First Diving Trip

I planned this trip after returning from Bali last December 2012 to pursue my dream - Open Water (OW) and Advanced Open Water (AOW) Certification, the licence to dive the world for the rest of my life.

Bought my personal dive gear and underwater camera, booked the courses and a boat trip to Richelieu Rock for my first independent dive. 

Khao Lak, Thailand

So off I went to Khao Lak and completed both the Open Water and Advanced Open Water (AOW) from 13 to 18 January 2013 with IQ Dive Center diving Similans Islands, Koh Bon and Tachai Reef. I was under the supervision of 3 instructors from Sweden, Holland and Germany. The diving was costly though, accommodation and food were cheap and good.  The shopping cannot be compared with Bangkok or Phuket, not much variety but it did not affect me much as I only needed more swim suits for the multi-day diving, some grocery shopping  for mineral water, orange juices, mosquito coils, insect repellent and of course, ciggies. 

After days and nights of hard work with pool training, theory, homework and final examination, finally ... mission accomplished, OW and AOW Certifications! It was not easy, but it went through.

So I was all set to dive the world. Greased and put on the o-ring on my new underwater marine case all ready to capture the precious moments with the vast species of God's creation underwater, I was anticipating the meeting with Mr Manta. Unfortunately, while we were almost arriving Richelieu Rock, waters were too choppy and current too strong that we detoured to Koh Tachai Pinnacle. The one hour plus bumpy ride on the speed boat only got my adrenalin at its peak for the first dive without my instructor.  Got the equipment all checked and ready to jump. I was holding the camera and suddenly lost the confidence to jump with it.  I thought I'd better let the professional do it.

Camera is Gone

So I passed it to my buddy who is experienced and a qualified instructor whom I should be able to trust to take care of it.  He also agreed  to snap some photos of me underwater. Then we jumped. Turned back and signaled "ok" to the boat and tried to swim closer to my buddy. I was concerned and asked about my camera. OMG ... he dropped it!  My brand new Lumix FT4 12m underwater camera is gone ... sad and disappointed. Those moments I captured from the minute I arrived Phuket airport for the last 7 days have sunk to the bottom of the ocean. We somehow descend and did our first dive. I was caught in the upper current and thought things might be over soon if I continued to drift further and eventually get lost. Fortunately, MS signaled me to descend much lower where there was no current.  Finally,I managed to settle down around a calm location where I recorded some shots of fishes swimming.  We were still looking out for the sight of Manta.  

Before our second dive, he and 2 other Japanese divers went and searched for the camera again but still could not find it.  On the second dive, someone loan me his camera and took some photos and motion picture.  Managed to maintain my buoyancy but anyone who watches it sure get dizzy.  So be prepared before you click on my videos (lol!).  It is too embarrassing to post it here. The photos looked fine to me. Some photos* were taken by MS where you can see Japanese words at the bottom and these are the fishes I saw at Similan and Surin Islands.

Hawksbill Turtle

Similan Islands, Koh Tachai & Koh Bon

The island of Koh Tachai lies about 20 nautical miles South of Richelieu Rock and can be another great spot for Manta Rays. The dive site is a submerged sea mount with depths from 14-35m and currents can be quite strong. The top of the reef is a beautiful mixture of hard corals, while deeper regions consist of scattered boulders and sea fans. That was the place I was hanging around, waiting for Manta and Leopard sharks. Koh Tachai is indeed an beautiful site, the amazing corals are the best among the Similans and Koh Bon I dived last 4 days. Despite feeling kinda down about the camera incident, it soon went away when I saw fusiliers, school of black fin barracudas, parrotfishes, teardrop butterfly fishes, powder blue surgeon fishes, blue-fin trevallies, clown anemone fishes, black spotted puffer fishes, skunk anemone fish, emperor angel fish, spotted butterfly fish, giant trevallies, yellow back fusiliers and many more I could not name. 

Racoon Butterflyfish

Elephant Rock (Similans) is considered quite challenging to a novice diver like me,  with some swim through "tunnels" (I love it!) and rocks of different heights (lots of swimming up and down). Hideaway Bay (Similans) is paradise as it was the first dive during the OW course.  I was in awe of the amazing sight, the clear blue waters, pristine corals and colorful fishes.  At West of Eden (Similans) I saw a beautiful medium size turtle, parrot fishes, school of snappers and many small fishes. At Tachai Reef were nudibranches, giant pufferfish, potato cod, clownfish, garden eels etc. I think I saw something that looks like trumpetfish.

Black-spotted Puffer Fish

Boonsung Wreck has poor visibility but is crowded with all kinds of fishes and I was surrounded by school of jacks, saw a blue spotted stingray, moray eels, school of trevalliers, school of barracudas, cleaning shrimps, nudibranches, lionfish and scorpionfish. Just too many to name because I have no idea what they are called. All of these wonderful creatures gather around the wreck, easy for beginners like me to search the small area. 

At Koh Bon, I saw sea snakes, butterfly fishes, pufferfishes, morays, snake eels , snappers, goatfishes, tilefish, trevallies, sweetlips, oriental sweetlips, anemone fishes, hawkfish, blennies, fusiliers and of course, angel fishes commonly seen around.

Black-fin Barracudas

                                                                                          

Nudibranch

Trevallies (Jacks)

Batfish

Emperor Angelfish

This is the beginning of my diving adventure with 11 dives on Khao Lak, Sad to say, saw no Manta Rays or sharks. Disappointed though, this shall be my motivation to push myself towards the next level. I am determined to continue and pursue the education in diving and improve my skills. My next trip will be focused on photography with muck and macro diving at Lembeh Straits, Manado next month.

*Compliments to MS for sharing his photos.