Thailand Trip Report - Jan 2008

[CompuDude]

Thailand Trip Report - Jan 2008

I've been feeling guilty about never posting dive reports, but I finally have something actually worth reporting after my recent trip, so here is a trip report here from my recent Thailand trip.

Two weeks in Thailand... over WAY too quickly. Back at work, and it's cold and rainy here. I want to go back!

I only got 3 days of diving in, and I was lucky to get that, since I wasn't alone and this wasn't a "dive vacation". Because of these constraints, I was doing what is considered "local" diving around Phuket, and was not able to do a liveaboard to the Similan Islands, which would have been my first choice. Hopefully next time.

But here are the photos. From Day One, I ended up with 116 Photos and 5 videos deemed “worthy of not deleting”, from my first day of diving in Thailand.

Here are 23 photos and two videos that are representative of the experience... sorry, I can’t figure out how to trim it down to less!

My first two days of diving were with Dive Asia, the last day was with Marina Divers. My wife and I stayed at Marina Village in Phuket, in the Kata/Karon Beach area (hated the surrounding area with a passion, btw, tho our place was excellent), although all boats leave from Charon Bay, about 30 minutes on the other side of the peninsula. From there, it's at least an hour to the nearest island they dive from, others are more than an hour. The Similan Islands offer "top-ten dives in the world" experiences, but they are many hours away and only serviced by live-aboards.

I woke Sunday morning, Jan 20, 2008, letting my wife sleep in, went down for breakfast, and finally grabbed my heavy bag of dive gear for the looong walk (longer, carrying a heavy bag!) From our cottage to the front of the resort, where I was picked up by the usual sort of covered pickup truck so common in Thailand. A nice German-speaking Swiss dive instructor (who of course spoke excellent English) was already on the truck, and we chatted while the truck made another stop to pick up more divers, and then continued to the Dive Asia shop where other trucks had already delivered their divers. Indoors, diver gear, rented and otherwise, was all split into individual milk crates and packed up to go to the boat. We all piled into a larger bus, and then took us on the 1/2 hr drive from Karon/Kata Beach to the harbor in Charon Bay.

I met Marcia (the private Divemaster I hired to avoid the boat crowds) at the end of the pier, and we chatted while I applied sunscreen. The breeze had the seas up a bit, so we had to wait a while until the main pier's boat tie-up's on the calm side cleared. Finally, the crew quickly loaded everyone’s gear onto the boat and we all boarded the boat at about 9:30. It took a little over an hour to head out to our first dive destination. During the ride out, we socialized, set up our gear on our boat-issued Al.80's, snacked, and did a dive site briefing. Dive times on this boat are limited to 60 minutes.

DIVE #1
RACHA YAI - BUNGLALOW BAY
11:00am
60', 63 min
Water temp: 82 degrees

As soon as I jumped in, got all set, and tried to fire up my can light, I realized that, like a dork, I had forgotten to attach the battery connector within the battery canister, so I wasn't able to use my light on this dive. Not super necessary, since there was so much ambient light. There were tons of salps in first 15' of water, both long chains and individual units (which tended to drift deeper as well). Scary until I realized they did not sting at all. Site had some hard and soft corals on a broken boulder bottom. Lots of tiny fish living in the corals, also saw my very first lionfish, some new nudis (to me), my first anemone and skunk anemonefish, a giant moray eel, an oriental boxfish, a VERY cool sea cucumber (quite different from our own) and one big, slightly over basketball-sized moon jelly that actually had tiny fish living in among it's tentacles. And to think, this site is considered a beginner dive spot, and frequently used for classes! At the end of every dive, Marcia shot a SMB to the surface to mark our position, and the boat came over to pick us up. I could get used to this... no need to pay attention to the location of your entry and exit points! It was somewhat amusing to see how little ground we covered during the dive, however... it's slow going when you're a photographer in a new place that's dense with life!

Titan triggerfish (Balistoides viridescens)


Giant Moray (Gymnothorax javanicus)


Gardiner's Philnopsis (Philinopsis gardineri) (NUDI #1)


Phyllidia marindica (NUDI #2)


Skunk Anemonefish (Amphiprion akallopisos)


VIDEO: Skunk Anemonefish

White-spotted Jellyfish (Phyllorhiza punctata)


Unidentified Nudibranch (NUDI #3)


Whitespotted boxfish (Ostracion meleagris) (male)


Lunch was served after the dive... Thai food, of course, which was just fine with me. Sodas and beers were available for purchase (with the usual "beer = last dive" proviso), but I stuck to refilling my water bottle from the large bottled water dispensers (arrowhead style) they had.

