30.04.07
Posted in
Diving, Thailand, Travel
at
5:38 am
by
Andy
Dive number 32. Whale Shark. For those that dive I need not say more. I will however divulge.
A whale shark was spotted at the Chumphon Pinnacle dive site in the morning of our last day on Koh Tao, and as a result it seemed as though all of the island was heading out there in the afternoon. We arrived as the sixth boat. Not only did this mean a long swim to the buoy line, it also meant 60 odd divers in the water. Most of them were Koreans who seemed completely lost and kept crashing into each other. Despite being surrounded by bubbles and being kicked in the head several times it was worth it. After hearing a continual clanking of someones rattle (used to attract attention) I look all around me but could see nothing of interest (only upside down Koreans). Foolishly I didn’t look above me. If I had I would have spotted the Whale Shark swimming over my head. I looked up to see this…
The biggest fish in the sea. Come on! We saw the beast 4 times during the dive but it was impossible to get close due to the hordes of divers surrounding her. I was also too busy trying to take photos to actually look at the bugger.
After the dive we were on the boat elated at at least having seen one when the skipper started jumping around and shouting Whale Shark, Whale Shark and pointing. And there it was, coming towards the boat. Fins, mask and snorkel hastily fitted I jumped into the water (with my wet suit only half on) to find myself less than 2 metres in front of the docile beast. The next 30 minutes were just incredible. She swam in the immediate vicinity of our boat clearly enjoying the company of humans taking great interest in us and swimming right up to anyone in her path.
What an absolutely incredible creature. This one was only 3-4 metres long. Some reach 15 metres! Yet she dwarfed us all and was just so graceful under the water. Words cannot describe the experience. Neither can the photos. I will freely admit that I couldn’t get to sleep last night as I was like an excited child thinking the experience over and over.
Truly a perfect finish to our week on Koh Tao. All that remains to be done is register this Whale Shark’s sighting on Ecocean’s www.whaleshark.org.
29.04.07
Posted in
Thailand, Travel
at
2:57 am
by
Andy
Espe mentioned the other day how she couldn’t believe how many people are traveling. There are so many westerners everywhere we go. I can believe it. What I can’t believe is how young so many of them are. We are meeting 17 and 18 year olds who haven’t even started Uni yet. Just over hearing conversations (normally having no choice - why do people go to an internet cafe only to spend an hour nattering with the person next to them?) I realised how different I am to many of these people. Without wanting to sound snobbish, most of that I guess is through age and experiences. Most of my friends are older than me so this is the first time I’ve ever felt old. Occasionally I meet a young ‘un who has interesting things to say, but generally it is just dull (how drunk they were, what drugs they are trying). The people who have really left an impression on me are the same age or older.
Giving this some more thought, it occurred to me that we are learning each day. It may not be much but every little counts. But how often do we actually sit down with the intention of leaning something new. This is something I’m trying to focus on now. I’m currently trying to teach myself how to play chess and learning about Buddhism via Damien Keown’s “Buddhism, A Very Short Introduction”. The following jumped out at me:
In the hustle and bustle of everyday life few stop to ponder the most fulfilling way to live. The Buddha thought that the highest form of live was one which led to the development and virtue and knowledge and the Eightfold Path, which comprises the of three categories Wisdom, Ethical Conduct and Meditation, sets forth a way of life designed to bring these to fruition.
Check out www.thebigview.com to see the Eightfold Path in detail.
I think they could be onto something here and I’ll tell you more when I return from a 10 day meditation retreat at Wat Suan Mokkh.
28.04.07
Posted in
Diving, Thailand, Travel
at
8:48 am
by
Andy
Just in case you weren’t being sarcastic Chris, what do you think of this?
We’re now on Koh Tao swimming with the fishes. Welcomed back by clear (10 - 15 metre vis’) warm (30 degrees) waters, I do like this place. I was first here with Jon in 2004, and although it is busier and more developed, it still remains beautiful. On top of that, this is one of the cheapest places in the world to dive. Espe and I have so far done six dives each with two more to go. We’ve seen all sorts; barracuda, sting rays, angel fish, harlequin sweet lips, moray eels to name but a few, however the highlight has been the three turtles we’ve seen. Truly magnificent beasts.
Oh, and Jon, In Touch is as I remember it. Great music, great green curries and the same great staff. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about Master Divers.
27.04.07
Posted in
Thailand, Travel
at
8:25 am
by
Andy
Our new Australian friend from Koh Wai, Penny of Oz, now has legend status with us. Not only was she kind enough to put us up for the night in Bangkok but she also treated us to a restaurant dinner (she refused to be talked out of it). It was great to see Bangkok away from Ko San Road and see how many of the ex pats live. Her tower block is full of Korean and Indian people and is pretty much self contained with the shopping mall below, gym, tennis courts, swimming pool etc.
I don’t think she’d approve of me posting up a photo, so instead here is the view of Bangkok from her flat.
