My friend Daniel, who is a reporter, got an award at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner over the weekend! How exciting!! Here’s the link to the piece in the PI in Seattle. Very exciting.
I know a Famous Smart Person!
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Monthly Archives: April 2008
Pictures are up!!
I’ve posted all the pictures. Some of the descriptions are filled in, some are not… Go here.
Can I go back now? I will be (hopefully!) getting some underwater pictures from my dive buddies, so stay tuned!!
I asked my boss if he could get me a job at the Tesco Lotus in Phuket – he said I would be ideal for stocking the top shelf. I could go diving all my weekends!!
Needless to say, I’m back to the grind… Boss told me he didn’t miss me, but many others told me he did.
Getting to Bangkok
I kind of pushed the limits today… I didn’t want to go to Krabi for a night and then go on to BKK on a plane. I decided that I might end up cutting it close with a minibus to Krabi… I asked the driver if he would drop me off at the airport and he assured me he would. There was a family on the bus who was very late, and if they hadn’t been late, I might not have had to shout at the tour agency where I was dropped off… note to self – do not fly to Krabi in order to go to Khao Lak. When I come back to Khao Lak to dive, I’ll definitely fly to Phuket. I had to flag a songthaew (an open-backed taxi) to get me to the airport, and had to pay him 150 baht, but that was a GOOD DEAL less than I would have had to fork over for the stupid tour agency to take me… I ended up giving him 200 baht. And I barely made the check-in time, according to the sign – BUT, I don’t think they were really going by that.
Uneventful flight back to BKK, I had to fly over the lovely blue water of the Gulf of Thailand and I was very sad… there is no ocean breeze here, and I really would much prefer that… But, I’ll get to hang out with my friend Helen from the boat, and also with Suthee and Wendy. I still need to do some shopping, after all!
I had an authentic market Thai dinner with some people from the dive shop on Friday night, which was very fun. It’s great to be able to make friends where ever I go!
I probably won’t post before I go home, so I’ll let you all know I’m back when I get to the office, zombie-like, on Monday. What I would really like to do is NOT go home, but go do more diving… but reality has set in, and I feel like I should do it. Bummer.
More detail about the liveaboard
Since I have some time, I figure I’ll write out what I’ve written in my little black book… here goes:
Started the trip at 8pm in the diveshop, drove up to Kuraburi where we got on the boat. I rode in the back of a minibus with Helen who is basically a British Valley Girl. I think that’s possible, but she does not. The other person was a Californian named John – he lives in Redondo, so it just became a small world!
I went diving with a computer from the shop for the first time. I dove with Ben (our Divemaster), Scotty (an Aussie) and Oliver (a Swiss-German). Justin (another Aussie) was the 4th person, but he had air issues, so they changed him to a different group. It was a good group. Saw lots of great stuff, LOTS.
The Divemasters on Board were fantastic – always helped with small tips here and there. It was super helpful. The Thai crew was awesome as well – just really fun and funny people. They were always there to help – no matter what was happening.
My ears got a little stressed, I think that three plus dives/day will do that to you. A couple of the DMs had some of the same problems – it’s the end of the season and the ears have a tendency to get more easily stressed.
Overall, I’d HIGHLY recommend Sea Dragon. All of it is fantastic. All of it. Here’s the link again: Sea Dragon Dive Centre.
The Last Dive…
BOO! I just did the last dive of the trip. I really was not pleased with having to do that, but I had to do that. You are supposed to have 24 hours between the last dive and flying. At least. And now I’m there. I have to fly on Saturday back to Bangkok, and then on Sunday for hours and hours back to LAX.
So, I can’t dive any longer, but now I’m up to like 35 or 36 dives in my logbook. I have decided that I want to start procuring my kit. Slowly but surely I’ll procure all the stuff I need for diving, so that I don’t have to share regulators with other divers.
I got to see plenty of lionfish, scorpionfish and schooling fish today, along with a good variety of nudibranchs – you’ll have to ask me for the diving sign for those – it’s comedy. I had a Divemaster I knew with me, from the liveaboard, and it was truly great. Just the two of us, and really only saw a few people who were starting their dives as we were coming up. The wreck was an old tin mining platform. The weather is still hot and I still like it. But, I have to start preparing myself to come home… that kind of stinks. 
