Poor Knights Islands picture gallery uploaded, and a diving video from Similan Islands

I've uploaded some diving pictures from the Poor Knights Islands to my wanderingscotsman picture gallery.  If you don't dive and have been reading my blog, AND you have a broadband connections, check out this video from the Similan Islands on Google Video.  You'll get an idea of what it can be like.  I saw most of the stuff on this video in one shape or form including the mighty Manta Ray, but I went back to the boat before the whale shark shown re-appeared (arg).

Last night in Tutukaka

The holiday park in Tutukaka was mobbed last night - I mean there were FOUR campervans in it!

After dinner and my bottle of Feijoa wine I had sitting in the fridge (now that I just remembered that, not wonder I was so bad this morning as that was after my post dive pint!) I went out to the pub to see if it was still open, asking along others at the site.  Only an Austrian girl came along, but there were a couple of English girls from the site there too.  I had been praising the diving, but a tad jealous I wasn't going out with them all the next day.  The two girls were travel writers in one shape of form (real ones, sorry if you guys read this!) so had a bit of a chin wag with them.

The bar manager and a local manager of another bar joined us and we stayed there until well after closing time until it got too cold.  We then headed back for a display of Poi - fireball dancing to you and me (I never even knew it was called that!).  Pretty neat but boy I was a bit rough finishing packing another box to send home this morning.

 

 

Ouch!  Who's got hot balls!

 

 

 

 

Poor Knights Islands - Day Three

I got back to the Tutukaka and had another day's diving during my last full day in New Zealand.  As soon as I had it in my head I knew it was the right thing to do and I was eager to get back.

There was a new crew on the boat, but again they were all superb.  Total professionalism, extremely educational, and with a total right on attitude towards the marine reserves.....but with the essential fun thrown in too.

To be honest my first dive in the morning was one of the worst I've ever done.  Leaky mask, foggy mask, and it's the first dive I've done in around forty dives without taking a second mask down as I completely forgot.  I was a bit panicky at first and couldn't wait to surface, but thought I'd stick it out so see how I got on.  I spent the whole time holding the front of the mask.  Horrible.  Heavy breathing, running through gas quicker than my Subaru did, and I wasn't able to focus on looking at things, although I still managed to see another short tailed Stingray.  I was so glad I didn't have my camera down with me as well as that would have just been another thing to look after.  Like my previous post mentioned I thought I should have left my diving experiences on a high.

(Picture : Kelp 'forest')  I knew it would be the last diving I'd do for a while so had to go out again and get the vibe back, so on went a hire mask, and it was absolutely fantastic.  The skipper helped me out with my underwater casing and put a different plastic knob on the end of it and it worked a treat.  It's so bright there you don't even need a flash for mediocre images.  I even took my first underwater video but annoyingly it was a bit of an afterthough just before I surfaced but it was great.  It really made me want to take this up!  I tried to upload this to YouTube but the file was too large.

We entered another cave and finally I got my own pictures of one of the cave entrances.  We saw another ray, several nudibranches and were diving through the kelp forests.  Unfortunately we never saw the carpet shark that sometimes hangs around one of the dive sites.  In exchange for some photoshop info I even got a Poor Knights CD from one of the guys there.  I also spent the boat trip chatting away to an English girl doing her divemaster there.

What a superb day and an ideal way to leave New Zealand.  I was so sad knowing that I wasn't going out the next day as despite only being there three times I walked in in the morning to 'Hi Darren, you came back then.' and that wasn't even from someone who was out on the boat with us.  When I left someone said 'maybe see you next season for your divemaster then.', and I went away with the email address of one of the guys incase I made it to Malta to dive when he was there.

The Poor Knights Islands really are a pretty special place even without the diving.  Above and underwater there are loads of arches, caves and 'bubbles' in the rocks from the previous volcanic activity, and it's a sacred place for the Maoris due to the history.  Due to the lack of human activity on the island its one of the few places, if not the only place in New Zealand that is free from pests and rodents so you get very special creatures including the only remaining 'dinosaur' species around. The caterpilars are huge due to the lack of predators.  Humans are not allowed to land on the islands apart from the odd DOC or scientific representative.  Hearing about this place really brings it home how much man has buggered up New Zealand in the past and present day introducing foreign species, trashing the marine life with fishing practices and generally all the things that lie under the covers of New Zealand's 'clean and green' marketing.  New Zealand isn't alone with this but the longer you spend here the more you realise how much bullshit is being marketed compared to what really goes on.  There are many opponents to the Deptartment of Conservation here, and even their practices, but it's great to see some of the things they preserve and try their hardest to maintain and that they make some of the reserves very easily accessible (e.g. Goat Island) for people that maybe wouldn't experience the environments otherwise.

One day I'll be back :-)

Oh and to finish on a good note, here's a really special picture of a seahorse I took.

I actually got sent this from a traveller I met in Laos.  Apologies to the copyright owner as it's not my picture!  (oops).

Northland and a return to the Poor Knights

I left Tutukaka yesterday morning already wondering why I hadn't just stayed to dive.  I knew I wanted to see the North, but I had kindof already decided I wouldn't head to Cape Reinga as it would be too much driving, and I got fed up of that recently. Immediately I felt like I had turned into a 'tick off tourist' just cruising past the sights with no time to take them in.

