AIDC - Andaman International Dive Center

Video, pictures and stories from our Liveaboard trips.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Special trip

7 days / 7 nights around Surin, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock
8 Swiss and 1 Danish on board of MV ThaiSea promised to be an interesting week and a lot of fun.
Some of the girls haven't been diving for quite some time, so they took it easy and slowly with their divemaster, exploring some spots around the islands, where the others went for the current and the pinnacles.
But once the girls were back on track and could finally see what s going on around them – 40 batfishes on one spot, funny looking nudibranches like the Sea Hare, hunting Jackfish bigger than anything we have seen before, friendly Napoleons, the very sick looking Barracuda, still sleeping Seahorses, giant grouper and so on – and I have to say (not only because I was their divemaster) they made a huge step from the beginning of the trip until the end!! I am very proud and happy, well done „chicken run“!
Beside the 27 dives we had a lot of time to do other things, but most of us – or do I have to say most of the boys – were „litnoi“ addicted to a game called angry birds on Tabos Ipad.....but the real Angry Bird on the boat was once again Gaeo, the parrot.
Of course we went to the beach, did some snorkelling, played other games (real social ones) had some drinks in the evening, discussed world problems without solving them or simply enjoyed the beauty of nature on the sea.
At the end, all divers had around 8 dives only at Richelieu and therefore it was no problem to let them dive alone on the very last dive. Like this the divecrew – Preben, Mischa and Carmen - could make their last dive together just on their own. Last dive, maybe not for Preben this season, but for sure for Mischa and Carmen, they are off to the Philippines for a new adventure.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for a great season:
• all our guests and friends joining us on the trips
• the most fantastic crew on the world, Pong, M, Tui and our Captain
• Preben
Maybe again next season?! You never know, take care.

Carmen and Mischa
www.weiterreisen.ch

Monday, March 21, 2011

Burma 14.3.2011

14.3.-19.2.2011
Burma for another 5 days
You know us, we are honest, last Monday it was not sure until the last second if we can fix the problem with the engine on time and make it through the immigration in the late afternoon, that we can start the trip as scheduled....our customers were very patient and so were the immigration. Lucky enough we did it, Monday evening around 19:30 everything was done and we started the trip as normal towards High Rock.
Everybody was hoping for better weather and better visibility. No rain on the way out, so far so good and on the first dive we were able to see the bottom around the rock for the first time :-) Please, let it stay like this.
Diving in 3 groups:
• Gerd the dolphin with Susan the older Bambi: Carmen as their guide
• Sven, Roman and Patric, the 3 ladies: their guide was Preben
• and finally the German Gang, Markus, Katharina, Marcel, Uli and Hans-Martin: Mischa with his funny way to use his fins in the pole position
The first day we tried to let the German Gang to jump first, but pretty fast everybody decided to put them at the end of the queue....you are asking why: simple answer: we have never had a group which needed more time to gear up than this one ;-)
We saw amazing stuff on the dives, like a hunting grey reef shark, harlequins were you thought there are four of them, but indeed it was only the reflection in your air bubble, leopard shark passing by, many special nudis, spanish dancer on the night dive, seahorses at Shark Cave, ghostpipefish on the second last dive, shaded batfish and and and.
Due to the weather situation, which was of course changing at some point, we had to seek for shelter around the island after diving Seafan Forest. Diving with high waves was fun for the customers, the dive site has now a new name „Roller-coaster“, but safety comes first and therefore we had to change the route just slightly.
As usual we ended the trip around the volcano island and did the last dive on a new spot, which showed up to be very nice. Here I am told to mention, that Preben finally found his personal two seahorses ;-)
Some short notes:
- Katharina: be careful where you put your finger when you come out of the bathroom
- Uli and Marcel: your pics were really amazing, I hope one day mine are as good as yours
- Carmen: throwing cornflakes into the sea doesn't work against the wind
- Hans-Martin (or was it Uli or Marcel?): sending up the safety sausage is a great idea at the end of the dive, even better if you attach the line to the buoy
- Gerd: please fix your regulator or what ever it was
- Markus: if you go next time on a liveaboard, let them now in advance how much you eat!
- Roman, Patric and Sven: there is always the option to ask for a new guide :-)