Miss you all, but really…
Anyway, just wanted to let you all know I came up from the bottom…
Getting Up Early
Apparently on the boat, we were one of the groups that was the easiest to get up each time. The DMs were not pleased with this. They wanted at least 10 minutes of “wakey-wakey” time without customers. We did not oblige. I was up 10 minutes before the wakeup shout came, as I needed to make sure my contacts were all sorted before a zillion (yes, that’s an exaggeration) people started wandering about… Anyway, I’ve not yet been able to sleep in past like 8am any of the days I’ve been on holiday so far. But, I’ve gotten good sleep – apparently going to bed early works for me. That did NOT used to be the case. But now, whatever… I have to go back to the land of less sleep next week – sucks – and hopefully this store of sleep I currently have will tide me over for a while…
Anyway, I’m headed to a market today, in one of the next beach towns North, and also to that beach, to sit. That is part of vacation too, I think.
I just received an email from my dad that stated that 30 degrees C is 86 degrees F. Um, wow. That’s hot in the water. The monsoon is starting now too – the weather is turning very humid with crazy rain storms in the afternoon (as I told you before). We arrived back to port in one of those storms… It is also, in Phuket, supposedly currently 84 degrees, feeling like 94 degrees. It’s HOT. And then I just depressed myself by looking at the temperature in LA… not cool. But, I’ve still got time here… YAY!
I was trying to put some pictures up from the liveaboard of the lovely islands, but my camera (my borrowed camera) and this computer are not getting along. You may have to wait till I return home to upload them. If so, I apologize… I don’t have that many pictures this time, nothing like last time… I do think I have enough, though.
No Whale Sharks…
I didn’t see any whale sharks (they are the world’s largest fish…), but I saw some really, really great other things. I was out there underwater for three times a day, starting at 7am on Saturday morning… only two times today – and the last dive was a bit of a letdown… boo.
Overall, it was a total of 12 dives as I did only one of the night dives. It was a bit intense on the ears, but I’m going back down for another dive on Thursday… there’s a wreck in the area that I want to go down into. The divemasters were all fantastic, and the Thai crew was really, really awesome. The group we were with also was great as well. I’ve now become facebook friends with some of them (Mrs. Gray, get on it!!).
The diving was AWESOME, RAD, WICKED, WONDERFUL, SPECTACULAR… um, what else? I saw little fish, big fish, corals of all sorts, black-tipped reef sharks, leopard sharks, two kinds of turles (FOUR turtles in total on ONE dive!!)… it was really, really great. I know some of you don’t want to hear about this, but it was really good. Mom, we’ll just have to come back – Sea Dragon rocks.
As I said, met some great people, so I’m going to go hang out with them today and tomorrow. And then dive again on Thursday, make my way to Krabi on Friday for a Saturday flight to BKK… The hotel I wanted on Saturday is booked, so I’ll be doing the typical wander about town trying to find a place… Unless a friend can work magic and find a place to stay. It IS the beginning of the Thai New Year weekend, so I’ll just hope for it. I need to do some shopping for pashminas – and, anyone need anything?
I’ll try to write a more detailed update of the trip. Suffice it to say that it was really, really great.
More rain…
Apparently in the afternoon around monsoon season, it POURS here… like the heavens open up and PELT down… there is a giant lake in front of the shops where I’m doing internet… it’s insane. At least this time I wasn’t on a motorbike.
I’m now in Khao Lak, about to go onto the liveaboard. I got some banana boat sunscreen, as the Nivea one I bought at Tesco Lotus in BKK apparently did not work (I’m now sporting a lovely burn around my neck… JOY!). Go with what you know, yeah?
The trip here to Khao Lak was uneventful… ferry from Koh Lanta to Krabi town, and then picked up to go to a travel agency to wait for the minibus to Khao Lak. On the minibus were two German couples and a couple from someplace else, with two kids… I can’t figure it out. But the German couples weren’t friendly or talkative… it was strange. Most of the people I randomly start talking to are nice and friendly… (you know me, striking up a conversation…) Regardless, just a normal, boring ride. Not a big deal. Got to Khao Lak and man, it was hot! It was a bit more built up than I thought it would be, after all I’ve read about it being still demolished from the tsunami, but I can see some of the effects.
Regardless, Sea Dragon Dive Center is a lovely place, I have to go back there for 8pm, aka in 1 hour and 20 minutes, and I won’t be back to tinterweb land till the 8th…
Lanta was lovely, but it’s nice to be in a place that is a little different… not sure where I’ll go after here, but could be anywhere!! I just know I have to be back in Krabi for my flight back to Bangkok on the 12th. Where ever I end up, I want to go on a motorbike again – I now want a scooter!!
