koh tao v1.1

back to the world of bubbles. it is quiet under the water. you sink to the bottom with only your breathing in your ears. in and out, in and out. sometimes the bubbles brush your face. you float around like an astronaut taking a stroll outside the space station. all i need is brad pitt to shave my head and tell me i'm a space monkey sent to save the planet.

lyds and i left hat sai ri for the remoteness of the southern end of the island. it was here, under the eyes of buddha, that we completed the second stage of our scuba certification. with the course came more skills work, theory and homework, and another 9 dives to add to our logs. but we were already pros who had cut our teeth at the great barrier. slipping under the waves again felt as familiar as it did in australia. on our first dive at chumpon pinnacle, we hovered at 18m. directly below us, about 12m down, three 2m long gray reef sharks circled. with the magnification that comes with being under the water they looked even larger - massively powerful torpedoes cutting a circle in the sand. as we moved on we were able to hover over a lion fish with all of its spikes extended, a fish which had eluded us before on the great barrier. the next day we went back to the pinnacle and went down to 30m to get "narc'd." now at their level, we also went looking for the same torpedoes we had only viewed from above the day before. just as we were ready to head for the surface, and with poor visibility, a lone shark came out of the blur and circled our group. lyds and i followed him as he swam away. then he turned and passed right through our group to once again disappear in the dark. that night we went on another night dive at the japanese gardens. the dive was made challenging by poor visibility, and inept guide, and equipment problems. just as i had learned with oscar in australia, i brought a half empty water bottle down with me in my bcd. in the dark with only my torch i brought it out to try and attract more sharp toothed monsters. picture it: exceptionally quiet, your breathing in your ears, in and out - accentuated like darth vader. the bottle comes out as you swim on your back looking at your fins and the dark. the torch illuminates a narrow beam of visibility. the bottle is in your hands. could you use it? i would not have been able to before i left for this trip. but no amount of coaxing could produce the shining eyes to fly by our group. near the end of our dive lyds and i turned off our torches and played with the bioluminescence amongst the squids. it was our own private party. sparks flew off our hands as we danced. later when the guide lost the group i took control of the confusion and the dive and brought us to the surface safely.

the other dives were all memorable as well. some of the noteworthy events included diving the narrow caves of laem thien, playing with the moray eels at white rock, and swimming into a giant school of barracuda at aow luek.

space monkey out.