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
Hi migo , It is not too late to organize a fraternity /sorority...hehe, we are still young enough so far to do so.
ReplyDeletehahahah... miga, daw indi gid ko magpati sa imo. sin-o pa ang i-recruit mo? hehehe
ReplyDeleteay migo ka damo...hahahahaha....
ReplyDeletemy day is not complete without a laughs.lol
Amazing underwater photo of you here, bro. I thought blowing this up into poster size would be a good sight in your living room.
ReplyDeleteRight choice of color. I'm like a shark, I hate pink...;-)
ReplyDeleteIf what you meant is human skin color, mind you brother Sun, you are gifted with perfection. Your diving friend here is dealing with a genetic defect, if I may say so with all due respect...;-)
ReplyDeleteFor those whose task is to answer prayers, that should be a walk in the park. What keeps me wondering is the tremendous onus for anyone relegated to making the entire universe in its proper order and my friend's very pressing need here well taken care of...;-)
ReplyDeleteWa, bro... you didn't comment on the Lambda Sigma thing and I guess I will have to jiggle your memory a bit and tell you that you were a co-conspirator and co-creator of this club.. a grand pioneer in the truest sense of the word. you even set our lessons in chemistry to music (oxidation-reduction reaction!!). I would give the world to take you out diving in the great barrier reef someday in a pink wet-suit.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, now I remember! If I'm not wrong, our friend Soli was also a member of this group of Illuminati. What it stood for somehow lost me now but it was a rare privilege for me to enjoy the fellowship of the cream in MVC way back then.
ReplyDeleteBro, you never miss to crack me up with this "oxidation - reduction - reaction" phrase cause at this writing, the funky sound it made still has that unmistakable ring in my head. Looking back, I now think that it was my way of expressing the inevitable. Chemistry didn't quite ignite the spark in me that I gotta get out of the place. Well, to be honest, nothing lit me up until I found Buddhism.
Bro, I really do wish there would come a time when you and I frolic under the sun, diving in that great barrier reef, doing things together for old time's sake. But one thing's for sure, I wouldn't let myself be caught alive in a pink wet suit... ha hahah