Fast forward 20 years and I bump into some of them in Bangkok, and the rest is history. Here's the album to document our first dive as a club just after Cheery and Nuj successfully hurdled their PADI OW course.
Thai rice soup. in other words LUGAW for dinner. That day
was the 3rd day of gastroenteritis I contacted after eating some yogurt and
before leaving the house I discharged twice. I made sure that the bus I took
had a toilet and prayed that God would seal my asshole for the ride.
the best carrot cake in decades. courtesy of noods whose
talents were encouraged by my sisters eons ago when he used to visit our house
as kid. this cake was our midnight snack and breakfast.
Noods and I share a room. a bed & breakfast joint at
jomtien beach.
Cheery loading up the diving gear.
Raymond from the big apple with and cheery from char...ran.
in the songthaew to bali hai pier.
that's our dive boat
Raymond busy applying sunblock. I declined the lotion
because carabao skin doesn't benefit from it.
dive teams identified. cheerey is cheery and ben is noods.
dive master Chris. he was Cheery's PADI instructor in her
3rd and 4th certifying dives for OW.
Noods strapping on the gear. he just got certified a week
ago and looks like he's lost in the pre-dive preparations.
Cheery getting ready to jump
Noods getting checked out before he takes the plunge
pink fins + baking... hmmm... i'm starting to have questions
about Noods. he loved the sea as long as he was on a boat or at the beach. the
deep blue was his fear factor until he took the first dive. now he's hooked for
life.
yeah that's him... he is a physical therapist who teaches
biology subjects at an international school in Bangkok. he also has a very mean
serve and topspin.
Cheery took to the water like nemo. she's an ophthalmologist
who comes from a coastal town in mindanao.
the current was moderate and cheery had to hold on to a rock
for this pose.
I guess Chris was a moose in his past life. now he's a cross
between moose and fish.
bristle worms
angel fish
2-kg
angel fish. they were really huge
thai lady divers... Nok - the lady standing is just as big
as a scuba tank but she's at home in the depths.
after the first dive...stripped for lunch. can't bring wet
divewear upstairs. mademoiselle behind me took the stripping down too seriously
though.
lunch... and cheery gets busy even if one more dish is still
coming up.
after lunch an hour before the 2nd dive
the head shows who's who.
engrossed with a clown fish
a skunk clown anemone fish
a butterfly fish
a sting ray waiting for lunch
a solitary jelly fish
an unexploded mortar. South rock is an outcrop an hour and a
half boat ride from Pattaya and the Thai Navy uses it as a target in their
shelling exercises. some unexploded ordinance can be found like this one.
some squirrel fish keeping an eye on me.
up from the depths
congratulating each other after the last dive
fresh water shower...
as the boat heads back to Pattaya
Noods waiting for his bus. I took this photo from my bus