- Susan: hmmmm...I have to think hard but finally here it comes: don't take a scarf with you if you leave it in the office before the bus ride
Great dives, great trip, great people!!!! Hope everybody had a safe travel back home or to the next place and we will see each other: somewhere, sometime, somehow! Take care buddies!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Burma 6.3.2011

Burma 6.3.-12.3.2011
Now with Lars and his friends on-board, again with Eva's group and some new faces - Dani and Vera from Austria (some people call Vera "Miss Coco Channel") and Georg and Luize from Germany/Romania - we headed out for the adventure. And it should start indeed as an adventure, since we had to turn around after leaving the Burmese immigration and get the engine fixed. It took longer than expected and we stayed almost a day back in Khao Thong. Time for some shopping and temple tour, time for sunbathing (when there was no rain) and just have some good chats.
Because of this delay, we extended the trip for one day, like this everybody got what he was coming for and we could sail the route like we have planned it:
- High Rock: check dive, getting used to Burmese water
- Stuart Island: swimthroughs, a lot of things for the macro lens
- Shark Cave (2 dives): Caves and tunnels, spanish dancer
- North Twin Pinnacle (2 dives): Manta on the first dive, hunting barracudas on the second
- South Twin (2 dives): after two deeper dives time for some relaxed cruising and simply enjoying
- Seafan Forest (2 dives): the dive site name tells you everything
- Western Rocky (2-3 dives): tunnel through the whole island, looking for the harlequins without success but having an excellent night dive
Here the plan had to be changed again, this time the weather didn't play the way we were expecting it, so we had to head to a quiet place closer to the mainland.
- Glashouse Island (2 dives): close encounters with a blotched stingray and I can tell you: IT WAS BIG!
- Shila Rock: playing with octopus and moray eel
- Spur Island: the first dive on the last day, things are moving not as fast as in the beginning
- Cooks Island: to end the trip some of us had a blacktip, others a turtle and the last have seen a shaded batfish
Having fixed the engine for the last time, we are now on our way back.
There are no Beng Beng left, no more cookies, no more Coke, no more tea and almost no chips. But there are some very good memories left and some great hours under water we could log.
--> That's what I thought after the last dive (around 12:00 o'clock) but reality was, that the problem with the enigine was more serious than expected and at the end we were towed back to Khao Thong and finally reached Thailand this morning around 09:00 o'clock....we don't call it without reason "Adventure Trip from 3-7 days in Burma" ;-)
Thanks to everybody for your understanding and your patience! And thanks to Kim, Tine and Gitte for cooking the perfect last dish on the trip with what was left!
It is always great to have people more than on time on the boat. Doesn't matter if they come back after one year or if they do two trips in a row. But of course we enjoy the new faces on our trips as much! We hope you felt like home and had a good time.
Thanks, Danke, Tak!
P.S. Some good tips for you:
- never come on a liveaboard if you can't change your outfit every evening
- always be careful who is standing behind you, maybe it's Per with a bucket full of salt water

Surin 2.3.2011

Combi Trip Surin and Burma
Surin 2.3.-5.3.2011
There should have been a lot more Danes on the boat than there were at the end, but the group with Gitte, Tine, Kim, Mick and Lars didn't arrive on time so they had to stay in Phuket and wait for the second half of the combi trip: Burma.
But we cant complain about not having Danes, there were Eva, Ole, Gerlos and Per as a group, Stefano and Brigitte as a couple, then we had Alex as a last minute customer and Claudia from Switzerland as an Open Water Student.
The trip started again with rain, but know we know, this is a good sign: on the way out we spotted two dolphins and the trip itself had some more highlights for everybody:
- turtle on dive #1
- hunting jacks and trevallies on dive #2
- Napoleon on dive #3
- loads of fish on dive #4
- beautiful cowries on dive #8
- 2 seahorses and 1 ghost pipefish AND a manta on dive #9
- barracudas on dive #10
- again the manta on dive #11
The weather was on our side and we were back in time to send Alex to his own Burma trip and to have a rest for one night and one morning before we started the second part of the combi trip.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Burma 21.2.2011

21.2.-26.2.2011

While we had the thai immigration on the boat in Ranong it was raining cats and dogs. Pong had to sit in the car for several minutes and the immigration officer could not go off the boat without risking to be washed away. It could only get better from now on :-)

Diving the first time as usual on High Rock we found an interesting place for the second dive; we call it Pollock Reef. The current was coming from everywhere, but once you where behind the rock everything was ok. Not all of us managed to hide behind the rock.....

