Purple Rock, Red Rock

Yesterday morning as I arrived at work bright and early, I was greeted by Lee, the owner of Barakuda, as he bellowed at me from his third floor apartment above the shop, king of his domain from where he surveys his 2 inches of ocean view in the far distance past his backyard of junk heap pile in the vacant lot between Barakuda and the Phi Phi Market. Lee was all excited for some reason or other. He was not going with us on our very packed Hin Muang/Hin Daeng trip, but came down to see us off (or maybe to see if there were no-shows in which case he’d have snuck himself on the boat).

I was anticipating this trip a little bit like a 4 year old anticipates Christmas and the arrival of Santa Claus. I said to Russell and Veronica as we walked to the speedboat that expecting Manta Rays and Whale Sharks felt a little bit like praying for Santa Claus. Then I said the same thing to Paula and Juan in Spanish. And off we were 11 intrepid divers and 3 intrepid instructors, one of which was giddy as a school girl, off to see the absolute best diving that Phi Phi has to offer.

Hin Muang (Purple Rock) and Hin Daeng (Red Rock) are 90 km south of Phi Phi and about an hour and change away by speedboat when it’s flat. As we later found out it’s about 2 hours by speedboat when it’s not flat. In the high season it is the place for Manta Rays and Whale Sharks. Since I’ve seen a Manta Ray on Bida Nok a little over a month ago, I don’t think that it’s unreasonable to expect them to pop up every now and then and I didn’t think that it was really too much to hope for on this trip either. I had absolutely no expectation of really seeing a whale shark.

There’s no point in any suspense – we saw neither. What we did see was two of the most incredible dive sites I’m sure I’ve ever seen. The depth of the canyons, the richness of the corals and quantities of anemones was breathtaking. I can well imagine the awesomeness of seeing mantas swooping through the canyons. And since they’ve been untouched by divers for over 6 months and are not touched by divers on a daily basis AND are only approached by divers with good buoyancy skills they are in such pristine condition. Imagine flying through a somewhat smaller version of the Grand Canyon and you’ll come close to imagining what it’s like to swim through these structures that rise 60 meters from the sea floor to the surface. It was an experience of a lifetime. I hope to live it again real soon this time with the big fellas that draw the crowds there in high season.

I’ve been demoted to divemaster. There’s an insane number of fun divers funneling through the shop and smaller numbers of DSDs and Open Water or Advanced students. So most of us instructors are playing DM. It’s not great for the pocket book – DM work pay is crap compared to instructor pay, but what it lacks financially, it greatly makes up for in fun, fun, fun!

Last week I had the pleasure of touring around a divemaster from Spain here on vacation with his girl. He dove every day while she alternated a day of diving with a day of beach and yoga. He loved the diving here and he was so easy to dive with. He’d come in the evening, pack his bags, analyze his nitrox and order his food. All I had to do was toss my box out and order lunch. When his girl dove, he’d pack her crap as well. By the end of the week I was feeling much more comfortable speaking Spanish – I figure that if I could just get Spaniards for a month or so straight, some of it might actually really begin to stick.

A couple of nights ago, I’d talked to Norwegians who at the time were drunk, but I got one of them dreaming about seeing turtles. They had been to Koh Tao and dove Koh Tao. I told them diving was better here. They told me that’s what they’d told them on Koh Tao. But they’d not seen turtles on Koh Tao, so the one who wanted to see turtles got hooked. Yesterday they signed up and today they went diving with me and their girlfriends snorkeled. I gave them turtles, I gave them sharks. By the time we came out of dive 2 they were talking about going again this afternoon. Diving was definitely better here they told me. The girls were thrilled as they got two great snorkels and I told them where to go to see the sharks on Bida Nai.

Well one of them decided to go again this afternoon and the other one was off to nap, I suppose. So off we went again with him and his girlfriend and another friend. He was the only one diving. We ended the day with a dive on Malong and he got to spend 15 minutes with a turtle right at the beginning of the dive and saw another one during the dive. He came up saying that he would remember that experience his whole life. And that is why I love my job.

