January 12, 2007
Work ended at six thirty p.m. sharp on this wet friday evening and I made a mad dash to the airport for my flight, Tiger Airways TR158 to Phuket.
It was drizzling when I checked into the Budget Terminal and being anxious to get on with my trip, I enquired about the direction to the sheltered walkway which would lead me to the aircraft. All three girls at the check-in counters looked up in unison and replied in military precision.… “NO SHELTER, THIS IS BUDGET FLIGHT!” It echoed throughout the Departure Hall and I could feel a thousand pair of eyes descended upon me. At that very moment, I hope they could check me in with my dive bag so that I do not need to turn around and face all those in the queue behind me. By the time boarding came, the rain had stopped and one of the counter girls who was multi-tasked to man the queue for boarding saw me and as I approached her to hand her my boarding pass, she said without blinking an eye, “lucky you, rain stop orrady hor!”. I guess that’s the way they make you feel welcome at the budget terminal…..
The flight was uneventful as I slept most of the way. Transport from the airport to Patong (where I would be staying for this trip) was arranged by the guesthouse. It was made in a modified Toyota Corona with mod turbo engine, undercarriage decorated with blue neon lights and a sound system in the car boot that would make most home entertainment systems look like child’s play.
Home for the next two days was the Little Buddha Guesthouse at
January 13, 2007
The songtaew (a pick-up truck modified to ferry passengers) driven by Pat from South Siam Divers arrived at seven thirty a.m. sharp for my ride to Chalong Pier. Everything went smoothly and I was on board South Siam Diver 1 (‘SSD1’) by eight thirty a.m.. I was very impressed with the whole ‘getting the customers from the hotel to the boat’ operation. Chop chop with no rubber time.
SSD1 departed with nine customers, two beautiful Russian blonds, Olga and
Before our first dive, I briefed my assigned buddy, Jeremy on my gear set-up and showed him how I would deploy my long-hose in the event that I need to donate to him. I am sure he was impressed, but not sure with me for being a responsible diver or with my long-hose & backplate gear set-up.
KCW, an 87m long x 25m wide converted car ferry built in Japan and then imported into Thailand about 11 years ago, sunk on May the 4th, 1997, after striking Anemone Reef just East of Phuket. She came to rest at a depth of 32m with the top of the wreck only 14m from the surface, making for a perfect multi-level air dive. The wreck is huge and is home to a lot of marine life. On top of schooling barracuda, yellow fusiliers, big eye travelly and a big school of snappers inside the car deck, there are also a lot of scorpion fish resting on the deck and lion fish found floating all over the wreck. The visibility was about 15m with little current on that day. This wreck would make a perfect wreck dive. I miss my DIRty buddy……
Shark Point is a series of pinnacles situated about 5 minutes away from KCW. With a wide variety of hard and soft corals, it is definitely one of the best coral reefs in
Sharkpoint on the surface
Lunch Menu was Thai dishes, green curry beef, fried fish in sweet chili sauce, oyster sauce vegie and tom yam soup with rice or spaghetti. This was served between Dives 2 and 3. The food was good and more than sufficient. Oh, did I mention that refreshment (including soft-drinks) was absolutely free? Burp! as I down my seventh coke.
Koh Dok Mai (
At the end of the day, I left my dive gear on-board and the staff will transfer for me to SSD2 for my trip to Ko Racha Yai the next day.
January 14, 2007
Being a Sunday, SSD2 was packed with more than 30 divers from various scuba operators. Divers came from all over the world….
The two dives at Ko Racha Yai was nothing to shout about, we did Bay 2 and Bay 4 (drifting into Bay 3) on Ko Racha Yai. These sites are very similar to sites around Pulau Aur in
Jay, my Thai DM from
Near the end of our first dive, Jay signaled to me that she was going into her safety-stop and started to deploy her SMB. I commenced my slow ascend routine from 20m. At the end of her safety-stop, she surfaced and started to retrieve her SMB, the next thing I knew, the boat was above me and she got out of the water and boarded the boat. Hey, Wait for me!! I was still at my 3m stop with no SMB and the boat overhead!! I was glad Adam was keeping a look-out for me on-board. Lesson learnt, if you are diving with non-DIRty divers, be self-sufficient and execute the ascent relying only on yourself.
Overall, I was very impressed with the operations and services provided by South Siam Divers. The two boats are clean, organized and well maintained; they even have additional filters for their air compressor.
The boat returned to Chalong Pier at about four p.m. and I had time to go say goodbye to my new found Russian friends before departing for the airport. I had about eight hours surface interval before the flight….. do this at your own risk!
On the flight back, I unknowingly took up a seat next to the emergency exit. Before we tookoff, the stewardess walked up to me and said at the speed of a machine gun… “SIR!! You are next to the emergency exit, in the event of an emergency, I would need your help to…. blah blah blah blah…. Thank you sir”. Huh? What was that?? I was glad my service to pull open the emergency door was not required…. Otherwise, the consequences could be fatal….
Overall, it was a good trip. Five dives, leopard shark, barracuda, cuttlefish, moray eel, travelly…. and a full load of adventures….. it was worth every bhat of the S$600/-. This could be an alternative to Tioman diving during the monsoon months.
Sawadee Krub!
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