Pure Shores

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I originally intended to spend four days on Kao Tao Island but I ended up staying ten. I spent most of that time scuba diving, all round the island were isolated reefs, each unique and teeming with life, after my open water course I felt I had not seen enough of what the island had to offer. Two of the most memorable dives were the night and deep dives which were both part of the advanced diving course.
On the night dive the boat arrived at dusk & we jumped straight in, being underwater at night is a vastly different experience from diving at day, you can only see what you point your torch at & the predators all come out. Swimming all around us were Giant Barracuda which swam incredibly fast, the best game we played was shining a torch on a nearby fish & watching the Barracuda dive in for its dinner. At one point we were all told to cover our torches and wave our hands about - this had the most incredible effect - all the phosphorescent plankton glowed green all around me. It was quite something being in the pitch black with the only illumination flowing off you in waves with your every move, stunning.
The deep dive had its own surprises as well - at 30m down you breath four times the volume of air you do at the surface so you cant stay there very long also colors change because the water absorbs the red end of the spectrum, everything becomes monochromatic and a bit eerie, but probably the best bit is the pressure, my instructor took a raw egg down with us & cracked it at the bottom, the pressure makes the egg stay in a tight ball which you can push around and even play ping pong with, great fun if a bit weird. On the way up my mask turned green & for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what was in it, at the surface I realized my sinuses hadn’t enjoyed the pressure much & I’d had a monster nose bleed, apparently blood looks green below five meters and black below twenty, very odd!
I left Koa Tao yesterday fourteen dives better off than when I arrived, I got into Bangkok very early this morning not sure if I was pleased to be back. I headed out this morning in a slight drizzle within five minutes it had turned into a downpour, before i knew it a real wind had picked up and the sky was streaked with lightning, by this time the rain was really sheeting, it was like stepping out into a powerful shower. The rain did not stop and before long large puddles started to form, all the tourists had dived into the nearest shop or cafe to wait it out, but the rain just kept coming, the puddles merged & the streets started to flood, a bolt of lightning brought down a nearby tree. Within a few minutes the water spilled over onto the pavements and started going into the shops & cafes, at its height the water was 18" up the sides of the cars, despite this minor obstacle the taxi drivers were still trying to get fares. By this point even the rats and cockroaches had given up and were evacuating to higher ground - the walls were covered in them. Loads of tourists were wading round Khao Shan road taking photos smiling at each other enjoying the mayhem as much as me. Just as the shops started to flood two Irish girls came up to me and said

were after an Irish pub so we are, have you seen one about

. A bit later I saw a joker wandering the street in his wet suit carrying a harpoon, who said big cities were all the same. Within a few hours the water had drained away, the debris was cleared away or put into neat piles and all the shops were open, amazing. The tree 3m from by hotel window had also be blasted in half, its improved my view greatly. For my last day in Thailand I’ve had a terrific time.

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Comments

[Dave and Fiona]

Cheers for the card mate
You really are having a rather fantastic time aren't you... Thanks for the card. I am very impressed you were able to send me one. Even if i had remembered to do such a thing on the other side of the world i would never have been clever enough to bring the address. Work is going really well, but is very busy indeed. THe house is starting to look really good. There is still lots to do, but its nice to see some of the potential realised. I hope you have a great time in aussi. Try not to put too much green/red (or any other colour for that matter) gunk in your mask again! Fiona says Hi. Take care buddy. Dave