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PADI Open Water
In the last four days I did the PADI Open Water Course, which I successfully completed. It was a great experience. The first three days were difficult with lots of theorie and lots of new things to remember and to practice. Today has been very rewarding though, I really enjoyed my last dive, because I could finally (more or less) keep control of my movements and spend more time looking at everything. Just one type of fish has been really unnerving me, they're small with silver and blue horizontal stripes, they kept picking at me the whole time...
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I'd better stay away from waters containing Piranhas (or similar), they'd probably choose me out of a group of ten people... ;-).
Fun Diving
Did 2 Fun Dives at Sail Rock on the 17th September.
It was a great experience, I saw so many different fishes (mostly small ones) and the visibility was great.
On the way back |
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| I was sleeping on the boat and catched a minor sunburn...
Advanced Open Water Course
Finished the Advanced Open Water Course today.
After a short theory session we did our first 2 dives. The first one was a 'Underwater Naturalist' dive, where we paid attention to specific fishes and plants. The second dive was a 'Navigation' dive, |
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where we swam a square and a triangle using the compass. Whilst descending we saw a squid with a really long tail. In the evening we did the 'Night Dive', which was really cool, everything looked so different from the day, I had the feeling, that the ocean is much bigger at night. We saw a couple of 'Bluespotted Manta Rays', a Crab and others, unfortunately we didn't see the big baracuda or the turtle, which were supposed to be around.
Today we first did the 'Deep Dive', where we descended to 30m (on previous dives the maximum depth was ~18m),
and I got a really bad case of nitrogen narcosis, I was giggling like mad at nothing :-), but as soon as we got to shallower water I was okay again. Our last dive was a 'Multi-Level' dive, where we first descended to 24m and then gradually went to shallower water. |
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| There we saw dozens of 'Trigger Fishs', it was kind of scary, I didn't really know how to find a safe passage, but our instructor led us through there without problems. Later on we swam through some caves, which were quite tight.
I'm looking forward to more diving adventures...
Fun Diving
Another Day of Fun Diving. The first Dive was at 'South-West Pinacle'. We saw a whole swarm of yellowback fusiliers, there must have been thousands of them, it looked like a big cloud when swimming past.
The Second Dive was at 'White Rock' where the Visibility was great, over 20m.
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After a nap in the afternoon, I was fit again for the Night Dive. This time I saw a big chevron baracuda, a huge Porcupine Fish (~50cm) and a tiny Octopus (2cm).
Emergency First Responder
Did the PADI Emergency First Responder Course, which teaches First Aid including CPR.
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| This was the first time in the last 9 days, that I haven't been in the water... kinda strange ;-).
Rescue Diver
Finished the Rescue Diver Course today. It was a great though exhausting experience.
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| We did lots of excercises to train what to do when a diver panicks at the surface or underwater, how to rescue an unconscious diver and so forth. In addition to that we had pass a difficult written exam (well, it was multiple-choice, but I had to do a lot of reading nevertheless).
At the end of the day we enjoyed it a lot.
Sharks! |
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| Today's fun dive brought us to 'Chumphon' where I saw my first shark! In the end I saw 5 or 6 (each 2 - 3 m long), it was difficult to tell, whether I saw the same one multiple times, because the visibility wasn't great. There were at least 2, because I saw them following each other. Sharks are very impressive, it looks like they are floating through the water. Later on I saw a swarm of medium sized baracudas.
The second dive took us to 'Green Rock', unfortunately the Triggerfish were out hunting and the Triggerpits were empty, we still saw a couple swimming around.
Diving, what else...
And another day dedicated to diving...
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1st Dive: South-West Pinnacle. We wanted to go deep (38 or 39m) but unfortunately the viz was too bad and we stopped at 30m... The strangest thing happened, my depth gage got nitrogen narcosis, it wouldn't show any greater depth than 15m... :-)
I saw a couple of triggerfish (again...), a moray eel and a giant trouper.
2nd Dive: Shark Island (finally!). Unfortunately we didn't see the resident turtle, but we saw a triggerfish, while it was digging for something, looked really cool... Near the surface we saw dozens of small jellyfish.
3rd Dive (Night): White Rock. We saw a huge jenkins ray (~1m) and another hermit crab.
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Intermezzo
After close to two weeks on Koh Tao I decided to change scenery and travelled to Krabi.
Diving from Krabi
A big boat took us close to Koh Phi-Phi where we did 2 dives.
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1st Dive: It was close by to the location where the Beach was filmed. There was a mild current and lots of fish. I saw a turtle, lionfish and a young triggerfish.
2nd Dive: More young triggerfishes, trumpetfish, tuna and pufferfish
on our way back we spotted a couple of dolphins.
Intermezzo 2 |
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| Just when I arrived on the beautiful island of Koh Phi-Phi I discovered that I had an ear infection, after a short trip to the doctor I wasn't allowed to go into the water for a couple of days. In addition it rained for 4 days straight, so there wasn't much to do, but to relax and read.