Straight past Bay of Islands, straight past where they signed the historic treaty, straight past Doubtless Bay, and a quick snap on a misty 68 mile (sorry '90' mile) beach.

I decided I had to head back to Tutukaka and spend my last clear day in NZ doing another dive at Dive Tutukaka by the Poor Knights Islands.  I've constantly thought about diving and doing my divemaster since being there, so if any generous and wealthy reader has some spare pocket change you could give me a birthday present of flights and divemaster course for my birthday once I return home!  I'm just hoping the weather over there has stayed better than in the west.

It's a bit like a good days climbing.  Do you do another climb after the last superb one you just did, or do you leave it incase the last one you try isn't as good and taints the memory?

Anyway, they are a great bunch there and probably one of the most professional (but not boring) dive outfits I've ever went out with, alongside probably Borneo Divers.

Return to Poor Knights

Just a quickie as my time on the net is running out and my accommodation in Japan has fallen through...
I'm heading back to Tutukaka for another days dive probably as I've turned into a 'tick off tourist' again and don't like it. And I've always been thinking of diving....

More soon.

Day 2 at Poor Knights Islands. Middle Channel and Trevor's Rocks

I was out diving at Poor Knights again today, and again had a fantastic day.  There were a couple of lads from England on the boat so the three of us buddied up and went out on our own - my first time without a guide (although these guys had recently done their divemaster but I think had only dived in Thailand). It was superb just having a bit of freedom to do our own thing.  (Picture : My buddies - one clearly very pleased - at a cave entrance, me looking out to sea. The image just doesn't do it justice)

With a bit of playing around I also got my camera to function correctly for most of the first dive, but unfortunately not the second one when we entered a cracking cave and had a few decent swimthroughs.

The first dive was at  Middle Channel which was the gap between the two major islands in the chain.  Superb visibility, we followed a steep wall to the open channel where we were lucky to see an Eagle Ray swimming away from the first set of divers. I also managed to catch a large nudibranch (which eats other nudibranches) hanging out on the sandy bed.  (Pictures : diver next to wall and seabed, and 8 inch nudibranch)

We then headed back towards a kelp forest, and popped into the start of a cave giving the typical amazing Poor Knights views out to the sun.  You enter a dark cave, then turn round to a picture perfect underwater postcard view.  The north stonefishes are far larger than their counterparts you see in Asia (and I believe quite a bit less dangerous!).

 

We made the compulsory stop in Riko Riko cave but unfortunately didn't dive there again, although the light bouncing off the sea to the cave's roof was far more impressive today. (Picture : Riko Riko cave - so clear you can see the bottom in the picture too)

Dive two took us to Trevor's Rocks which is a set of three pinnacles, with some nice little swimthroughs, and ended up swimming round a nice archway into a cave with yet another picture postcard view.

It was once again a superb day and I was really tempted to dive for a third day but reckon I will head up north for some sightseeing.

 

 

 

One of the many fish. I think this one is a leatherjacket (Kokiri)

 

 

One of the open caves we swam around, and into on the second dive, giving a picture postcard view out to open water.

 

 

I have so much loved my time diving in this location and having been a few months since I've dived it's really motivated me for it.  I'm just pretty gutted that I am not managing to do my divemaster before I head back home, but it's still something I'd love to do whether I would ever take it further or not.

And tonight also ends well. A beer with one of my buddies, sitting the van under nature's disco lights, with the odd shooting star, and the milky way above as well.  A perfect end.

Poor Knight Islands Diving with Dive Tutukaka. A new religion. And just like the brochures.

Today was spiritual, and I'm not religious.

I've had my unfair share of 'Shit Hot Dive Sites of the World' during my year.  Similan Islands, Sipadan, Malapascua and others.  When in New Zealand I'd be crazy if I didn't try diving at the Poor Knight Islands.  I'm getting pretty skint, but as I said at the end of the day to the guide - there are two sports that instantly make me ignore my bank balance.  Heliboarding or diving.  It doesn't matter, I just sign for it, or enter my PIN.  But would it live up to the hype?  The Poor Knights Islands contain one of Jacque Costeau's Top 10 dive sites of the world.  Dive Tutukaka recently won a prestige tourism award. Blah blah blah.  Wade Oak who has done a lot of photography, research and more in the area is often quoted as saying '...what is distinctive about Poor Knights is I dive in them, not at them" as there are so many volcanic remains, cavees and swimthroughs around the area.  Spoilt I know but after a while you start to think that any 'attraction' can spin something great or other.  But this was diving.  Hardly any of the world's population sees this stuff, so why not?

The first dive was at Brady's Corner.  We exited the superb dive boat with the volcanic cliff edge only a few feet away.  The Poor Knights used to be a volcano, and used to rise 1000m+ above the sea.  I won't pretend I can remember all the stuff, but basically now you dive over the volcanic remains.  In a marine reserve.  I could tell before I surfaced after jumping in that it would be a great dive.  Great visibility of around 20m, and a kelp 'forest' to swim around.  If you don't know it, think of kelp as a forest of seaweed trees that you can swim through.  I've never dived in an environment like this before - I've always been spoiled by wonderful coral gardens. But this was fantastic too and very different.  I was also pleased that I spotted two large (by my standards) short tailed Stingrays before the guide did - both about about 1m+ wide.  There were also several Northern Scorpionfish which are far larger than their Asian equivalents, and less harmful.  These were around three feet long, totally camoflagued with their surroundings.  There were also loads of other fish I haven't seen befor along with many sponges, a few nudibranches, yellow eels, starfish quite different to ones I've seen before, and loads of sea urchins.

