Back on the Blog again

Boy, have I gotten behind. As I write this, we are in Bali. The last post I wrote was for Koh Lanta, somewhere we left over a month ago. It was difficult to stay on top of things with no hiccups, but in Chiang Mai, Thailand we got sick - debilitatingly so. We spent much of the next week recovering, and then we went to Cambodia where it was discovered that we both had sinus infections. We have now arrived in Bali, and our last day of antibiotics are behind us, so I will attempt to do some catching up. But for lack of time and energy, the synopses will be very brief, so if you have any questions feel free to let me know via Facebook message or email.

So without further ado...

Thailand.
After leaving Koh Lanta, it was time for liveaboard #2, this time in the Similan Islands. Our boat left out of Khao Lak for a four day/four night trip. The first night was the departure; the last day had only two dives and the arrival, so we did a total of 14 dives. The highlight for us was clearly Richelieu Rock, which has a density of fish population akin to Raja Ampat, glorious coral and interesting rare life like seahorses and ornate ghost pipefish. Our experience at Richelieu Rock was amplified even more, as it was preceded by two very unsavory dives with about a thousand jellyfish, and no wetsuit, at Tachai Pinnacle. The boat was nicer and the amenities were more plentiful, but the number of divers was far larger, and there was a very large group of Chinese people who spoke very poor English. All of the briefings, of which there were several a day, were given by a small Thai woman in English. Her speeches got progressively louder as the Chinese group would lose interest at what they could presumably not understand very well, and begin to talk amongst themselves. This would cause her to raise her voice even more, until her voice took on the quality of a poorly made set of speakers turned up far beyond their capabilities. The underwater stuff was great. It was too closely removed from Raja Ampat to be truly amazing, but we very much enjoyed the diving. The above water stuff: the organization, the customer service etc., certainly left something to be desired, especially coming off of what was a really well done trip in Indonesia.

After Khao Lak it was off to another island, this time on the other side of Thailand. We took a bus to a taxi to a bus to a taxi over the course of a full day to get to the ferry to take us to Koh Tao, in order to do a little resting and a little more diving. We arrived at the end of what had been a bout of extremely rainy weather for Koh Tao, which was not ideal for the diving. We spent most of our five days in Koh Tao moped-ing around similarly to Koh Lanta. The exception was Koh Tao has a smaller moped-able area, and we didn't have a strong desire to explore rough terrain in a rented scooter. The food in Koh Tao was incredible. Several places which we ate at several times, which is somewhat of a rarity for vegetarians, as we usually order the one vegetarian item on the menu and move on the next place. The diving in Koh Tao was certainly not the best. It is unfair to compare it to what we had just done, but that is the comparison we had to make. We did one trip which included two dives at Sail Rock. Sail Rock is generally accepted as the best dive site on the eastern side of Thailand. The visibility was very poor and the life was similar to, but less than, what we had been seeing. Not to say that Koh Tao was not worth diving at, but it is strongly geared toward beginners and teaching. For experienced divers coming off of 30+ dives in world class locations, it certainly didn't leave us wanting more.



After Koh Tao it was off to the capital to see the biggest and most developed city Thailand had to offer. A Grand Palace swarming with tourists on a blisteringly hot day, and a seriously large mall were the two major points of interest. The Grand Palace was surely "grand", but the experience was tainted by the crowds and the heat. We accomplished much of our shopping goals for the whole trip at the MBK center which was a 7 story mall with rows and rows of stalls and shops with a cool multicultural food court. We only spent two days in Bangkok, and they were a pleasant surprise. I always pictured the epitome of a big dirty city, but it was much cleaner and more modern and developed than I had thought, and we enjoyed our time there.

The Royal Thai Palace

I will hopefully continue to catch up soon. Upcoming will be Chaing Mai, Pai. Siem Reap and the Angkor Temples and Phnom Penh