From Koh Phi-Phi
After a 1 week break, I was very happy to finally get back into the water.
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1. Dive: Phi Ley Bay. Saw only the usual images: Lionfish, Porcupine Fish, Pufferfish, young triggerfish and a big Potato Grouper.
2. Dive: Bida Nay. This one was awesome, we saw a Banded Seasnake, a Leopard Shark (who was sleeping), a Blue-Spotted Stingray, a Scorpionfish, a Hawksbill Turtle, an Indian Triggerfish, and at the very end, a Tiger-Tailed Seahorse!
Since I was still suffering from Scuba Diving withdrawal ;-), I decided to do another Dive today.
3. Dive (Night): Ton Say Bay: We went to the Dive site by longtail boat, which was a first for me.
It was really dark down there and we swam, by mistake, into the entrance of a small cave, fortunately the current was |
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friendly, and we got out again. We saw 2 Great Baracudas, a big Batfish, some Glass Shrimp and a Hermit Crab. By chance I found a Bearded Scorpionfish, I was swimming directly above him.
Afterwards I went to the Hippie's Bar, where I met a couple of friends and we watched a fantastic Fire Show.
Local Diving
Because the Dive Shop didn't find enough people for a Trip to the Wreck, we did 2 local dives instead. |
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1. Dive: Bida Nok. Saw another Leopard Shark, 5 Lionfish, 2 Scorpionfish, a school of Baracuda, a couple Batfish, a few Boxer Shrimps and a Titan Triggerfish 'Family' (4 Triggers in different sizes who swam in a neat formation).
2. Dive: North Point. We found a Frogfish, a big Mooray Eel, a school of Rainbow Runners, a Hawksbill Turtle, and an Orange-Lined Triggerfish.
During Dinner I finally managed to find a restaurant which showed Finding Nemo (it's normally always played in the mornings), which was hillarious.
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The 'Thai-Tanic'
We were not sure if the Captain'd be able to find the wreck, because some fishermen cut the buoyline and our boat didn't have GPS, but we were ready to take our chances.
The 1. Dive site was Anemone Reef, which was awesome. Close to where we descended were hundreds of different fish swimming in all directions, I never saw so many fish in one place before. It was just beautiful... We saw a Snake Eel, a Mantas Shrimp, which retreated into its whole once we approached, a Boxfish and a Turtle. |
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Whilst we were diving the captain managed to attach a buoy to the severed line and we could do our second dive as planned.
The Wreck is called King Cruiser and was a ferry between Phuket and Koh Phi-Phi which crashed into Anemone Reef and thereafter sank in 1997. The current was very strong and the visibility very poor, nevertheless I was awestruck, how the wreck was claimed by oceanic life. Unfortunately part of the Middle Deck collapsed last summer and it isn't possible anymore to penetrate the wreck. Through the windows we could see into the car deck (I saw nothing, it was too dark) and into the VIP Lounge, where you could still distinguish the seats.
To round the day off our third dive was at Phuket Shark Point. As usual with those kind of names, there was not a shark in sight... We did see a Great Barracuda, which was approx. 1.2m long, and lots of other tropical fishes.
This night I went to the Reggae Bar to watch a Thai Boxing Match.
2 out of the Top 3 Dive Sites in Thailand
1. Dive: 1. Dive: Hin Daeng. The Visibility was great, 30+m, unfortunately we didn't see any of the Big stuff (Manta Rays and Whale Sharks), it was nevertheless a beautiful Dive. We saw lots of big Mooray Eels, a school of Chevron Barracudas, lots of Indian Triggerfishes, a couple of Titan Triggerfishes, a Spotfin Lionfish and a Short-Nose Unicornfish.
We saw lots of big Mooray Eels, a school of Chevron Barracudas, lots of Indian Triggerfishes, a couple of Titan Triggerfishes, a Spotfin Lionfish and a Short-Nose Unicornfish.
Hin Muang. Again beautiful Visibility. We saw dozens of tiny Red-Tooth Triggerfishes (~3cm long), a Great Barracuda, a Titan Triggerfish who was circling a Yellow-Margin Triggerfish and again lots of Mooray Eel.
The return trip was very wet, the current had picked up a little bit and we were soaked by the time we reached the harbor.
Good-bye Diving... for now
My last two dives were close to the island (I had to get back in time to catch my ferry).
1. Dive: Table Coral City. It was a nice and relaxed dive and we saw some rare things: A Marble Flounder, which I almost couldn't spot (same color as the sand), a Mantas Shrimp who was completely out of its hole and a Giant Seahorse.
2. Dive: Hin Dot. This is one of the lesser well known dive sites on Koh Phi-Phi. We found an Egg of a Leopard Shark, a Scorpionfish. When we went a little deeper, we found a big fish cage, where a big Batfish and lots of Porcupine fish were trapped. Our divemaster opened the cage, and we hope that they found their way out.
Shortly after returning to the Diveshop, I took the Boat to Phuket. In Phuket Town I switched to the bus to Bangkok, which took 13 1/2 hours... it wasn't very comfortable. |
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