I was quite lucky to come out of the water with my nose just spouting out a lot of snot - I've never seen so many people seasick on a dive boat before.  Maybe they shouldn't bother trying to dive in Asia!

Dive two was where it all came out.....

Off it was a few metres round the bay to Riko Riko cave (Picture : interior of the cave).  This is thought to be the worlds largest sea cave.  It's so large you can anchor several boats in it, and ours was quite large (and the only one - yaaah, off season travel rocks!).  It has a 35m cavity above the sea level, and measures 134x80 metres, going from around 9m to 26m at the entrance.  Riko means something like reflection so it was named after how the sun reflects from the cave's roof.Apparently the acoustics are superb and Neil Finn has even recorded here.  And I dived it in May meaning with a low sun, it penetrates futher than normal into the cave.

I stepped off the boat, popped my goggles under the surface then popped my head up.  My first words were :

'For once, it's just like the brochures.'

(Picture : Riko Riko Cave entrance above the surface)  When you looked out towards the entrance to the caves, the visibility was stretching up to around 40 metres.  The volcanic rock formations were silhouetted against the incoming rays of the sun.  Other divers were silhouetted against the rays.  And this was the day I couldn't get my frickin' underwater housing buttons in line with the camera buttons so it was useless.  I left it on the boat.  I was absolutely gutted as all over the place I was lining up some of my best ever diving shots, and I was without a camera.  I kept pretending to take photos and banging my head to the guide.  The amazing scenery lasted the whole dive.  This was, and is, one of my best ever dives so far, despite not seeing that much marine life compared to other dives.

(Picture : One of the smaller Dive Tutukaka boats inside Riko Riko cave)   One of the marine life highlights was seeing a large 3 foot Northern Stonefish lying on a rock with a small yellow eel sitting alongside with its mouth wide open, both of them quite happy just sitting there posing away.  Despite me never being able to capture a picture to give it justice, I kept imagining hovering there lining up a perfect image of both of them with the silhouetted background of the cave's entrace with the sun's rays beaming in.

And then it got better.  As some of the group surfaced as their air reduced, three of us went to the back of the cave.  From here you looked out to a majestic view which was like an underwater amphitheatre.  I could have stayed there for hours.  As you left the rear of the cave you could look up through the 10 metres or so of water and slowly catch the sun bouncing off the cave's roof which gave you a completly different perspective. 

(Picture : A dive boat heading towards the cave entrance which looks deceivingly small in this shot) Just as I thought I had the best we started heading back to the boat.  From around 9 metres, with the guide in front of me I had a perfect silhouette of the hull of the boat, the dinghy off the back, the guide in front of me, and a school of fish to the side.  I can't even describe how pissed off I was at not having a camera in my hand.  I've heard several comments recently (partly in Dylan Moran's comedy show!) that you should ditch the camera and enjoy the moment, but any description just wouldn't do this sight justice, especially if you are a non diver.

When the guide surfaced he immediately grabbed his digital SLR and housing and went in again.

 

 

 

When I relucantly surfaced (I could have stared at that sight for hours) I had that amazing feeling of witnessing something truly amazing and honestly almost 'spiritual'.  Yes get the sick bags at the ready, but it was amazing.  I was like this until well after coming on shore, which is probably why I have babbled on about it so much. 

What a day.

It wasn't even ruined by me realising that I hadn't bought oyster sauce to make my dinner, and that the campervan had the fridge turned up so high the sour cream was for my alternative burrito meal was almost frozen.

Oh and I didn't even question what was on the plan tomorrow.  I sat around reading the articles around the Dive Tutukaka office, looking at the fish ID books and had already signed up for another day's diving.  I definitely won't say the other operators in the area aren't as good as I've not experienced them, but Dive Tutukaka were excellent.  A great crew who coped well with the range of people and experience on the boat, and a professional approach that still let everyone do what they wanted to do, whether it be diving with a guide or with a buddy. Highty recommended.

Tutukaka Marina.

 

 

 

 

 

Me blogging offline in the campervan.

The van is a high top so you can stand up in it.  If you ever get one I'd recommend this if you can as it just makes everything from cooking to moving around so much easier, and you feel far less claustrophobic.

Route to Tutukaka. Goat Island (Okarkari Point) Marine Reserve

I only had one stop on the way to Tutukaka in Northland.  My mate in Wellington told me about another marine reserve called Goat Island that had another snorkelling area. This was the first marine reserve in New Zealand, set up in 1977.  Apparently in summer, there can be around 3000 visitors here at a weekend.  Being off season I only had to share it with a few others.

(Picture : Goat Island Marine Reserve) Unfortunately it was quite rough so reluctantly I never went snorkelling but what a great setup.

 

 

 The campervan at Goat Island Marine Reserve.

 

 

 

 

The Department of Conservation do it again with their information signs encouraging everyone to enjoy themselves.

