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Whale Shark at Chumphon!
The news spread like wildfire - the entire island was abuzz! That's right, I just had a close (talking like 1 foot away, max!) encounter with a WHALE SHARK today! This thing was apparently just a baby but it was still massive, like 10 feet long! I still can't believe it.
Picture this scene. Whale shark sightings here are extremely rare, and some people here have been diving for years and haven't seen one. Even Angie says that she didn't see her first until her 300th dive (and was once chased around by one too, which is insane). So we were on the deck of the boat going out to Chumphon Pinnacle, the dive site where we were going to do our deep water training, and Angie briefed us on the slight possibility of encountering one today. They're not dangerous to people, she said, but if we see one we need to stay at least 3 meters away. Okay, yeah, no problem, we'd never ever get that close even if we were lucky enough to see one... pffft....
So there we were, doing our pre-dive buddy checks when someone started to frantically shout that there was a whale shark in the water, and the whole place instantly turned into a
frenzy! Everyone rushed to the side of the boat to get a look, well everyone except for Angie that is, she immediately put on her game face and was rushing to the back to dive off, telling us that if we want to see it we better get the hell in! Just then there began a mad rush - another guy shouted "everyone do your f------ buddy checks and get the f----- in the water - RIGHT NOW!" and next thing we knew we were all diving like lemmings off the side of the boat not at all registering the connection that basically we were basically going "shark! shark! get in the water!! let's all swim with the shark!!"
Now we're all in the water, and the silence is eerie. After a while we started thinking the shark might have left, until some of the divers began pointing behind the boat, and Angie told Alex, who was nearby me in the outer edge of the group, to look in the water and "see what she can find". Oh yeah, way to make it sound like not a big deal at all! Curious, I popped my head into the water to see what what was there... and yeah there it was... the whale shark staring me straight in my face! I don't think I saw better shots during Shark Week on the Discovery Channel... it was that close and swimming straight by me! Later on Angie told me that it couldn't have been any further than a foot away, clearly not 3 meters like she instructed us just a few minutes earlier, hah! What a moment!
After it passed us and went on its way we started our descent to 30 meters as planned. Halfway down we looked up again, and we got another awesome view of the shark above, with the light reflecting through the water as he circled up above with his entourage of remoras swimming right beside him! After another 5 minutes of "whooooaaaa", we got on again with our business, getting to the bottom we knelt on the floor at our max depth, where Angie pulled out a tennis ball and a coke can to show how colors start to fade away in deep waters. The coke can was an odd greyish maroon, which she popped open, stuck a straw in, and passed around for everyone to take a sip - so now I can say I drank a coke at freaking 30 meters below!
Then we continued on our dive, saw more angelfish, yellowtail barracudas, some funny looking shrimp, tons of triggerfish, and batfish, which are also known as stoner fish because they will appear to float around stationary in a school, each one leaning to side at the same angle as the rest. Really funny creatures! So we finished the dive after about half an hour, ascended, and saw the whale shark again still chilling nearby the boat on our way back up! What an incredibly lucky day - you can tell how awesome it was with the way the divers were all talking about it the rest of the day. Back at the island the news spread like wildfire, and even in Sairee that night we saw a sign outside a dive shop on the beach saying "Whale Shark at Chumpon Today - Double Dive at Chumpon Tomorrow!!"
Oh yeah, I completely forgot - it's also the 4th of July today! This day was so wild that we completely didn't realize that. I also blame the island though - I mean, there were at least 3 empty bars here last week devoted to celebrating Canada Day, but none to celebrate the 4th! Hah! Come to think of it, we did see some fireworks on the beach tonight, but honestly I wouldn't have been surprised if they were meant to celebrate the whale shark sighting instead!! Nah, I'll go ahead and give them the benefit of the doubt with this one!
So the next couple of days are going to be pretty chill. We have only two days left here before we leave for Ko Phangan on the 7th. I don't want to leave! I'm hearing more and more that Ko Phangan is a backpackers party island, which is going to take some major adjustment given the life we've been leading here on Ko Tao. Places like this tend to convince me that I'm a total beach bum at heart! So tomorrow I think we're just going to chill on the beach, maybe move to the beanbags at the Crystal bar at some point. I imagine there might be a nap or three somewhere along the way. There's also a few books I've been meaning to read. In all likelihood I'll probably get bored and sign up for a dive or two before we leave, it hasn't even been a day and I miss it already!
Cheers and until next time! Who knows, maybe I'll actually have a tan next time I post?? Only time can tell...
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ben
non-member comment
wow
how thats pretty sciens like send me more pictures k i like them alot thanks ill send $$ to you