aqudoc
Guest
Just returned from our month in Thailand. For those who weren't following, the Mrs. and I did our OWC here in Oregon,(in the snow), in Dec. We left for Thailand end of Jan. w/ only the 4 open water dives. We started in Koh Lak for 2 day trips before a liveaboard incl. AOW to the Similans. HUGE PROPS to the Seadragon outfit who were absolutely professional, educational and fun. Cannot recommend them enough. Koh Bon was thick w/ Mantas...truly life altering experience. Throughout the Similians we saw leopard shark, hawk bill turtle, pipe fish, barracuda, Napolean Wrasse (during our deep dive after juggling an egg yolk to note the effects of NN), countless morays of all colors and sizes, giant nudibranch, oriental sweetlips, countless surgeon fish-angelfish-parrotfish-lionfish, cuttlefish, octopuses. On the night dive were the crustaceans and my torch kept going out (spoooooky). When we got back to Koh Lak, we had 17 OW's and AOW cert. Down to Bang Tao beach, (north Phuket) w/ an outfit I won't name to the King Cruiser wreck to see giant grouper and dodge gazillions of lionfish, and then to Shark Point where, true to name, 2 leopard sharks. Next to Koh Lanta w/ Lanta Divers, another top notch outfit. Though we never made it to Huang islands d/t weather, we had great dives w/ great crews. Last stop, an island recommended by another poster, Koh Lipe. Dove w/ Lotus divers; a dutchy and a brit w/ chef from Southpark as our longboat captain, loads of fun. Hoping to get to eight mile rock, the wind was against us. Finally on our last day the weather obliged and we headed out. This is a dive eight nautical miles out into the open ocean w/ only a plastic jug to mark the line. Hats off to chef for triangulating the spot. There were 5 divers and 2 DI's in the boat, plus chef. On preparing for the first dive we all saw what appeared to be a large dorsel fin and speculation began. Mrs. and I entered first w/ 1 DI and immediately spotted a Manta. We had see Mantas surface and even launch out of the water at Koh Bon and were told they sometimes did this to clean barnacles off. During discussion back on the longtail we surmised the earlier fin was from the Manta. The second group groused, they had missed the Manta. And then it happened, as we sat there decompressing and eating our lunch on that boat in the middle of the ocean, a whale shark came right up alongside. We all rushed over and nearly tipped. That shark, as long as our boat, (8 - 10 meters) hovered next to us for what seemed like a few minutes, but I'm now sure was only 20 or thirty seconds. It was easily close enough to reach out and touch, though none of us did. There was just a great awe and I remember nobody said anything. Then it swam away as suddenly as it arrived. We all looked back and forth at each other and then the whole boat erupted in chatter. Chef only laughed. We made one more dive after lunch, but we never saw the shark again. One DI has over 3000 dives and told us that was his 2nd whale shark. He said the first was much farther away. The other DI has over 1000 and he had never seen one. He still hasn't seen a manta. That was our last day diving. We made 27 dives that trip. I feel blessed. -Travis, Acupuncturist to the Great Northwest