 

 

So it was off to Tutukaka.  The van ran great, easily breaking the speed limit if required, and if I placed my MP3 player carefully it would play in stereo.  Until I hit a bump.  Despite already sending a box home last week I still loaded the van up with :

• my main backpack
• my manbag with laptop, 3 external disks, notebooks etc
• my $10 Vietnamese 'North Face' hand luggage with camera gear
• a plastic bag with last minute things taken from the car
• a plastic bag with some clothes, recent purchases(hey it was only socks and two expensive British magazines)
• My food bag
• Another rucksack with god knows how many New Zealand leaflets that I feel compelled to send home in the ever lasting hope I'll write some articles one day
• A plastic box which was meant to be holding everything else that I wasn't taking to Japan with me. Tent (purchased here, couldn't be bothered to try and sell), climbing harness, rock shoes, classy 'Pure Local' NZ hoodie, classy Cactus Climbing canvas jacket ('Our clothes get worn in, not out').

Needless to say the van looked like I had lived in it for my 9 weeks despite only having it for an hour.  I may need to send a bigger than planned box home.

(Picture: Looking to the back of the campervan from the drivers seat)

 

 

The passenger seat.

 

 

 

 

My friends at the marine reserve.

Dunsborough and the Swan Wreck

Yesterday was a Good Day.  I woke up not too early, grabbed a bike from the hostel, and cycled the 2km to the dive shop, Cave Dive.  I kitted up, and jumped in the pick up for a lift to the dive boat.  5mm full wetsuits!  Jeez, the first time ever, and I ended up with a massive 10.5kg of weights!

The swan wreck was an old 113m frigate, scuttled in 1997 as an artificial reef.  There wasn't much sealife to be found, but I saw a couple of shoals of pufferfish, which I hadn't seen grouped up before.  After the first orientation dive, we entered again after a light lunch (this is no Thailand dive experience - no curry or stir fry, just an instant soup with roll).  The second dive we managed a couple of swimthroughs, and got into the bridge where the captain sat in previous days.  The dives were relatively short as they were 28m, but shortened by two safety stops on the way up....

A great day with a bit of a different dive experience.  I cycled back to the Beach House YHA, then walked a few metres to chill out on the beach with a wee sunbathe and swim (no stinger suits required here - yeehaaa!).  I even managed a very brief run along the beach.

I decided to spend the evening necking a local bottle of wine, talking through the joys of leaving IT behind with a belgian guy, who firmed up my thoughts on using couchsurfing.com while in Japan!

Manila - full of goons with guns

I don't like saying this about many places, but Manila is a shithole.  It's not a bad place as such, there are great things to do, just not a lot of things to see, and the place is a lesson in how not to design a city.

Any wannabe urban planner should come here for a trip before putting any city plan into place.  There are no green spaces, and the place looks to me like America gone wrong.  Everything is here for commerce, and no-one has actually thought they may have to live in the city too.

Also it's full of security guards with machine guns that are probably getting paid peanuts!

Anyway, time for my kip.  It's almost 1am (when did that happen!) and I'm up at 5am to get the taxi before the traffic starts, then a bus to Clark airport out of town, then flying to Singapore for the night before hitting Australia overnight on Tuesday.

Back in Manila

Just a brief post tonight.  I'm back in Manila - in fact I cam back yesterday from Malapascua - boat, dodgy boat transfer, 4hr bus, taxi to airport, flight, taxi to Makati to sisters.  Long day.  Anyway, was out on a 'culinary tour' with the crowd from Old Manila Walks this afternoon, accompanying my bro-in-laws photography course.  There were some eye openers in Manila's Chinatown!  (will post pics soon).

Tonight we went for dinner and went to the Hobbit House for drinks, crashed out early, and I, as usual, have been sucked in on the net catching up with things.

There's a shedload of new pics at the Wandering Scotsman picture gallery in Laos, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia (Perhentians), Brunei, Thailand and Myanmar.  I have yet to add captions to the pictures though!

I have Sunday to catch up wtih stuff, pack, go and buy the last 'knock off' software and DVD's I may want from Asia, and fly to Singapore on Monday.   Sadly I leave Asia on Tuesday and land in Sydney on Wednesday morning!!!  Eeeeek, a Western culture!!

Perving Underwater - A fish P0rno

I did another boat dive at Chocolate Islandat 1030 this morning.  This one had a niceer entrance as the wind which had challenged my sleep last night had died down a bit.  We did a two way dive against, tehn with the current.  Nothing too great, but we did see Mantis Shrimp, several nudibranches and a 'wiggly arsed fish'....which translated into a juvenile Many Spotted Sweetlips boogying its way along the coral.  I think there was a seahorse as well.

Later on after some more homework we headed off for a night dive.  The main objective of this dive was to see some fish making out. Again we descended to the coral, and sat around carefully on the seabed around the Mandarin fish.  I felt like I was intruding, waiting there for the equivalent of a fish porn movie.  Heck we were even taking photographs - the poor bugger should have just been left in peace to have their wicked way with each other.  We watched the court each other, chasing each other through the coral.  They got frisky, the raised up from the coral, bob's your uncle, then you see a wodge of fish sperm and eggs drifting to the seabed, all in the spotlight of a few dive torches.  Bloody perverts we are!  This National Geographic artical describes the mating ritual of the Mandarin fish.