Thank you Penny! We will return the favour some day, somewhere.
23.04.07
Posted in
Thailand, Travel
at
9:31 am
by
Andy
I’ve stayed in many guesthouses and resorts which have the word paradise in the name. None, until reaching Koh Wai Paradise even came close. In fact if it wasn’t for the terrible laundry service, the mosquitoes (that even bite during the day) and the rock solid bed then I think this would be it.
Picture this, your own wooden hut on a clean sandy beach on a small remote island (3km at it’s longest point) with no roads. Clear light blue 30 degree water with a coral reef metres off the beach. Dolphins swimming by while eating breakfast and lobster, scallops and prawns to eat fresh out of the water. Swimming at night leaving trails of the bright blue phospherence… Pretty perfect really.
Then you have to mention the people. We met some seriously cool bods there. Peruvian Angel and Nikita, Philippe and Nadine from Germany, the wonderful Penny of Oz (more to be said about her later), Daniel from Spain, the Gareth esque Eke from Germany and the Spanish/Italian speaking Swiss couple Claudia and Maria. People from all over, and a surprising number of Spanish speakers. A relief for the likes of Espe and Daniel, and a good opportunity for the rest of us to practise.
Although we didn’t get any diving in (Espe had an ear infection), upon over hearing a some Dutch ladies I found out about a dive clean up day in the area. Somehow within two hours I found myself on a dive boat with the potential of getting in a free dive. It didn’t happen as there were too many divers and not enough equipment, however I did spend the morning whizzing around in a small speedboat pulling out rubbish (mainly old fishing nets) from the sea and transporting it to the “rubbish collection boat”. In the afternoon I got a good hour and a half’s snorkeling over a simply breathtaking reef (despite all the cleanup operations visibility was about 20 metres).
After four months of quite tough overland travel, a week on the beach was more than welcome. Especially when you wake up to this…
Posted in
Thailand, Travel
at
8:11 am
by
Andy
I know, it is long overdue, but I’ve either been too exhausted or too remote to even contemplate interblogging. Here I am in Bangkok, with a bit of catching up to do.
After a nightmare of a 16 hour journey from Siem Riep to Ko Chang I found myself poised to celebrate both Thai New Year and my birthday in the beautiful, if commercial, Ko Chang. Initially I felt a bit down on my birthday, being so far from friends and family, but mainly this was down to tiredness after three days of physical exercise and then the aforementioned journey.
My mood soon turned around when we wandered into the village to join the locals celebrating the new year. Instead of running around drunk in the freezing cold or eating grapes, the Thais celebrate with one huge water fight. For three days they line the streets and throw water at anything that passes with water pistols, hoses, buckets or in the extreme, water tanker trucks (pumping out litres a second). Truly a bizarre spectacle, and quite probably the worlds biggest wet t-shirt competition. Not a bad way to spend one’s birthday. The day was completed BBQ’d king prawns and red snapper followed by a huge party / water fight at the Treehouse resort.
The only negative, was that of the camera incident. I took my camera out with the underwater casing and captured some truly amazing pictures of the water fighting. Unfortunately the chair that it was hanging on while I was busy throwing buckets of water over people, got knocked over. The camera survived, as did the underwater casing (still to be tested at depth), but the memory card didn’t… Gone are all those wonderful pictures of the Thai New Year, along with all my pictures (from that camera) of Angkor Wat and the surrounding area. I’m a little gutted… I was, however, able to get some more pics the following day, but the festivities weren’t a touch on those of the first day of Songkrang.
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The rest of the time on Koh Chang was spent relaxing in our resort or on the beach. A real highlight for me was meeting Tom, Charlie and Ben. Both friendly, interesting and opinionated (is that a word?) it was a real pleasure getting to know Tom and Charlie. As for Ben, I gave him a good soaking during the first day’s water fighting, but he got me back the following morning at breakfast, walking up to me with a water pistol in each hand and a further four tucked into his shorts while muttering something about “payback time”. As an eight year old he was having the time of his life, but he did end up with a badly blistered trigger finger at the end of the three days.
P.S. Thanks Mum, Dad, Cathy, Nina, Jon, Nathalie, Bozena, Niki, Pete and Viv. Appriciated. Apologies for when I forget yours.
07.04.07
Posted in
Cambodia, Travel
at
9:23 am
by
Andy
Arriving in Siem Reap, home city of Angkor Wat (Cambodia and possibly South East Asia’s biggest crowd puller), one of the officials on the bus told us that all the tourists were to get of the bus early before reaching the bus station. This was in our best interests as we would be given a free tuk tuk ride to the guesthouse of our choice, and thus avoid all the “thieves at the bus station who will steal your wallet and camera”. Somewhat sceptical we got in our free tuk tuk and where taken to, surprise surprise, the same guesthouse as all the other westerners on the bus. Rooms were ok, and reasonably priced, but no sooner had we seen the room then they started pressuring us into using the same tuk tuk driver to see the temples. We were quoted $50 for three days with this tuk tuk driver. Add that to the $40 entry fee each, we would be looking at $130 straight off. Then the tuk tuk drivers charge extra for sunset and sunrise as “overtime”. Although this is one of the seven man made wonders of the world, and everyone raves about the place, given our budget of $40 a day this was simply too much. The guys even admitted that we could find cheaper drivers in the street, but they too would steal our wallets and cameras.