Dive #2 will follow next post...

[CompuDude]

DIVE #2
RACHA NOI - RACHA NOI BAY
1:40 pm
61', 62 min
Water temp: 82 degrees

Sandy bottom with scattered debris and coral outcroppings. Very few fish on this dive compared to the last one, but we did see a stingray (tan color with baby blue spots), although I only got within 10' away from it when it took off. Also saw a neat nudi crossing the sand, a cool flounder and a long horned cowfish. I had decided to forego changing batteries in my camera this dive, planning to get two dives out of the one battery, which naturally was a poor decision. Halfway through the dive I started to get a low battery indicator, but fortunately I was able to milk it to the end of the dive. Naturally, however, right at the end of the dive we came across an amazing Humpback Scorpionfish moving across the open sand. The little dude actually walks on his pectoral fins! I was able to squeeze off a few shots, but when I tried to grab some video, the battery finally gave up and finished for good. That was all I missed, however, so it could have been worse, although it was indeed a loss since the way the fish dragged across the sand on it's pectoral fins was really cool.

Long-horn Cowfish (Lactoria cornuta)


Roboastra gracilis (NUDI #4)


Blue-Spotted Stingray (Dasyatis Kuhlii)


Bluestripe snapper (Lutjanis kasmira), Marcia


Lionfish (Pterois volitans)


Reef Stonefish (Synanceia verrucosa)


After the dive, the boat pulled into another bay for a longer surface interval, and I took advantage of the opportunity for a lovely snorkel in the shallow reef areas we were over. Then when the dive itself began on the same site, we checked out the deeper parts of the site.

Next up, Dive #3...

[CompuDude]

DIVE #3
RACHA NOI - BANANA BAY
4:07 pm
73', 72 min
Water temp: 82 degrees

Beautiful structure on this site, with TONS of fish. Saw several cool trumpetfish and many different kinds of pufferfish. I had seen another of the neat blue-spotted stingrays while I was snorkeling, but none while diving. I also saw a large triggerfish while diving, but was not able to get a photo, unfortunately. Saw a really cool giant clam with blue flesh, as well as a crazy sea cucumber even more unlike the kinds we have at home (5'+ length, and a mouth you have to see to believe!).

Over/Under - Banana Bay


Phyllidiella rudmani (NUDI #5)


Crazy Big Sea Cucumber (Synaptidae maculata) with crazy mouth


Blackspotted Puffer (Arothron nigropunctatus)


Phyllidiella pustulosa (NUDI #6)


Reefiness: Lovely atmosphere...


Squamose Giant Clam (Tridacna squamosa)


Reefiness: More lovely atmosphere...


VIDEO: Racha Noi Reef

Sunset in paradise...


After a stunning sunset at sea, we finally we got back to port (late, I assume, because of the winds and late start), and they bussed us all back to the shop, and then dropped me back at the resort. Since I was back on the same boat the next day, fortunately I was able to leave my gear on the boat (although I still brought back my light, computer and regulators, and had a considerably lighter load for the long walk back to the room.

We ate at the hotel restaurant (meh... ok but not great), and then I loaded my photos onto the laptop for safekeeping, set my various batteries up for charging, and hit the hay for the next day of diving.

Next up, dives from Day Two of my trip...

[CompuDude]

DAY 2:

153 Photos and 7 videos deemed “worthy of not deleting”, from my second day of diving in Thailand, Jan 21, 2008... I’m keeping this as brief as possible, but it’s not easy!

The following (Monday) morning seemed to come a lot earlier than the previous one had, despite getting up a half hour later since much of my was still on the boat. The same procedure continued, with the pick-up, the trip to the Dive Asia shop for the rendezvous, and the drive to Charon Bay and the boat.

This morning, fortunately, conditions were a little better, and we pretty much walked right onto the boat and got on our way. This was good, since we had a much longer trip this time. The Phi-Phi Islands we were planning to dive were three hours away. Fortunately, we hit another island, Koh Doc Mai, for the first dive, on the way there, at about the 1/2 way point, before continuing to the Phi-Phi Islands of Koh Bida Nok and Koh Bida Nai for the second and third dives, so it was only the return trip that really was that long.