We eventually left them to it and carried on the dive which turned out to be an excellent one.  Before the circus when we met another group, we saw three seahorses (I spotted one myself!), two of which were pretty much free swimming.  We also saw some crabs, shrimp (including another Mantis), scorpionfish,  and the highlight for me - a frogfish walking along the coral on the seabed (yes, I'm real - fish with 'legs' that walk).

Unfortunately my pictures were pretty bollocks.  A lot to learn with this bloody expensive, heavy, plastic camera case!

Met a guy today on one of the dives - in his 50's, retired at 43, been here since he did his PADI in December, and travelling around Asia until 'whenever'.  Hmm....maybe I should've listened to my Dad's advice after all......

Two Thresher Sharks, and more...

Well I've realised I've spoiled myself a bit in the first year of my diving.  Philippines, yes, and yes again. Perhentians, yes.  Cambodia(?!), yes.  Sipadan, oooooh yes!  And here I am back in the Philippines, but in Malapascua Island.  I descended the mooring line around 7am in a big swell, strong surface current, and a relatively poor visibilty.  I descended 23 metres, moved a wee bit and plunked my booty down on the top of Monad Shoals just sitting there.  And sitting there.  It felt bizarre, we were laying low, and watching out into the deep blue beyond, distracted by the odd boxfish and lionfish (yawwwwwn - as I said, I'm spoiled).  We decided to make a move.

Two minutes later it was all worth it.  As usual I'm looking along the bottom, then a little nudge alerts me of the whopping great Thresher Shark over to our left, gigantic swooping tail gracefully cutting through the water.  It was all worth it.  Too quickly, it buggered off with better things to do.  This dive site is a cleaning station for the sharks, so you sit, wait, and hope one will come along, and get (ahem) sucked off by a wrasse cleaning bits off of it.

We bumped into another bunch of divers, so we waited by the wall dropping hundreds of feet below us in the bluest darkest depths.  Minutes later, another Thresher came towards us, and I had visions of it swimming right above our heads.  Unfortunately it decided to turn away beforehand, and tease me to dive again tomorrow morning.  If you look (really!) closely you can just make them out!

Thresher in the distance :

 

Thresher in the deep blue :

A Thresher's tail : 

 

Scoropionfish (Yaaaaawn, but a nice picture) :

Exotic Divers - not too exotic treatment

Well I got up at the crack of dawn (0530!) - the earliest for a long, long time, but hey, like the last early morning it was so that I could go diving.  Not exactly the end of the world!

Missing the Manila rush hour, it only took me 20 minutes and 80 pesos (around 80p) to get to the domestic terminal.  In rush hour, that could be over an hour easily...  So I had a long wait around.

Doing my usual and taking the absolute piss with my hand luggage allowance (laptop, DSLR, lenses, compact camera, magazine, books, underwater housing, strobe, mask, snorkel....oh and the odd bit of clothing), I checked in with no hold luggage!  What a great feeling.

I had taken a taxi without even leaving the terminal, negotiating a fiver off the 3 hour trip from Cebu airport to Maya port on the North East of Cebu Island.  The taxi driver stopped to check the way with the locals several times, and got a shocker as he hit the less paved sections of road at a fair lick (I could tell when he yelled, and I woke up).  We passed some real local places, trucks overloaded with sugar cane, and we finally hit the port where the 'banca' boats would take us to the island - the only place I've seen with a petrol station right on the 'beach'.

Again, it was negotiating time.  A local offered me a boat for 1000 pesos ('No other customers - private boat').  'No way' - too much.  For a moment I thought he had me by the bollocks - I had to get 8km across the water, and it was rough.  I stood around long enough to see the others waiting, watching the locals take the catches of the day off the boats.

Catch of the Day!

I then spotted a couple of Exotic Resort t-shirts.  A quick intro, and I got the boat across with them and their supplies for 50 pesos, saving me 9 pounds 50 pence...only I didn't have to pay that either.  With a quick transfer of 20 pesos to the small boatmen (boatmen of small boats, not physically small men!),it was onto the Exotic Resort banca boat.  It was an interesting crossing.   Unlike the paradise conditions I hoped for and expected, it was cloudy, and 'blowing a hooly' (a.k.a. very windy), with large swells and waves.  We were all quite damp on our arrival at the island.

Transfer boats:

I checked into my room, the only thing making it worthy of the $21 being that it was on the beach.  Yes, the only thing seperating me from the sea was a palm tree, a couple of mini banca boats, and 10m of white soft sand.  I then went to book my Nitrox and Deep Dive course, as discussed over email and the phone ('No problem, sort it out when you get here').

A similar banca to the Exotic one.

'Sorry, we can't do that - our instructor is in the city'.  Pissed off, I strolled down to Thresher Shark Divers who were more than happy to oblige with the Nitrox course, but recommended I should leave it at that.  With a complete disregard to the cost I had some homework for the evening, a PADI folder, a couple of bits of plastic depth/exposure tables, and a hefty book for my mum to take home from Manila.

Beach arrival :

My bungalow :-)

Malapascua here I come!