Refusing to sign up we wandered into town and had a good street food dinner for less than $2. Annoyed at the harassment from our guesthouse, and at the principle of being herded there by the bus company we set off to check out another guesthouse that the previous owner of our guide book had scribbled in. Unfortunately on the way Espe twisted and badly sprained her ankle.
Looked after by some very friendly and helpful locals we ended up going off to the hospital due to the pain that Espe was suffering. On returning to the guesthouse despite carrying Espe up the stairs and explaining what had happened they continued to harass me about using their tuk tuks.
Finding myself more and more wound up (most likely due to my inability to just say no), in the morning we decided to leave. Apart from the continual harassment, the food was terrible, the service rubbish, the fan noisy and we had a sink that spewed water all over the floor. Not a nice place for Espe to spend the whole day resting.
So off I went to check out this Prince Mekong Villa that was scribbled in the guide book. The place is great. At $5 a night including free breakfast, free water refills, free bicycles use, free one time washing, free use of the cooking facilities and BBQ with a welcome drink and genuinely friendly staff, it is needless to say we moved there. Run by a Swiss chap who has been working in SE Asia for 20 years, I’m impressed by this place. So, here’s the free plug, if you come to Siem Reap, make sure you stay at the Prince Mekong Villa.
Due to Espe’s ankle we’ve done very little, basically just relaxing and reading in the hammocks in the garden. Espe is feeling better today (she sprained it on Thursday) but we are going to put off our visit to the Angkor complex for another day, which we will do on push bike thus saving some cash, giving a nice up yours to the tuk tuk drivers who wound me up so much and having the freedom to do what we want when we want.
06.04.07
Posted in
Cambodia, Travel
at
9:34 am
by
Andy
My first impressions of Cambodia couldn’t be more different from those in Vietnam. The people here are so friendly. Generally the level of English is good and we’ve been approached by many a local who just wants to talk. They are very open and willing to talk about many things in their lives. If people walk or bump into you, they apologise immediately, even if it wasn’t their fault. That is such a far cry Vietnam, for instance, the tour guide who pushed me out of the way in the Ho Chi Minh museum because I was reading the display she wanted to show her group.
Another positive having arrived in Cambodia are the prices. Accommodation is back in line with what we were used to from Thailand and Laos. That’s $3 a night where we are now (including free pool and movies).
It is hot here. Power sappingly hot. It is only 40 degrees but the humidity gets you. We’ve taken to seeing the sights in the morning and spending the afternoon relaxing in our lakeside guest house, reading in a hammock, playing pool or watching the sun set. In short, I’m posting less here as I just can’t be bothered to sit in front of a computer. In fact I can’t even be bothered to explain what this photo is.
That said, I can’t post about the capital of Cambodia without mentioning the genocide that took place between 1975 and 1979 implemented by the evil Pol Pot.
Having read a lot about the auto-genocide before I came here and given my current book, “First they killed my father” I do feel I was prepared for seeing some of the evidence of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. I’ll save you the history lesson (have a read over the wikipedia links above if you want to know more), but I find it incredibly hard to come to terms with how a whole country, so many people, can be so severely treated by their own “leaders”.
The deaths through starvation and disease, the torturing, the mass trial-less executions all brought on by Pol Pot and his attempts to create an agrarian utopia are all just so much to take in. To think that in such recent times 1/4 of the people in the country died is deeply shocking. For once I was thinking, well at least I can’t blame this on the Americans, until I read this in the Rough Guide:
“In 1969, the Americans began covert bombings of Cambodia’s eastern provinces, where they believed Vietcong guerrillas were hiding. Hundreds of Cambodian civilians were killed or maimed in these raids, which continued until 1973 and are widely acknowledged to have led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge.”
This, however pales in significance to the following, which left me speechless. In 1979 the Vietnamese invaded to over throw Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime, in the process liberating the Cambodian people. However, despite being fully aware of the atrocities…
“The International community came down on the side of the Khmer Rouge coalition, and refused to recognise the new government. After all, the new Vietnamese occupation could be the start of communist expansionism whereas the Khmer Rouge, despite being communists, only killed their own and didn’t pose a threat to the capitalist world. So Thailand, Britain and the US colluded to train the genocidal rebels, shelter them on Thai soil, provide money, arms and food, and offered them the Cambodian seat in the United Nations.”
Further disturbing proof, that political agendas and interests come way before human rights in this world.
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