Advanced Diving and WWII history

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Since last blogging I have become a certified Advanced Open Water Diver - ie I'm certified to dive alone (ie with a buddy but without any need for an instructor) to 30m :D

Doing the Advanced course didn't involve all the theory of the Open Water course, just doing 5 specialist dives. First we did a Deep Dive - basically what it sounds like - a dive to 30m below sea level. When we got down to 30m we had to do a couple of simple mathematical exercises - to check if we were susceptible to Nitrogen Narcosis - basically as you go deeper your body absorbs more Nitrogen (Scuba tanks are filled with normal air, just compressed) and after around 26m this can express itself as narcosis - basically gives you a high/drunken feeling. Its not dangerous at all in itself, but can lead to you doing stupid things (offerring the regulator...ie your air... to a passing fish is the standard example) so its important to learn whether or not you are susceptible to it - none of us were.

Second dive we did was a navigation dive. This was to help us learn how to navigate a dive site on our own - so we took compasses down, did some basic exercises - swimming in a big square etc - then our instructor left us to explore on our own (always in pairs though) and miraculously noone got lost! The difference between these later dives and the first ones was incredible - on the first dives I had no idea how I would ever be able to know where I was on a dive site, yet by this point I was quite happy to explore it without an instructor (there were two of us, but as Doug is long-sighted he couldn't see the compass or map properly, so navigation was pretty much down to me).

The next day we did three dives. Firstly a multi-level dive - when you dive there is a limit to how long you can stay at depth, due to various decompression sicknesses. If making a 26m dive, you can only stay down a short time - but by planning a dive to 26m for 10 mins, you can then get to 12m and stay down for a further half an hour. Involves using either horrendously complicated looking charts, or a dive computer (worn like a watch, works it all out for you).

Next dive was a photography dive! We hired underwater cameras, and tried to take lots of photos....pretty hard work, as colours etc work very differently, plus staying still so the picture doesn't blur is a bit hard underwater.... We managed to get a few good ones though.

Our last dive, by far everyone's favourite, was a night dive. Basically exactly what is sounds like - we entered the water just as the light was fading (we'd been on our own for the last couple of dives, but our instructor lead this one, as obviously navigating in the dark is harder) so we could see everything change from light to dark. Saw a lot of different things - including a Great Barracuda (a good 2m long) hunting (one of the incredible things about diving is that fish, unlike animals will generally ignore you until you're very close) which was clearly not intimidated in the least by the 5 of us, it just hovered looking at us (or Rich who was in the front...) and slowly swam away. We saw lots of Stingrays (which we'd seen during the day, but only hiding under rocks) and various fish which stay hidden during the day.

The next day I left Koh Tao, on the boat I wasn't quite sure why I was leaving, its a wonderful place, but I wanted to see a bit more of Thailand before heading back to India.

With that intention I arrived in Bangkok at 4am, and caught a bus to Kanchanaburi that afternoon. Kanchanaburi is famous as the location of the Bridge On the River Kwai - (of Alec Guiness film fame). the film (for those that havn't seen it it's great) is slightly hopelessly inaccurate, but the basics are the same. Very potted history - WWII, the Japanese invade Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia etc. They need to get troops and supplies from Burma South, but the main route is by sea - the Malacca Straits - which are held (and indeed magnetically mined) by the British. With no rail or road links, the Japanese decided to build a railway - a project which the British had considered, but thought it would take too long (the prediciton was about 6 years) and would not be worth it. The Japanese decided to build it, using Allied POWs, and later recruited/conscripted Asian labourers. Its esimated that 200,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 POWs (mainly British and Australian) worked on the railway, and around 90,000 Asians and 12,000 POWs died building the railway, which was completed in around 15 months.

I rode the section of the railway still in use, then got a bus the the Hellfire Pass Museum - building this particular stretch of track required several cuttings - up to 25m deep, into sheer rock, with no machinery. The workers had very little rations - less than enough calories to provide for someone sitting still all day, let alone someone working up to 16 hours a day, and many died from starvation, disease (especially cholera and malaria) and injuries. They were also beaten and brutally punished by the Korean and Japanese guards.

There are several museums in the area - one of which is on hellfire pass, and the main exhibit is simply walking along the pass, whilst listening to an audio guide. Another museum in town documented the building of the line, and there are three cemeteries. All in all its a very interesting place to visit, and set in stunning scenery (hence why the railway was so difficult to build) but also quite hard work at times...

Now I'm back in Bangkok again. Not been up to very much - it was 37degrees today, so I spent most of the day hiding in an air con net cafe and air con restaurant with a book...

No pictures, as I've not got my camera with me, but I'll try and get some up soon.

See you all soon! (9 days and I'll be home!)

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