Oh dear, Thailand has made me start to blow budgets like mad! I convince myself that it's a good investment long term...as I have booked a 4 day trip to Malapascua next week to do more diving - half the price of diving in Thailand, and only £35 return flights (plus taxi and boat) to get there, and $28 a dive. Have a look at Exotic Dive Resort as that's where I'm heading. Super helpful folk via email and phoe enquiries. I may do a Nitrox and Deep Diver certification there as it doesn't add so much onto the costs of the dives I'd do anyway. With a bit of luck I'll see Thresher and Hammerhead sharks as well.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll gladly be leaving the Krabi area of Thailand - great area, great activities, and many islands I'd still like to see, but I've been here too long relaxing and blowing cash...although the diving has been worth it. It's just a shame when I think I've spent longer here than Laos and Cambodia put together - largely due to meeting various people who happened to be in the area.

Sunday morning will see me in my sister's pad in Manila for a couple of days before heading to Malapascua for 4 days, 2 days diving, then it's over to Singapore for a night then Australia.

Bullseye! 50 dives :-) Ping - shit that'll be my mask strap bust underwater!

This one's for you Dave! Sorry for the texts Dave - here's a shot of John and I on Tonsai beach just after we sent you the picture message!


Yes I've met John, and it's been relatively tame so far - however we were up at 7am to dive around Koh Phi Phi today, bringing my total to 50 dives. The dive's were a bit, erm, 'bland' with poor visibility, and luckily saved by seeing a 6cm yellow seahorse, and a Leopard Shark, and a blue spotted stingray (oooh, so common last week ;-> ). Not really worth the cash today, however there was a pretty 'cool' incident with my mask that's been bugging me rotton for a while....

I pulled my crap mask strap like I always do (Mare's quick release thing, just it always released a bit when I breathe!), and it went ping! It stayed on, but I warned the divemaster and john just incase the expected happened as there was only a tiny bit left on the left hand side.... and 2 mins later it did - it started to go, I pushed my mask with my hand....got john's attention, handed him my camera, pulled the spare out of my BCD pocket, noticed the strap on that had detached...which the divemaster put back on..... and once I took a few seconds, I swapped them over with little fuss. Job well done. Yaaah! We were 2/3rds through the dive so the divemaster signalled we would go up....after a few repeated OK signs (in the unspoken manner of 'sod that, this day cost us 50 quid, lets dive'), the dive continued like nothing happened. Sweeet - a justification of me always diving with two masks since I bought one.

I'm off to check out the possibility of diving in Malapascua in the Philippines next week! Budget blower that I am....



Here's another few pics from the day.
John pre-dive :


John and I mid-dive :


John post-dive (tired, but still not lost the knack - no way was he spilling 2/3rds bottle of beer mid sleep!)

Shark, Whale Shark....Manta, Manta, Manta!

So here I was sitting on the sundeck on the boat's roof, doing my usual mid-dive zone out listening to some of the vast selection of new music I managed to ahem, 'acquire' on Koh Lanta. This time it was the turn of Aim's Hinterland album.

Suddenly some inconsiderate bugger was stomping loudly which interrupted the chilling bass of the sounds in my ear. Then there was more thumping...too early for the dive briefing I thought, so I peeled open an eyelid to witness everyone making a commotion, pointing over the side of the boat. On our previous dive we had been with two Manta Rays circling around us, so before the next beat, the headphones were thrown on the deck and I was at my feet. I looked over to the group next to one of the other liveaboards, and as I heard everyone shouting 'whale shark', I saw one of the snorkellers motioning a shark sign. Without any hesitation I decided to follow the people jumping down the stairs, some of whom had already grabbed their camera, donned fins and mask and were one their way - some even decided to save time and give up on the snorkel.

It was hilarious, from zoned out to in the water within 30 seconds, and I was two stories up. I even managed to rescue one of Rachel's fins that fell off in the hurry and was slowly making it to the seabed 25 metres below.

Everyone was making a beeline for the shark spotting point 25 metres away from our boat, when I spotted a large Manta Ray circling below us at less than 10 metres away. This proved a bit of a deviation for me and I made out from the commotion the shark had moved on. After a bit of swimming and much looking around I decided to head back to the boat.

Ten minutes later, everyone came back, grinning from ear to ear, and the digital cameras being passed around with wonderful arial shots of the whale shark......bastards. I came back too early.

Mind you though, it could have been worse. 45 minutes later we were on our second dive at Koh Hah, jumped off the boat, and had one Manta swim around 5 metres underneath us. Then the divemaster's bells were shaken to point out the second one following. I then turned round and spotted the third one in the line come into view, trying to grab some people's attention sticking up three fingers. Sweet. The next 55 minutes were spent with them interrupting us every few minutes, teasing us with how close they would come. Little was I to know that a day later at the same dive site, they would come close enough to almost touche.

They have to be one of the largest (these had a span of around three metres) and most graceful creatures I've ever came across and they absolutely mesmerised me underwater, with no space in my head to regret not being able to get a housing for my camera yet! On the next Koh Ha dive I was sitting behind a small coral pinnacle looking at the little fish when I looked up and saw a Manta cruise over it, slow down, and perform a swooping turn directly above me, leaving me and several others around me gobsmacked. That was until they did it again. And again. And again :-) I decided I wouldn't moan within myself at diving at the same site for three dives any more - each dive got better. What a few days.