Driving in the Rain
Today I hired a motorbike, the automatic kind, for the day – it was lovely. I drove up to Saladan (the main village on the island) and then over the “pass” to the other side. The view was spectacular at the top. I saw the clouds come in, as they’ve done in the evening lately, a little earlier and then it started raining softly at first… and then harder – soon I was DRENCHED. I didn’t want to ride in the rain, as I’m a newbie on a scooter, so I asked this man if I could join him under his awning on the patio… I was wearing a tank top and a sarong, and realized that he was a muslim – it wasn’t good… I didn’t want to offend, so I took off as soon as I thought it was letting up… it started harder!! I’d seen a restaurant at the “pass” so I wanted to make it there. I was so wet that I could wring my sarong and my tank top out! It was good to have stopped…
I saw a sea gypsy village, the town of old lanta and the tidal flats of the East side of the island. It was great. World Vision rebuilt a lot of the houses in the sea gypsy village, as they were all new, and I assume they were wrecked when the tsunami hit. As I got further and further South, the people got darker and darker – and more Indian looking. I find that fascinating. It just goes to show how much the sea gypsys used to travel around. Then again, the people down here in the South look a LOT different than the ones in the far North.
I then came back to the West, and more beachy, side – with the goal of driving all the way to the tip… the road really peters out, but I thought I’d give it a good ol’ college try… um, yeah, didn’t make it, as the road got pretty bad. I didn’t have much gas left, so I didn’t really want to chance it… I got pretty good at the scooter though!!
I stopped for some yummy noodles on my way “home” and my favorite dessert of a banana and fresh coconut pancake. I love it. The coconut is so good!!
I got eaten a bit by skeeters… on my forehead no less! Apparently there was one IN my mosquito netting last night. I’ll be checking that as soon as I go in tonight. GRR, hate them. I had to bite the bullet and get some ICKY deet-laden repellent. That’s the only way apparently… I hate them things… Here’s to hoping that on the ocean starting tomorrow, there will be no skeeters… let’s take a poll… What do you think?
I’ll be incommunicado, starting around 4pm MY time on Friday, aka 2am your time, as I’ll be on a boat… diving as many times each day as I can. But, you can email or post me messages on the blog… (am I talking to myself, btw? I know of two Mrs’ that are reading…)
I have a billion pictures of the colors of the water from around here – it may make me pathetic, but only if you want to see them can you… I’ll post sometime when it’s a bit cheaper (and when I’m not down to the final 2 minutes of my “card”). I need to pack also… and find the skeeters in my mosquito netting… and probably do something very un-Buddhist of me – KILL THEM. But what else is a girl with sweet blood and bites everywhere to do??
**edit: I forgot to tell you about the monkey I saw on the road. It was toward the very end of the island, on the bad part of the road. I thought it was a dog, but it turned out to stand up… so not a dog. It was funny, though. I thought you might enjoy that little story.
Day Two of Diving
Today is Wednesday. The end of Wednesday for me. I’ve been diving, so far, 4 times. The coldest of the times was 29 degrees C. Insane!! The fish are GORGEOUS and I love it each and every time… I’ve had my own divemaster both times – for the refresh and the other.
Koh Lanta is utterly fantastic. The island is fairly small, and the dive shop has picked me up both days I’ve been here so far. I will not dive on Thursday, but will go around on a motorbike tomorrow instead. I just want to see the island! There is a mix of Muslim and non here, very interesting to see girls in headscarves driving around on motorbikes. Today I saw two girls in full burkas driving on a motorbike.
I arrived here on Monday after a full day of traveling (taxi to the old BKK airport, a flight to Krabi, a bus to Krabi-town and then a mini-van to Lanta). I booked my dives straight away and then got a ride down the island with the dive shop – Lanta Diver. I met my mom’s friend Bonnie (if you don’t know the story of why I’m here without mom, ask me later… or ask her.) Anyway, it’s a nice little place – Lanta River Sand – little bungalows a little away from the beach – it’s great. The food here is okay, not fantastic, but fine. Tonight I’m going into the little village across the little water from here, with two German girls who are also here in this “resort.”
I’m loving the weather – duh – it gets cool in the afternoon, but is great – and then thunder and lightning in the evening. Awesome.
I won’t post pictures, just yet… after the liveaboard, just for you, Mrs Gray.