How to celebrate Songkhran

Sail Rock Diving (2) “it’s more fun in the Philippines”

This dive site has a lot of rave reviews and videos showing whale sharks, bull sharks and a host of other pelagic species. This site was the coveted gem in this dive trip and it actually fueled the adrenaline rush in our preparations.

One thing we wanted to forget was the fact that Sail Rock is located in the Gulf of Siam, which is actually the dumping basin for all the mighty rivers in the region. This will tell you that sediment from these rivers can make visibility in the sea unpredictable. Today may be clear but tomorrow could be murky. One dive site may be murky and another dive site 10 kilometers away - clear.

The photos will now do the talking :-P

we were in the dive boat early and it was still dark.

the excitement shows through the sleepy eyes

some divers checking the gear

While some try to get more sleep in the hour 

and half it took to get to Sail Rock

That's it... Sail Rock in the midst of nowhere.

from the boat we could already see that the water 

was greenish, which means poor visibility. we 
donned our gear and jump overboard and our fears 
were confirmed...1 meter visibility. it was quite 

disorienting and we even got separated, which 

means we had to ascend prematurely. 

we cut short the dive and the dive 

master decided to head to another site

hoping that the visibility was better.

Southwest Pinnacle proved to be much better

and this giant grouper and plump fusiliers

greeted us.

this cordia was so shy that i couldnt get

close enough for a good shot.

a great school of barracuda kept the water

at southwest pinnacle swirling. it was 

really awesome.

a closer shot

this grouper could have easily tipped the

scales at 30kg.

rabbit fish (danggit) 

hills and hills of grass-like anemone

teeming with fish. it reminded me of the

chocolate hills of Bohol.

some areas had good visibility as it got deeper.

taking a break between dives

preparing tanks for the next dive

the conditions for underwater photography 

weren't good this time.

Nikki showing how to operate

the dive computer.

crown of thorns... "touch me not!"

a hermit crab on top of some bleached coral
and a parrot fish (molmol) encircling above.

damsel and butterfly fish with some sponges

a pair of moorish idols

a beautiful nudibranch

another type of nudibranch

Nemo's first degree cousin

a juvenile grouper watching over a 

banded water snake.

Thanks Nikki for 2 great dives and an 

awesome cave dive at Red Rock.

lunch before boarding the catamaran for 

Chumphon and home.

these feathered friends feasted on our

leftovers.

Sail Rock was a disappointment to us, but our spirit's were not dampened. One day with God's grace we will return to conquer this dive site.

Some reasons why it's more fun in the Philippines is the clear water and gorgeous divers like this lady. She already completed all required dives and skills and only has to take the written exam for the Open Water Diver's course.

Sail Rock Diving (1)

This trip was planned in January (4 months before the actual date) and train and boat tickets were booked that early, because the dates we chose coincided with the Songkhran festivities when travel in Thailand is the heaviest.

The Lambda Sigma dive team had an additional diver and she wanted to do the Discover Scuba Diving course just to see for herself if being a fish was her type of fun.

The photos will tell the rest of the story.

we left Bangkok in the midst of a water fight. had to keep the taxi's windows closed or get soaked.

That's the Central Train station at Hua Lamphong.

we found our place on the sprawling floor and waited 

for boarding time.

That's our train bound for Nakhon Si Thammarat leaving at 19:30

Inside the sleeper train. 

the usual photo-ops.

Cris getting ready for bedtime. we had fresh 
blankets, sheets and pillow cases.

Nood's berth was above mine. the younger guy 
gets the top slot for obvious reasons.

this could have been the case if we didn't 
have sleeping berths

that's how it looks after everyone is tucked in 
for the long haul

third leg of the journey on the sea

on board this swift catamaran. the two islands are known as 

Nang Yuan where we did 2 dives the following day.

we were met at the Koh Tao pier by this guy holding 

a signboard with my name.

dive boat at Nang Yuan

Mary Cris and her dive instructor going through 

the DSD lessons

getting ready with her dive gear for the plunge.

 ready to go

 her first ever scuba jump in her life

 and she disappears in the foaming froth

 that night we did some catching up with 
delicious grilled stuff

 on the beach

before we retired to our beds dreaming about 
the dives come dawn of light

To be continued...