Back to Bangkok

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Back on the boat early again and I forgot to wish my beautiful sleeping wife Happy anniversary before I left. We were heading out to Chumporn pinnacle again this time armed with an underwater camera. We jumped in and the Vis was 18m and very very clear, we descended down into the clear blue deep as and taking photos all the way down to 27m again to start our dive and slowly spiralling our way up around the reef. It was hard to see any colours from that depth and the light was rather poor from an overcast day but we all tried our best to the perfect pictures possible.
Once again we meet up with the local bull shark that roams this reef and it was impossible to get decent shot in the dark water. My camera started to fog up half way through the dive and it was pointless taking anymore photos. Back on the boat again to head to our last dive White rock again and my last subject to complete my advanced training. Underwater naturalist is the subject I picked and it basically meant I had to hunt around and identify different species fish, crustaceans and corals from underwater identification cards it was pretty easy and I had allot of fun. Back at headquarters and we were now Advanced divers, so more paperwork to be filled out and sent to PADI for my licence. Our boat left at 4:00 for Chumporn mainland in three hours so we had a bit of chilling to do before we caught the taxi to the jetty. We were both upset about leaving this place as we had a great time whilst we were here, especially that we had to go back to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok to organise our visa’s for India. We were waiting to receive the CD from the photo’s I took under water when I heard allot of commotion outside and some screaming. I looked in the direction and saw a few people staring and hastily walking in the same direction. At first I didn’t know what they were looking at until I spotted a young Thai man up in the coconut tree dangling unconscious upside down. I asked what happen and someone said that he fell? This didn’t make sense because he was already on the top of the tree. I looked close by and realised that he somehow had been electrocuted from the power lines 2m away. There were a bunch of wires draped on top of other wires but there was still nothing closer than 2m from him. The Thai Asia dive staff quickly got a ladder which only made it half way up the tree, other Thai’s rounded up some rope and meanwhile a Thai man climbed up to support the injured man’s head and after a couple of minutes juggle the injured man’s head and gave three breaths of air into this poor man’s lungs. I knew straight away that he was not unconscious but dead stuck in a tree with little hope of getting him down in time to give CPR. From information gathered the young Thai was either fixing or running a internet cable across the street and somehow it shorted out on the wires. A crowd had formed and 10min later they lowered the young man down from the tree. The Asia staff had oxygen waiting and administered CPR straight away. Everyone knew the outcome but you have to try anyway. A lady in her early thirty’s came over crying and trying to hold the young man, they had to restrain her for awhile until she calmed down. I don’t believe she was a relative but maybe a friend. I watched them give CPR and notice massive third degree burns on his hand and foot. I shook my head and walked away from the scene feeling very sad for the family and the Thai man. I know that there would of been no pain involved and he died very quick so it is a blessing when you think about, he could of easily got shock, fell and died from injury’s hitting the ground.
Our taxi turned up and our CD with all the underwater photos had not been finished as the Asia Dive staff were still preoccupied with the young man. The dive master said he would drop the CD off to us on the jetty before our boat leaves for Chumporn. Just as we were leaving resort the a medical wagon pulled up to attend to the Thai man. We waited on the jetty feeling bad about what we had just witnessed and half hour later the dive master turned up without the CD because the computer had crashed, it didn’t matter and we asked about the progress of the boy straight away, he said they were still working on him but it didn’t look good. His last sorrow words were “Well that’s Thailand for you”. It’s understandable when you look at the mass of powerlines around the streets. Some are that full of wires that the weight stretches the wires until you can touch them from the ground. Even though all the wires are insulated it’s not fail safe by any means. I only had to look in front of me when I followed the main wire from the mainland and it was only 1ft or 300mm of the water and just before it attached to the jetty with some crappy rope there was a repair to the cables and it was patched with electrical tape. It was the same with the wires branching of the main wire the all had been cut and patched with electrical tape. I showed Jacinta and explained that if one of those wires comes into contact with the steel jetty than 30 people would be dead in an instant.
So if you are travelling to Asia or Thailand, please be very careful about electricity and wiring around buildings.
We caught the Seatran fast boat to Chumporn and it only took 2 hours to get to the main land, we then waited in the Chumporn bus terminal which was brand new and a pleasure to see a building so clean. They had one restaurant with provision for another to open, the food was great and not over priced so we were happy to had a feed and hope on the bus ready for Bangkok.

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