Having decided that it really wouldn’t be smart to start shopping for another point and shoot camera until I’d exhausted all avenues available to me in the cameras we already have, I’ve taken Ryan’s other camera – the one that he found at Breakwater – diving the past two days. He doesn’t like it, but I’ve decided that it’s a fine little camera and after just two days, I’m taking pretty decent pics with it. So I’m going to keep at it.

Here’s what today yielded:







Have I mentioned on the blog that swimming with sharks doesn’t get old? Have I mentioned on the blog that swimming with sharks is so freaking cool. I do not tire of it. I could honestly spend every dive just hunting for black tips and that would be okay with me. It is the greatest thing in the world. The zebra sharks are all right, they’re cute, but they just lay there and don’t move most of the time. It’s a huge treat to see them swim, just doesn’t happen very often. The black tips though, they look like real sharks and they dart around like real sharks – I think I get a bit of adrenaline going every time I see them and I’m a little bit addicted. I totally wanna go cage diving with the whites now.

I’m guessing that Ryan’s days are pretty much the same. Maybe for his parental units he will one day script us a blog entry so you can get his impressions of his daily life, not just my impressions of his daily life, which for now you can all assume are the same as mine except that he has no impressions of Hin Muang/Hin Daeng yet.

As for Chris, after a month and just as he was starting to get seriously bored here, he landed himself a fantastic gig. I’m actually really jealous, except that I can’t afford his job. He is going to be videographer for P.P. Seafrog, a local diveshop. That means that he gets to go diving every day they go out and video the dives and the divers. He makes his money on commissions from video sales. Not financially super lucrative, but here’s my reasoning. Most shops have a videographer and all of these people can’t be independently wealthy. So…while it may still be a bit slow at the moment, I’m guessing that he might be pleasantly surprised to find that come a month or two, he’ll be able to pay his rent and food and occasional samsong and diet coke.

It’s been funny to see Chris go through much of the same that Ryan and I experienced when we first got here. Being refused by shops because you don’t speak a language other than English, being refused by shops because you’re not male/female, being told that they’ll call you for freelance and never hearing anything, being refused by a shop because it’s the full moon the second Tuesday of the month. I was also watching Chris slowly run out of things with which to occupy his days. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, for people like us, Phi Phi is hella boring if you’re not diving. The occasional day off to catch up on sleep is nice, but other than that, I’d rather be diving.

Love to all, peace out.

High Season on Approach

The good weather is back, mostly. The ocean is flat, the diving is superb. Our big boat is back, so no more diving off the POS Pasadena. And I am in a great mood, mostly. The past week has also been tremendous financially. Big bahts were made!

Highlights of the past few days:

New friends were made and I sent two new very capable divers into the world. If you’re reading this, congrats Russell and Veronica for all your hard work!

Did one wreck trip mid week out to the King Cruiser. It was the first palatable trip I’ve made out there. First, the ocean was like glass, so I didn’t spend the speedboat ride over convinced I was going to die. Second there was virtually no current, so the wreck was actually navigable. Thirdly, the viz was so good, that we could see the wreck down at 20 meters from just below the surface. It’s still a hunk of steel at the bottom of the ocean and I still prefer pretty colorful reefs, but it was enjoyable. Fourthly, I actually got a good night sleep the previous night, which brings us to fifthly. I wasn’t narc’ed out of my skull this time thinking that the massive fishball that was in front of me was out to get me and convinced that I was going to get myself and my divers lost in an overhead environment. Narcosis is real and it sucks!

I certified 3 Advanced Open Water Divers, two of which had done their Open Water with me the previous week. Russell and Veronica are traveling together from jolly old England. Russell goes back to jolly old on November 1, but Veronica will be staying on in Southeast Asia after that. I’m trying to convince her to come back to Phi Phi and do her Divemaster with me (and I don’t put that invitation out to just anybody).