Similans Liveaboard

I've just had the joy of being on a 4 night liveaboard to the Similan Islands and Richelieu Rock in the Northern Andaman Sea, North West of Phuket on the west coast of Thailand. There were around 20 of us on the Dive Asia boat, ready to make the most of it. Some dives were hampered with the visibility not being so great, but it had to be the most varied diving I've done in such a short period of time so far. We did 14 dives in 4 days, bringing my total to just short of 50.

The dives were varied from nicer long relaxed dives with no current, to strong currents where you had to go from behind one rock to another staying low, and swimthroughs. We saw a load of stuff from leopard sharks to whale sharks, manta rays to harlequin shrimps, and everything in between including many barracuda, tuna and large schools of all the 'typical' reef fish.

In fact we never saw the whale sharks when diving, one of the times we watched the large 3 metre plus mantas weren't when we were diving...it was SNORKELLING! Unfortunately I had to kick myself hard as I gave up snorkelling towards the shark when it disappeared for a bit, only to curse when others still saw it. I didn't, or the leopard shark, and it had to be one of the highlights of the trip.

Our dives took in East of Eden and Elephant Head Rock in island 7, Rocky Point, Breakfast Bend and a night dive at Mooring Bay on island 9, then we moved to Koh Bon, Koh Tachai Pinnacle, Richelieu Rock, then back via the pinnacle, Koh Bon, with our last two dives at Anita's Reef on island 5 and Shark Fin Reef. For a short moment it looked like we may not make it to Richelieu (although we never realised that) but our lovely captain fired up the engines around 3am and took advantage of a weather window.

The food was fantastic, the crowd were great (and from Korea, Japan, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, USA and of course Scotland), and the crew were a sociable bunch despite some obvious language barriers. There were many digital cameras kicking around the boat which only made me frustrated not having been able to obtain a housing prior to the trip, and having an unusable strobe flash in my bag! Luckily there were a lot of fantastic photos taken and shared around.

I spent the last night on the roof of the boat, falling asleep to the lapping of the waves and the wind before getting in our earliest dive, being in the water at 0645, then 0915 before a long cruise back to Phuket.

It was an expensive few days (22500 plus gear rental and park fees), but not too bad when you consider it was 14 dives, accommodation and excellent food for fours days. So glad I did this - it will definitely be one of the year's highlights, but it only makes me want to dive when I reach the Philippines!

Lanta Life

I'm still alive in Koh Lanta. Heading to Koh Phi Phi on 16th then over to Phuket for a 4 day liveaboard starting on 18th. The internet is a bit problematic here sometimes - I need to walk around 50m to get it ;->
When I get round to it I'll tell tales of falling off motorbikes, bar brawls, booze, parties, and sleeping in. Don't worry mum, it's not as bad as it sounds.

I went diving to Hin Daeng and Hin Mueng (will need to check spelling!) yesterday which was great. There were problems with the speedboat so after two boat swaps, we finally left and got out there. Unfortunately the visibility wasn't as good as it often is. The first dive had quite strong currents, and the second was way more relaxed. I never saw any leopard sharks which I hoped for, but I did see several fish I hadn't seen before and a few small white tip reef sharks, many small shrimps etc. The boat trip back was made all the better for having a school of small dolphins following us for a while.

Annoyingly I can't seem to find any stockists of Ikelite housing that can get one to me in time for these dive trips and the liveaboard. Arg!

Hopefully I'll manage to get more stories and some pics online before I'm on the boat for a few days.

Back in Koh Lanta

I'll keep this one brief, but I'm back in Koh Lanta, and have just spent a few days with my mates Rachel, and another unexpected one Alan who had a cancelled job in Indonesia and decided to pop down to Krabi and Lanta with me. Needless to say I spent too much, and drank too much. Alan left from Lanta yesterday and I went diving at Koh Ta today. The horrible visa runs happens tomorrow and Friday we are scheduled to go to Hin Daeng diving, but the forecast is not looking too promising, with a few operators turning back today and yesterday due to the winds.

I'ev also reserved a place on a 4 day liveaboard to the Similan Islands NW of Phuket on 18th-22nd.

Anyway, things to do - more soon!

Diving Liveaboard - Yeeeeh!

Sihanoukville beach, Cambodia :


Had a great laugh on Friday in Sihanoukville, after having a bit too heavy a welcoming session on the Thursday night with the guys I met on the bus from Phnom Penh. Once the hangover cleared after a sleep on the beach, I spent a few hours with the kids selling braclets and stuff on the beach.

Others may call them hawkers, but they're a great laugh if you just take it as part of the experience. I had a few bracelets made in front of me as he listened to Black Eyed Peas "My Humps" (his request) about 15 times, laughing and singing along to it. His mate was listening to my MP3 as well and looked quite a dude with my reflective Oakleys and headphones in.

Kid making a bracelet for me :


Kids mate with my shades, listening to my tunes :


My Cambodia flag bracelet completed (the Scottish one was too hard for him - he tried for an hour - poor bugger) :



I then decided to scrap a motorbike trip and blow a couple of hundred dollars with Dive Cambodia
doing an overnight liveaboard to the local islands. While the diving wasn't quite up to Sipadan standards it was 5 nice dives with a night dive as well. The last three (including my night one) were the most relaxed dives I've had - bouyancy, control, etc spot on, being able to hover and look into any spot I wanted.