We continued our routine of diving fairly deep (~60-70') until I hit the ½ way point on air and then working our way up to shallower depths (~30-40') to finish off our permitted hour.

DIVE #1
KOH DOC MAI - EAST SIDE WALL
10:38 am
73', 72 min
Water temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: 20'

Great wall dive on small vertical island. Limited vis due to particulates, but there was a lot of life, tons of varieties of nudis, and several Giant Morays (not literally), banded shrimp, and some very cool insanely dense and huge schools of glass fish literally pooling in crevices.

Risbecia pulchella, exhibiting their typical “tailgating” behaviour (nudi species #7)


Phyllidia alyta (nudi species #8)


Phyllidiopsis phiphiensis (nudi species #9)


Phyllidiella zeylanica (nudi species #10)


Hypselodoris krakatoa (nudi species #11)


Crinoid Feather Star on a Whip Coral


Phyllidia elegans (nudi species #12)


Cadlinella ornatissima (nudi species #13)


Largespined Glassfish (Ambassis macracanthus)


Largespined Glassfish (Ambassis macracanthus)


I actually did take shots of things other than nudis, but given some limits on photos per post, something had to go, and I have my preferences. :tongue:

Day 2's Dive #2 coming next post...

[CompuDude]

Day 2

DIVE #2
KOH BIDA NOK - WEST SIDE WALL
1:33 pm
75', 59 min
Water temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: 35'

After lunch we continued onto the Phi-Phi Islands, a chain of islands with a pair of small side-by-side islands at the tip of the chain, Koh Bida Nok and Koh Bida Nai. These were beautiful dives with many soft corals covering the walls. Saw a painted lobster deep in a crevice, tiny black coral shrimp "hiding" in plain sight on gorgonians, Durban Dancing Shrimp, yellow cup corals, more pools of glass fish, some neat boxfish, soft corals, hard corals, more nudis and several eels. Saw my very first False Clown Anemonefish, aka Nemo, of Disney fame. Finally, we saw a super tiny juvenile Harlequin Sweetlips fish swimming in their off flip-flopping manner at the end of the dive, but I was not able to get a shot, especially since I was low on air (we had spent some time at the deepest part of the dive looking for bamboo sharks (unsuccessfully). Quite a shame, because it was very colorful and interesting looking. I shot the bag for the boat pickup, just to get in a little practice.

Scrambled Egg Nudibranch (Phyllidia varicosa) (for real this time!) (NUDI #14)


Black Coral Shrimp (Periclimenes psamathe)


Crinoid Feather Star on a Gorgonian


Yellow Boxfish (Ostracion cubicus) (juvenile)


Chocolate Grouper (Cephalopholis boenak)


Tricolour parrotfish (Scarus tricolor)


Unknown Coral


False Clown Anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris) on a Magnificent Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica) (NEMO!!!!)


Giant Moray (Gymnothorax javanicus)


Giant Moray (Gymnothorax javanicus), Marcia


After we chilled a bit for a surface interval, anchored next to the Island, and then crossed the 1/4 mile or so to the neighboring island for the last dive.

Day 2's Dive #3 coming next post...

[CompuDude]

Day 2

DIVE #3
KOH BIDA NAI - SOUTH END WALL
3:54 pm
48', 70 min
Water temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: 35'

This was an incredibly lovely finishing dive. Saw a turtle munching on coral right at the beginning of the dive, cool spiny urchins, pipefish, a porcelin crab, many anemones and different varieties of anemonefish. So many kinds of fish it’s hard to write up a list! Best parts were probably the turtle, which we dropped in on while he was munching on coral, and he ignored us for a minute or two while he leisurely took a few very crunchy bites, and the Clark’s Anemonefish that were tending their patch of eggs. They would try to swim away, luring me away from the egg patch, and then rush back, check on the eggs, move them around a bit with their mouths, and then address me again, by again swimming up to me and then swimming 4-5' away from the anemone. So cool to watch!

Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)


Klunzingers Soft Coral (Dendronephthya klunzingeri)


False Clown Anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris), Magnificent Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica)


False Clown Anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris)


Skunk Anemonefish (Amphiprion akallopisos), Magnificent Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica)


Red Saddleback Anemonefish or Fire Clownfish (Amphiprion ephippium) (interestingly, locally these are known as “Tomato Anemonefish”, which common name is an entirely different species in the rest of the world, and in all of the ID books!)