Chris finished his Divemaster. It was celebrated in Phi Phi Barakuda fashion with a snorkel test in front of the shop. It was a very strange experience participating in this fratboy ritual which I think is a little silly. But, as Chris’ certifying instructor it was my responsibility to pour a bucket of Sangsom and Coke down one end of snorkel (via funnel) while he chugged at the other end. It was not me that chased the bucket down with white vinegar though. That was all Adrian. The disturbing part is that Chris never flinched even when the taste changed from Sangsom to vinegar. Just looking at them do this always churns my stomach. I think Chris was still belching up vinegar 24 hours later. Ahhhh boys and their party tricks! Anyways, there is video evidence of all this which I’ll have to get from Chris.

Yesterday and today I was treated to some deep and long dives with more experienced divers. I had a Disco and her boyfriend yesterday. After taking about ½ an hour trying to get her to equalize and not being able to get below 3 meters I finally had to put her back on the boat so she’d stop stressing her ears out. Her boyfriend and I then went on a nice leisurely dive down to 20 meters on the deep side of Bida Nok. I’d not explored down that deep on the reef before and it was stunning – gave me even more to appreciate about that site. Bida Nok is by far my favorite site here. I love the big boulders – it’s like swimming through mountains. We came back up and swung around where I generally take my divers to see the Black Tips and were treated to a couple of appearances. His girlfriend worked her ears out to about 10 meters on the second dive (so glad I convinced her to have another go at it) and she was treated to a turtle and TONS of black tips – I ran out of fingers and toes on which to count them.

Today I took a Disco again. He did the first dive and came out feeling really seasick. Lunch break did not improve how he felt so he opted out of dive 2. The owner of Barakuda was on the boat so he and I did dive 2 together. We went to Bida Nai and we did a super long tour around Fantasy Reef, again down to about 25 meters or so. When Lee told me he was going up about 45 minutes into the dive, I hitched onto one of our group’s tours. Just like a ramora jumping from one shark to another and finished out my dive with them for a total of 68 minute dive. It’s been a long time since I’ve sucked down a tank. I saw the smallest little lionfish – about 3 inches long – so cute! I also saw a lobster and the biggest barracuda (4 of them) I think I’ve ever seen – a good meter long and very, very beefy!
Ryan has been busy as well working at Adventure Club. Right now he’s got so many different classes going on, it’s amazing he can keep straight what student is doing what.

High season is so close I can taste it.

Tomorrow Barakuda is planning a trip to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang. That’s a big day trip 90 km south of Phi Phi (about hour and a half by speedboat) to two phenomenal dive sites where the mantas and whale sharks hang out. I’m hoping to get out there, but I’ve been stuck at Shop 2 all night and it’s been rather quiet. It will be the first such trip of the season.

I can totally get behind this high season thing. Conditions are so much better, the diving’s so easy and the customers are pretty much guaranteed to be happy.

Still Waiting...

I feel like a prisoner counting down the days. Oh the melodrama, my life is so hard! But seriously, I’ve given away 2 Discos and a funny. No money for me (well, a tiny bit for booking them). Fatty and I are doing time together, resting on the bed, reading and watching the Simpsons and cursing Karma.

Walking into town for breakfast this morning, I overheard a French couple commenting that average October rainfall is 22 days. Yikes! If it keeps raining as today, there will be no water left in the sky. I slept poorly last night because of the stupid MSG laden fried rice Chris and I shared for lunch which had me getting up every half hour to drink water, and I heard the rain beat down. This morning in the complete zombie state, I was aware of Ryan leaving the room to go diving. Still it was pounding down with rain.

Before leaving, Ryan let Fatty Monster (his previous owners called him Monster, so since we named him Fatty, I’ve renamed him to Fatty Monster) into the room. He made a lot of noise demanding food then was very happy to flop on the bed squooshing his little body as close to me as possible while I read “The Fundamentals of Tech Diving” by Jarrod Jablonski. And still it rained.