Man, it's a hard life :



It was a great bunch on the boat as well so one of them is splitting my room costs and we're all meeting up in an hour for beers with the instructors. Half the group were doing their PADI Open Water - on a liveaboard!!!

Some of the more photogenic dive crowd :



Tomorrow I head back to Phnom Penh reluctantly, and will have no time to explore there before I head to Ho Chi Minh the following morning.

Sunset from the boat, 4 hours from the mainland :

Labuan - The Garden Island of Borneo - who locked the frickin' gates?

Well when you look at any Tourism Malaysia brochure, or any diving websites, you'll read about Labuan...a strange offshore financial centre run from KL. Why was I heading here? Good question, but to be honest, it had a bit to do with (ducks my head) ticking off a country for once...I mean Brunei is so close to Kota Kinabalu and I decided to take the ferry there, which means via Labuan. Now I had heard horror stories of this ferry journey from a fellow Raleigh staffer, but I was branching out on my own, so it was a time for an adventure. Also, to be honest, a large part of it had to to with three of four amazing WWII wrecks which sit just off the coast, and a really cool sounding Marine Park as well - I'd be able to snorkel at the very least. Although...when I went looking for dive operators to take me here it wasn't an easy task. My faithful friends at Borneo Divers had suspended operations there, and the Tourism 'Action' Council for Labuan never responded to my emails.
Anyway, my flight from Brunei to KL was booked so off I went. The hotel desk couldn't even tell me where to find the boats to the marine park so I never bother asking them about the diving. I took this as a sign and had my one long lie in four months and sacked off the visit, to waste away a day killing time and catching up with myself.

Just as well...I went to Tourism Malaysia and they told me where to get the boats, but not the price. I found the boats, fully stocked with life jackets but "no-one is booked tomorrow, and its 250RM to hire the boat" - around 36 quid. No way for a snorkel and a sunbathe. I went to the dive operator who's leaflet I found in the tourist place...and they were locked up, despite having a dive shop with kit in it. Incase you stumble on this post trying to arrange the same thing - do it with a group and try contacting Borneo Star Dive in Labuan.

Anyway, I had no interest in seeing war or chimney museums or heading to a deserted beach on the other side of the island, so I went for a haircut, and caught up with a few things at the deserted Sheraton Hotel pool. They're not wasted days though - I would have always wandered what it was like if I didn't go.

There are a few good things I found though - a cheap food market, cheap beer, and generally a place cheaper than KK due to it's Duty Free status.

Labuan, Malaysia

Well I'm now sitting in Labuan wandering WTF I'm doing here. You see I posted a load of stuff home this morning as I figured I wouldn't need it til NZ. I then realised I still had my trekking poles, and my bag was way too ridiculously heavy. In my quest to do something different though I opted for the adventure to Brunei via Labuan, whereas I should have flown to my sister's in Manila, dumped a load of stuff like erm, waterproofs, and headed back there in Jan to collect it all. I also remembered that my sister was in Singapore this weekend so should've hooked up with her there really, but I wanted to have a few nights in KL. I also posted home my Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore guidebook before I realised that the SE Asia in a Shoestring only has half a page on Labuan.....

It was quite hard leaving KK this morning, but I think that was as much to do with the weight of my backpack than anything. The ferry here was nothing like the horror stories I had heard, and I caught up on some sleep.

I watched the news for the first time in four months tonight. Another wonderful twist in my travel planning - the holy month of Ramadan started yesterday...yes, a couple of days before I decided to head to frickin' Brunei. According to the Brunei Government website : "The Brunei government also shows its respect during the fasting month of Ramadan..... while all entertainment and sport activities are temporarily suspended." Looks like I'm in for a whale of a time.

Anyway, the one good thing about Labuan is that it is duty free. A large bottle of Tiger is only 3.50RM (50 pence) here which is less than half of what it is in KK. A 1L bottle of Bombay Sapphire is 7.50 UKP! A pack of Malboro Lights, 65pence. I went a wander around town tonight - not much happening but I stumbled on a local market of food stalls selling noodles, bbq'd meat and fish, so a box of noodles was 15pence :-)

Their tourism industry could be done with a kick in the nuts though - everywhere you read about here it mentions the fantastic wreck diving, but it's not easy to find anyone to take you there. The two people I asked here about where to get the ferry to the Marine Park (yes, the National Park!) for snorkelling didn't know, and one of them was the hotel. I think I'll head to the tourism office first thing and decide from there. I thought I may just end up heading to Brunei if I can't go snorkelling but the thought of maybe not being able to sit around and have snacks during the day doesn't really turn me on.

But the main thing? All this doesn't really matter. Apart from the weight of my rucksack nothing else matters - I don't have to be anywhere at any time before MOnday morning. I spoke to my mate I'm meeting in KL who has looked into Myanmar quite a bit and it turns out she knows someone there the start of October who knows their way around, so I think it may be up to Bangkok, grab a Myanmar visa, take a few pictures of tanks in the streets, dump all my electronic gear at her mates in Bangkok (to save the immigration sending me back, or keeping it at the border), then hot foot it to Myanmar for a short spell.

Apart from all that, all is well, except missing not having a compact camera!