days relaxing on the veranda and wandering round the island. Although we had a couple more days left on our 21 day visa, after some research it turned out it wasn't really worth moving on, and lacking funds again we rearranged our flights back to bangkok a little earlier.

So after lots more traveling arrived back in Bangkok, turning into a second home! Decided on going to Koh Tao for a few days before flying to Kathmandu as no-one wants to spend a week in Bangkok. Another bus/boat trip and arrived on Koh Tao. After hearing so much about the Thai islands, must say I was very pleasantly surprised. Images of high rise concrete hotel blocks were diminished by the huge rocks, clear(ish) water and the palm lined beaches. Obviously the change here has been massive but its definitely still Thailand.

Lots of time spent on the beach, sitting in the sea and eating lots of western food, bit of a change from the Philippines!

Sun rise from the boat

making the early wake up a little more worthwhile

Also went for a walk, much to the amusement of everyone else (no-one without a bike) up to one of the view points. Middle of the day and far too hot....not sure how we're going to cope with Nepal! Very worth while view though. (will add a couple of pics later!)

5 days on Koh Tao in total and then back to Bangkok for another token day, getting the last few bits sorted for the main adventure - Nepal! Plan is to spend a couple of days in Kathmandu and then jump on a 10 hour bus to Jiri. 6 day trek to the beginning(!) of the Everest trek ( a little training needed!) and then the Everest trek itself! 1 backpack and around 3wks walking - should be interesting!

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