Around 11:30 or so, it finally took a break and I thought the sky was empty. Really, it rained so hard that there couldn’t possibly be any water left up there. Chris and I took advantage of the break in the downpour to go grab some breakfast in town and stop by Barakuda, my place of employment so they remember that I’m more than just a voice at the other end of the telephone asking for my shop shift every night. I discovered that my fins had come in (in the wrong color, but what the hell). I don’t remember if I told you guys that in the same week as the slip n fall fiasco, a few days earlier, one of my fins had “bounced” off the POS Pasadena, gone forever, but not forgotten and greatly regretted.

This afternoon, Shop 2 from 2 to 6. I’ve been in Shop 2 every day and Chris and I have taken advantage of the time to get him through all of his Divemaster exams on which he’s done very well, but to my surprise he did not get 100% on all of them. Little overachiever that he is, he was adamant about maintaining an “A” average, which I think he did.

Ryan came to visit on his way home, and the sky took the opportunity to open up again and dump another three or so inches of rain. Here is the video that Chris took:



And an hour since and it is still dumping down.

The island is currently infested by Israelis and Chinese. It’s nearing the end of the Israeli holidays as we’re getting through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Having read up a bit on my Jewish lore (i.e., I wiki’ed Rosh Hashanah), I am wondering what all these fine God fearing Jews are doing partying it up (disco, disco) during the holiest of Jewish holy days.

Not sure what occasion landed all these Chinese here.

I know you’re all dying to hear more on the Israeli front! A few nights before we left for the visa run, I was sitting at shop 2 again, minding my own business, again. The guesthouse next door closes up shop by way of putting up a tarp in front of their desk around 8:00p.m. It is often my job to respond to inquiries for a room by simply pointing to the desk next door. At about 8:01, I did this for two Israeli gentlemen who had walked up the road and 5 minutes later, upon, I’m sure, determining that there was naught else up the road yonder, had come back in this direction. They asked me about a room and I pointed. The guesthouse lady (Apple) had not left yet, so she put down the tarp and showed them a room.

8:00p.m. is NOT a good time to be looking for a room. The guesthouses are closing up shop and possibly only the very expensive luxury hotels have reception desks open past 8:00. (Not sure what you do if you’re shaking your thing on the beach all night and you lose your room key – sleep on the beach, I guess.)

Having looked at the room the two gentlemen decided that they would bargain down the price of the room. This made me laugh. Two seconds earlier the guesthouse was closed. Two seconds earlier they had not sold the room. Two seconds later, having pulled out the following phrases, “you are being very unfair” and “how could you do this to me” the two gentlemen left. The bargaining is not Israeli. This is Thailand – I’m quite sure that the first sentence about Thailand in the Lonely Planet guide is that you can bargain down just about anything. The two other comments are very Israeli though. And it makes me laugh!

On the work front, neither team is real good for business. Chinese don’t swim (I think I mentioned this before). Taking Chinese on Discover Scuba is a bit of an exercise in herding cats. First, if you have more than one participant, you’ll be lucky if you can get both to stay underwater at the same time. One or two is an ideal number because once you are able to get them underwater simultaneously, you need to drag them around by their tank valve because they will not propel themselves through the water. Since you only have two hands, you can’t really effectively tow more than two. This results in them coming out of the water with near full tanks while you have sucked down near every last molecule of your available air supply. And you’re exhausted.

So, on one of my last posts, I left you abruptly having told you that moments after his arrival, Chris managed to piss off Buddha. He’s convalescing and keeping me company in my misery. And he’s working on his Divemaster requirements that can be completed without getting in the water. He is antsy to go diving (as am I). He’s antsy to be a Divemaster so he can get work. I forgot to tell him that he was coming to the monsoon and that there would be no diving for him. Ha ha, no diving for him. At this moment, he is supposed to be completing his mapping project.

