May
SCUBA diving was the main purpose of this leg of the trip. Pete had done all of his diving certification bookwork in Chicago before we left, so in Phuket, he could jump straight into the swimming pool for his skills training. He breezed through the skills in an afternoon in the capable hands of our good dive friend Thien, who runs the Rumble Fish Adventure dive company with his partner Miz.
That evening, we had a tasty Thai dinner with Miz and Thien at a great after beach bar overlooking Kata beach. We remarked to Thien that we were disappointed with the Vietnamese food in general, and the pho in specific that we had in Hanoi. Thien, being Vietnamese-American, explained that the food in the north tends to be more bland, with little more than noodles and meat while in the south (which was historically more pro-west than the more communist north), they use a lot more tasty spices and vegetables. That explains how we went to 3 authentic pho shops in Hanoi, yet could not get any that was as good as we remembered it in Chicago. Apparently in Chicago, pho is prepared more in the southern fashion…
On day 2, Miz and Thien hooked me up with a little gig as a tour guide for one of their customers. It was fun to be back in the water leading and teaching diving again. We found a ghost pipe fish, which is a rare micro species found only in the Andaman Ocean – and making this rare find made me ever more excited about all the cool things we will certainly see when diving in the Maldives! What’s more, on top of this great experience, because I was guiding, I was able to dive for free and got a nice tip from the customers which covered our dinner that night!
Pete, on the other hand, started the first of 2 days of open water dive training at Kata beach. Again, he completed his skills to the highest accolades of his instructor, Danny. In fact, his only issue with diving seemed to be motion sickness! The surf and currents that day at the beach made him very queasy, though he did not vomit underwater into his regulator (breathing apparatus) as others have been known to do (not mentioning any names)! Maintaining a therapeutic blood level of anti-nausea medications will be the order of the day from now on!
On day 3, I accompanied Pete and his instructor Danny to Racha Yai for his last day of training. We had phenomenal weather and under water visibility that day. During his morning dive, he completed his training, and that left the second dive in the afternoon all for fun! This was a “drift” dive, which means we had a strong current which drifted us along without much effort. To top off this great dive, we saw a sea turtle near a small boat wreck along the reef. Pete now only needs to better control his oxygen usage so he doesn’t go through it at twice the rate of us experts!
Our last day in Phuket was devoted to sight seeing. We had rented 2 motorbikes for the week in Phuket (it’s the best way to get around the island), and used them to tour around the island. We rode about 80-100 km seeing most of the south side of the island and its many beaches. We ended the day with dinner and drinks with Miz and Thien to thank them for helping us organize this great trip. We were sorry to have to leave so soon!
This morning, we started our long voyage from Phuket to the Maldives. After talking to Thien, we learned there was an easier way to get to the Maldives, but we had booked an “Amazing Race” type flight schedule, that includes 4 flights and a 12-hour lay over at Singapore’s Changi airport. Changi is a phenomenal airport with lots of built-in shopping, restaurants and even a movie theater. We planned to take full advantage of all that Changi has to offer, but unfortunately, I was not feeling very well, and so far, we are taking it quite easy here. In a little while, we’ll proceed through security and check into the day hotel for transiting passengers, where I can get some sleep. The one cool thing we did catch a glimpse of was Singapore Airlines’ giant double decker Airbus A380. They are currently the only airline in the world that flies this aircraft! It’s parked at the terminal and awaiting passengers bound for Sydney. Maybe we can catch it taking off later this evening.
About 230 years ago, during the early Rattanakosin period, Bangkok was established as the capital of what is now known as Thailand. The Chao Phraya river and its canals were the most important means of transportation and trading during that time, not unlike the canals of Venice. In fact, Bangkok was also known as the Venice of the East.
– May 11, 2008