Clark's Anemonefish (Amphiprion clarkii), tending their eggs


Clark's Anemonefish (Amphiprion clarkii), tending their eggs


Sea Cucumber (Bohadschia graeffei) (far more common than the crazy huge one from day 1)


Phi-Phi Islands of Koh Bida Nai and Koh Bida Nok (L-R)


We ate dinner and watched the sunset on the way back home... lovely!

My throat had begun a little tickle in the morning, which progressed throughout the day to a full-blown sore throat. I was starting to worry about finally coming down the vicious cold Jesse had been living with the for the entire trip. I warned Marcia that the last day would be a tad iffy depending on how I felt, and headed back for our room (lugging a full load of wet gear, unfortunately). Jesse was still out shopping when I returned, so housekeeping opened the room for me and I took a shower and pretty much collapsed into bed for the night.

That was it for day 2. I haven't completely finished finalizing all the ID's from Day 3 yet, but I'll post them next anyway with the preliminary IDs...

[CompuDude]

DAY 3

128 photos and 2 videos survived the editing process from Day 3... here are the top ten per dive (roughly).

After going to bed pretty sick the previous evening, I woke up reluctantly for my last day of diving. I felt pretty much like a truck had hit me. The cold was in full force. One test, however: Can I equalize? I cautiously test. YES! I’M GOING DIVING! I grabbed some decongestants just in case, but no matter how I felt, unless I couldn’t equalize, no cold was going to keep me from the last day of diving, and thank goodness it didn’t!

DIVE 1
ANEMONE REEF
11:18 a.m.
78', 57 min
Water temp: 80 degrees

This was my first day on a new dive boat, this one run by Marina Divers. We were picked up in the shop, which happened to be located about 20' from the reception desk of our resort. Handy! Eventually, we were picked up and taken to the usual bay in the usual type of vehicle, and we boarded the boat immediately. Dives on this boat were limited to 50 minutes (cue “boo!”... but we cheated a little so it wasn’t too horrid). But the boat was nice, and larger than the Dive Asia boat, although I didn’t care for the layout quite as much. The captain/owner was a man from Manchester who was quite a card, however, and he worked hard to keep everyone entertained. These two sites were much more crowded than any other site I had been too, meaning I actually saw other divers for a change, but it was fine.

After about an hour at sea heading East of Phuket, we finally arrived at what is considered to be the best of the local dive sites: Anemone Reef and Shark Reef. These are submerged pinnacles (mounds, really) in the middle of the ocean, and WOW! Vis was iffy at times, but pictures really do not convey how beautiful these sites are. It’s really hard to show just how huge an area here is carpeted by these gorgeous Anemones! Also saw another Hawksbill Turtle (turtles rock!) and the coolest was a mated pair of Ornate Ghost Pipefish. These suckers blended in with the gorgonians they match so well there is really no way I would have seen it had my DM, Marcia, not found it and pointed it out for me. The current was really ripping towards the end of this dive... Marcia and I hid in the shelter of the peak of the pinnacle (in about 15' of water) to shoot her SMB for pickup. What a great dive!

White-Eyed Moray (Siderea thysoidea)


Peacock Mantis Shrimp (Odontodactylus scyallarus)


Flatworm (Thysanozoon nigropapillosum)


Ornate Ghost Pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus)


Magnificent Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica)


Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)


Skunk Anemonefish (Amphiprion akallopisos), Magnificent Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica) (yes, another one, but man, they’re hard to get tired of!)


Magnificent Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica)


Anemone Reef


Day 3's Dive #2 coming up next...

[CompuDude]

DAY 3

DIVE 2
SHARK POINT
1:24 p.m.
61', 58 min
Water temp: 80 degrees

This site pokes just a bit out of the water, creating a little mound about the size of a UPS truck above the water. Hiding underwater are a couple of big pinnacles that are similar to the one of Anemone Reef, and only perhaps a mile away.

Marcia dropped in first, and we immediately saw the current was really tearing through this area. This would definitely be a drift dive. There was a momentary delay with some other divers launching in before I could get in, and Marcia was rapidly swept to the far side of the point. I dropped in, and followed the boat crew’s instructions to drop with the other DM-led group and simply follow the curve of the small point to the backside, and meet her there. Apparently this is not an uncommon situation for them, and it worked well, although I wasn’t very happy about it at the time. It was clear that fighting the current was useless, however, and a few minutes later, sure enough, we rejoined in the lee of the rock, and the other group continued on while we hung out in the shelter of the backside and I started shooting.