I had my stitches removed and Thank Buddha, Ryan was able to go with me. The nurses at the Phi Phi Hospital are not gentle. And I'm a wuss who's become way too accustomed to medical care in America that no longer hurts AT ALL. Removal of stitches was supposed to be painless. Yeah, right. When she DUG to get under one of them it felt like she was giving me an injection in the bottom of my foot. It is hard to trust your well being to someone who keeps hurting you. This is kind of a metaphor for life if you think about it. But thank Buddha, Ryan was there to hold my hand.

And still it’s dumping. Really, I thought the sky would be empty by now.

Thai Language

I was writing an email to my friend Mrs. Oliver last night and realized that there are many things that I have not talked about on the blog. Doesn’t my friend Jen have the coolest last name? It’s new to her, she’s just getting the hang of it I’m sure, probably still tripping over it a bit when she introduces herself. I love the name Oliver. Jen Oliver. It flows nicely off the tongue.

Well, I was supposed to get my stitches removed yesterday, but Ryan thought it might be a good idea to wait a bit longer as it’s still bleeding the slightest bit, which means it’s not closed up yet. Not surprising with all the walking around that we’ve been doing. Ryan gave me strict orders to take it easy and then yesterday morning was shaking me out of bed to go to breakfast and to show Chris around. Today I’ve done a lot more relaxing with Fatty so I’m hoping that tonight Ryan can take the stitches out. I trust him more to remove them than the mean evil nurse lady who stitched me up without properly novacaining me first.

We’re back on the island with Chris, obviously. Chris is hard at work to finish up his Divemaster so he can get to work and make money. And I’m back to working shop hours and starting to get a little edgy with regards to getting back in the water. Being stuck with only working shop hours is working well with getting Chris through his exams but does not pay enough (if anything).

So back to all this stuff that I’ve revealed to Jen but have kept hidden from all you blog readers…

The Thai language…it is painfully difficult for me to learn it. And I’ve finally realized why. I learned more Malay in three days in Kuala Lumpur from reading street signs and billboards than I’ve managed to learn Thai in 4 months. And I’ve figured that it’s because of the alphabet. Malay uses the Roman alphabet, which I can read and phonetically work words out. Thai has it’s own alphabet which I can’t read and when it’s spelled phonetically, it’s never spelled the same way twice (for example Koh vs. Ko for island, Phi Phi Ley is also spelled Phi Phi Leh or Pi Pi Leh or Pi Pi Ley depending on who you ask). It is difficult for me to remember a word if I ask someone “how do you say…” They’ll answer me and I’ll spend some time repeating it in my head, but then it goes away. It took me weeks to wrap my head around “hello” and “thank you.” I can now also say “fish,” “shark,” “cat,” “rice,” “sticky rice” and today I figured out that “tuk tuk” means “cheap cheap.” I’m working on how to say “no thank you.” I’m also fairly ok ordering my meal in Thai. But if you think about it, it’s quite abysmal.

I think Ryan's actually doing better than me at the Thai. And he's the one who says he's awful at languages, yadda, yadda, yadda.

We have Rosetta Stone in Thai, but honestly, I don’t need to be able to say “The boy on top of the airplane” in Thai. What I really need is to be able to communicate with my boat captain and the tank boys. Sometimes that’s frustrating. Like when I lost one of my fins - it would have been nice to communicate exactly that I expected us to find it when we went back out in the afternoon.

And the last part of this is that if I’m going to put a concerted effort into learning another language, Italian, German or Swedish would be much more valuable to my current profession than Thai.

More tomorrow as I’ve had to talk myself out of diving. I am being reasonably prudent. I have sold two Discover Diving customers and they want to go tomorrow. With Baht signs dancing in front of me, I was chomping at the bit to take them. But I am going to be cautious and let my foot have at least one more day out of the water. I would be really mad at myself if I went back in the water tomorrow and it got worse and then I was out of the water for another week. So I will pass on the big Baht and stay dry another day.

Sawadeeka.