Diving...

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Hello!

I followed my father's request and went swimming with sharks!!!

I finally got around to doing some diving after two weeks in paradise! Everytime I walk by a diveshop they always ask: "Do you want to go diving today?" This time I said YES!

We had to meet at 8am at the Visa diveshop in the main part of Phi Phi, get organized and then head off to the pier. I was a bit nervous since my last dive was less than fun... I decided to try Canada's waters.... 8C and dark. Here is it 29C (in the water) and pretty good visibility. Although at the moment something is happening with the water so the visibility is not as good as usual. 15 meters approximately. I was buddied up with Sven, a guy from Holland, that is at about the same dive level as me. = beginners. I've only done 10 dives (and that's including the two from today!) We had a Dive Master with us, Rhea, a girl from the UK that has been living here in Phi Phi for 2 years! We jumped in the water at Bida Nok, on the southern tip of Ko Phi Phi Leh (The Beach island). We descended slowly... its sooo strange to be underwater... breathing... and being surrounded by fish. Almost immediately we saw a school of Chevron Barracuda! They're actually tiny barracudas, probably not even 30cm long! Other fish we saw: Angel fish, Giant groupers, moorish idols, clown fish (Nemo's cousins!), Moray eels, yellow boxfish, cuttlefish (now that's an odd one!), lionfish and scorpion fish (both poisonous - do not touch!), triggerfish, puffer fish, and soooo many stingrays! Most of them were blue spotted stingrays. Do a google image search to see these! They were really nice to see. They were all over. At one point there must have been 30 of them around us. I tried to count. Some swimming, some "hiding" in the sand... one was in the sand below me, and when i swam over him, he took off!
It took a few minutes to get used to diving again, but I quickly got into it, and really enjoyed it. It is such a relaxing activity. It is just you, your breathing, and all the fish and corals around you. spectacular. Inhale to go up... exhale to go down.......
After about 50 minutes, and down to a maximum depth of 18 meters, we surfaced and enjoyed a break on the diveboat. lunch, fruit and some sunshine ~

After an hour and a half we were ready to go for the second dive. We had these two options:
A) turtles
B) sharks.

Sven and I chose sharks!

We jumped in the water at Palong Wall North - also off Phi Phi Leh. I was so excited because I had only seen reef sharks during snorkeling before, never diving. Last time I dove in Phi Phi, I did see a Leopard Shark though... but he was just chilling on the bottom. Not the same as seeing it swim towards you!
This time... we saw black tip reef sharks pass by us!! It was great!! They were small... maximum 1 meter. But it's still a shark... at that point it was me, my breathing, and the shark soundtrack as I searched the edge of the visibility line for more sharks!
Again, we saw lots and lots of stingrays... and flute mouth fish, trumpet fish, moray eels, cuttle fish, trevelly, and two barracudas (not the small ones this time!).
During the second dive I was totally comfortable with diving again. I really enjoyed this dive. And decided that I'm going again tomorrow!! In fact... I think I'm going for the max tomorrow and heading out to Thailand's best dive sites instead of just nearby here. At these sites (Hin Daeng and Hin Muang), there's a good chance of seeing manta rays and whalesharks!!!!!!! wouldn't that be incredible! I hope i see them!!!! Expect a blog! haha This is a bit more of an advanced dive, so I'm doing deep water diving course with the dive.

Some thoughts - I think I have forgotten to mention that there are no cars on Phi Phi. Not even tuk-tuks!! They basically just have large metal wheelbarrows to transport stuff around the island. The garbage man has a scooter with a metal attachment on the side to carry all the garbage. Its a good thing that the garbage transport is motorized, as the smell would be too strong if it were to be slowly pushed across the island...

Do you know what sound a gecko makes? There are so many here... on all the walls and inside bungalows even. Someone told me what they sound like but I had never heard it until last night. They say something that sounds like a loud "GECKO" or "GE CKO" but it's loud! we were chatting away in a restaurant and stopped talking because the guy decided to announce his presence!

Did I tell you about the rat in the restaurant in Phnom Penh?? We were watching a movie in a restaurant one night when I saw a dark shadow run across the floor... then it ran by again. Rat! I told the waiter, and he asked me if I liked it.... then he went to the bar and had a drink. definitely not worried about it.

Oh and when I was in Bangkok I so nicely warned Eve (thai friend there) about a cockroach she was about to step on... she freaked out when she found out it was just a cockroach! she'd thought it was a snake or rat! In my eyes, all those are nasty and I'd rather not step on any of them!

So the trip is almost coming to an end... this afternoon I'll go to the beach, tomorrow I have diving, and then one more day in Phi Phi before leaving to go to Krabi and then fly to Bangkok on Friday. I'll be in Bangkok on the weekend - shopping - and then flying home on monday the 2nd. booooooooooooooooo... I could stay longer for sure.... But I am looking forward to seeing my friends and my apartment (my bed and shower!!) again... see you all soon!!

Yesterday turned out to be quite Swedish -
First I was approached by two Swedish guys that guessed that I was Swedish - pretty easy guess on this island (looks like a Swedish colony here!). We had a drink on the beach and they invited me to a party... I didn't go though - i'm not here to party, plus Swedish party means a lot of beer.... no thanks. I ended up going back to my room, and on the way met a Swedish guy from the dive shop... he took me to dinner... Swedish meatballs... seriously... in Thailand! Everyone in that restaurant was speaking Swedish, blond hair everywhere... Then we went for a drink at a bar - swedish owner, bartenders and staff... its so strange... even at the dive shop, half the people are from there! There must be no one left in Sweden right now!!

Well I'm sorry to cut this now... but I think I heard the beach calling me...

jessica

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Comments

[Kim af East T'sook]

Keep diving,my girl
Way to go Jessica. Go deep and dance with sharks. Sea U soon Luv dqts

[Emma]

Sa kommer har nu ocksa ett svenskt meddelande : ) Jag ar nu tillbaka har hemma i Tsawwassen efter springbreaktrippen. Hade det toppen, akte skidor, korde skiidoo och massa annat : ) Men som alltid ar det skont att vara hemma igen : ) Later som att du har det toppen,( blir avis pa dina dyk!) det gladjer mig att allt ar sa bra! Kan dock inte riktigt forsta att en manad snart har gatt och att du kommer hem igen...tiden gar verkligen fort! vilket i och for sig ar bra for jag ser fram emot att ses igen: ) Nae nu maste jag sluta, ska ivag pa franskan. Va radd om dig och ha det riktig skoj : ) KRAMAR!

[Octavio]

scary...
i fear dogs... a little, if they bite... anyway has to be from the best experiences in life... swimming with sharks... i heard if the shark attack u must punch him in the nose as hard as u can... because is the place where he feels deep... bye