We drifted along pinnacles 1, a short stretch of sand, and then pinnacle 2. Drifting was fun and effortless, although fortunately there were enough nooks and crannies I could duck in for a shot when I needed, most of the time. The site was VERY pretty, somewhat similar to Anemone Reef, but tons more soft corals, of many hues, which were just gorgeous. We looked for the bamboo sharks that used to frequent the area, but apparently they haven’t been spotted in a while. No luck with the lemon sharks, either. Still, the site was so incredibly beautiful and bursting with life that there was no remorse over this. Just for giggles, I shot the SMB (my much-admired DSS bag, btw) at the end of the dive, to keep in practice.

Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster planci)


Oriental Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus orientalis) being cleaned by a pair of Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus), a Doubletooth Soldierfish (Myripristis hexagona) waits it's turn


Doubletooth Soldierfish (Myripristis hexagona)


Skunk Anemonefish (Amphiprion akallopisos), Magnificent Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica), Indian Dascyllus (Dascyllus carneus)


Slender Grouper (Anyperodon leucogrammicus)


White-Eyed Moray (Siderea thysoidea) (FOUR!)


Crinoid Feather Star, Sea Fan


Skunk Anemonefish (Amphiprion akallopisos), Magnificent Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica), Soft corals


Blackspotted Puffer (Arothron nigropunctatus)


Soft coral galore!


Day 3's Dive #3 coming up next...

[CompuDude]

DAY 3

DIVE 3
KOH DOC MAI - EAST SIDE WALL
3:30 p.m.
85', 59 min
Water temp: 80 degrees

A beautiful final dive of Thailand trip. We stopped by the Island of Koh Doc Mai (which I had dove the previous day as well, but not covered as much territory) There was some good current here also, although not ripping as fast as it had at Shark Point. We drifted with the current from the North end down the East wall, to the end of the island. I saw Janss’ Pipefish (aka Fire Pipefish), several Scorpionfish, groups of Durban Dancing Shrimp tucked away, more huge pools of glassfish, many eels, and finished off with a Banded Sea Snake and a really neat nudibranch at the very end of the dive.

Lionfish (Pterois volitans)


Bearded Scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis barbatus)


Crinoid Feather Star, Gorgonian


Janss' pipefish aka Fire Pipefish (Doryrhamphus janssi)


Bluelined Grouper (Cephalopholis formosa)


Durban Dancing Shrimp (Rhynchocinetes durbanensis)


Golden Wentle Trap Snail (Epitonium billeeanum) dining on Coral (Tubastraea cf. faulkneri) and laying eggs


Black-blotched Porcupinefish (Diodon liturosus), chowing down


White-Eyed Moray (Siderea thysoidea), attempting to dine on glassfish


Glossodoris atromarginata


(NOTE: I’m somewhat less certain of some of my ID’s on this batch, as I have not finished consulting on some, so I may change things slightly if any corrections come up.)

All in all, the trip was beyond fantastic. Three days of diving were nowhere near enough, and two weeks was nowhere near enough time in Thailand as a whole. I need to relocate to a country with a more reasonable vacation policy...

The full collection of shots from this trip is on my website. The smart cookies will figure out where. ;-)

Thus endeth the trip report.

*sob*

[CompuDude]

Scuba post-script:

Despite minor reservations about gate times (a personal pet peeve of mine that's probably not actually unreasonable), I can definitely recommend both of the Dive Ops I worked with, Dive Asia and Marina Divers, and again, my guide Marcia was phenominal. Marcia is the sole proprietor of Gekko Scuba Divers, and is an instructor who occasionally hires out as a guide (essentially DLD's), and she seriously worked the planning trying to make sure I had the best possible trip. This can get pretty involved in Thailand, due to the strong tidal currents. Every professional there has tide charts and consults them frequently. I was there right around the full moon, which is when the swings are the most severe, and I'm happy to say that there were no current-related issues due in no small part to her careful planning, making sure we would hit each dive site at a good time to dive it. I definitely hope to dive with her again, and please feel free to contact me if anyone would like her contact information for their own Thailand vacation! (Her website is not up yet, else I'd post a link)