An evening in Phuket

We booked into a cosy but basic little guest house, at least we had warm showers for a change which feels like heaven after three months in Phi Phi with cold showers everyday. We went out on the town for the evening in search for normal food other that all the strange Thai food we got during the day on our visa run. We ended up at a shopping mall and spotted the Burger King instantly which is also like heaven after three months of no take aways like McDonald's, KFC or whatever else you could think of as there is no such thing on Phi Phi.

We came across a restaurant which has a huge tank as one of its walls and found a few small black tip reef sharks, moray eels and stone fish in it. There we go got my picture of a black tip, but I'm still not happy as it isn't in it's natural state...

Look Mom, we are not that far from home...

Our evening came to and end and we had to catch the ferry back to Phi Phi in the morning. We are already looking forward to our next visa run in October, which will be a long one...

Visa Run to Myanmar (Previously known as Burma)

The pier where we met our taxi boat to the Border The Taxi boat and the government official
The border post (believe it or not)

We were unfortunately very busy at work and we were quite short staffed as some of the staff left without notice so we had to cut our grand plans for an extensive visit to another country short and only go for a day... The easiest option was Myanmar as this is the closest to us so off we went to Phuket and into a taxi bus for five hours each way to get to the Myanmar border post.

A very different visa run, we got to a makeshift pier and got told to get into a small longtail boat where some of the Burmese government officials met us to look at our passports and visa's. We stopped at the collection office where each person must pay 10$US for contributions to the government of Myanmar for the improvement of their tourism infrastructure, then you have to cross the channel to the Burmese border, where you can buy things like Jack Daniels for 20 South African Rands a bottle... BARGAIN!!!

You get off the longtail at the pier, get escorted to the border office, get you stamps and get escorted back to your longtail boat. No chance of escaping here... Then back for the whole journey to phuket in torrential rain. We at a stage really thought that we wouldn't make it back as our driver drives at 150km per our over dirt roads and potholes like it is nothing in the world.

Back in Thailand to get stamped in...

The vehicle they use to get people caught with drugs etc. to the holding cells...

Save back in Phuket, we thanked our lucky stars...

Carlien dive's Koh Haa

What a day, I went out on the speed boat to go and dive Koh Haa (The five Islands)... It is absolutely beautiful and the guy I dived with says that we saw it on a bad day. We had twenty five meters visibility and clear blue waters other that the more green water you have in Phi Phi. I can't wait to go and dive it again when it is considered good conditions, meaning dead calm water and 30 to 35m visibility with things like manta rays around...

It was also my very first experience of cave diving...

Dive one was at what they call the chimney, you enter a small opening only about a meter and a half wide in about 16 meters of water and make your way up through a narrow tunnel to the top which is at about 5 to 7 meters deep, you then swim out into the open only to see a million bubbles coming from to ground which is from the divers who are still in the tunnel below you.

The second dive was at the Cathedral which is even more spectacular. It is a cave which you enter about fifteen meters deep, you surface in the cave to see all the stalactites and stalagmites bearing down on you from the top and the bottom. You can remove your mask and regulator as there are natural air vents in the cave, but you can't see them. It is pitch black dark in there. When you look down you just see this blue water that looks like a gigantic blue stained glass window. Steam builds up in the cave and at intervals get sucked out with the water movement. You then go back down and enter a side tunnel into another cave where you go out into the blue and continue the rest of the dive over a rocky outcrop reef with loads of marine life...

Inside the cathedral looking down into the water

Exiting the cathedral

This is where you stop for lunch, you can see straight through to the bottom from the surface...

Carlien's first underwater pictures

Finally I get a turn...

And I had quite a bit of luck on my side as I found an octopus, which is something you do not see too often. I get more excited about octopus and cuttlefish than what I get when I see turtle's and leopard shark.

It's still my mission in life to get that one really good pic of one of the gorgeous black tips we have here before we leave, but they swim too fast. I'll just have to go do the videography course in Koh Tao so that I can get them in action on film.

I can just see Eugene's eyes rolling here next to me... More money on camera things and courses...

Octopus

Eugene at the King Cruiser Wreck

The Moray in the toilet

The King Cruiser was a passenger ferry which sunk ten years ago and is one of my and Eugene's favourite spots to dive here in Phi Phi. It is still fully intact apart from the top deck that has collapsed to a certain extend. We still want to ditch the divers for one day and go and dive it ourselves (on our own) so that we can penetrate certain parts which we can't do when we have customers with us.

Maybe we find the map to the lost city of Atlantis...

Eugene's first underwater photo's

Hawksbill Turtle Lion Fish Lizard Fish

Eugene's birthday present is turning out to be a whole new fun activity to be added to the fun we already have under water every day. We very quickly found out that it isn't the easiest thing in the world to take pictures under water, but we are not doing to bad for first timers.

The photo's are a little bit blue, we will be investing in a filter when next in Phuket which will bring out the colours a lot more. I have clearly started something here, by the time we are done we'll need another suitcase just to carry the camera equipment around...




Moray Eel Leopard Shark


Lion Fish Porcupine Fish