Then it was Shark Cave time, like in the past we could enjoy the macro life in all its variations. The second day some of us had a Manta, I will not mention ho missed it...grrrrrrrr! But like always in life, sometimes you are lucky and sometimes not. Only two dives later the person who missed the big one found the small one: first frogfish of the trip.

Diving Seafan Forest is always a happening. Even if you don't see anything special, only the scenery itself is amazing. This time it was even more special. Just when we where about to go to the deeper part this cloud came towards us and we felt the cold water around us. Within seconds the whole rock was hidden in a huge cloud of dust, you could barely see your buddy. And as fast as it came it was gone on the other side. Scary! But during the whole dive we were sure to hear dolphins singing.
And by the time we surfaced the crew told us that they have seen many of them playing around.
Maybe we are lucky and they show up, so we went for a second dive. Again we could hear them, but they didn't want to be seen. Coming up, the crew had even better news (well, not for us), beside the dolphins they even saw an eagle ray jumping. We thought about quitting diving.

But again, sometimes you are lucky and sometimes not. This time the crew had more luck than we, but only half an hour later our captain spotted the dolphins again and we approached slowly with the boat. Realising that there must be more than 30 in several groups in front of us. Then one of them swam directly next to the boat and we realised, these are not dolphins. It's fake killer whales!!!! At one point we had a group that close that nothing could stop me from jumping into the water only with my fins and the snorkel. And what I experienced then was one of the best moments in my life! Snorkelling with 6-8 fake killer whales around me, sometimes that close that I could touch them. You could hear them singing, even from the boat. Since they were not shy at all we decided to give it a try and dive with them. But I guess, that was too much, only for a few seconds we had them in front of us and then they were gone.
This time all of us were lucky.

It should not be enough for today...Night dives at Western Rocky are known to be the best ever. As well today, many nudi branchs, 3 frogfishes (why do they always hide in almost unreachable places?) and last but not least our beloved Harlequin Shrimps. We tried to stick to our announced 40 minutes but it was impossible. Coming up to the surface looking to the stars and keep on smiling. Now it's Leo time :-)

After spending the whole next day around this amazing rock, after doing 4 more dives, after we had seen much more than we expected we started our journey towards the mainland.

Last but not least we found a shark on the last dive, ok we only saw the tail and it was crawling deeper under the rock than we could manage but it was there. And the baby Kuhl's stingray will stay in our memories for a long time...sleeping under the sand, not letting him bother by anything for a long time and suddenly escaping like a rocket and almost crashing into Melanie :-) Maybe see you next time little fellow, as well as Lisa, Rob and Melanie.
It was a great time with you guys, hope you enjoyed it like we did and spread the word.
AIDC Dive Team

P.S. I almost forgot to mention who was the unluckiest and luckiest of us at the same time: ROB! Why? He lost his camera but Pong found it on the surface. He lost his torch but Melanie found it on the ground. After this, we attached the torch to the camera and everything was fine. Exept the last dive: He lost his mask but his wife dived after it before he even realised :-)

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Surin 14.2.2011

14.2.-17.2.2011
Surin, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock

3 divers, 3 snorkellers, 1 student
1 Instrcutor, 1 divemaster, 1 divemaster trainee and 4 crew who did an extremely good job

Maybe you are wondering why there is no blog from the 3 day Surintrip last week....it is quite simple: the blog writer didn't join the trip, she was on vacation in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. But what the others told her is basically said in one word: current!!!!!

This time I was again on board and was more than looking forward to spend 3 days on the boat and do some diving together with Melanie, Andreas and Henning. Mischa was supposed to teach Kati the diving but ended up with teaching Tine. Congratulations to be an Open Water Diver.
Kati and Mischas parents enjoyed the trip with snorkelling, eating and sleeping.

But what about the diving? Current? Bad Vis? Anything to see? NO - NO AND YEEEEEEEEES!
We started out in Surin where we had relaxed diving around Koh Chi, Yellow Rock and Hin Kong. The second day, everybody in big expectations of the Mantas, we did 2 dives on Koh Bon, the first dive with a lot of fish but no Manta and the second dive again, with a lot of fish and a Manta. Luckily all the groups, even Tine as still not certified diver, saw the impressive animal and came up with a big smile.

Then we moved north to Koh Tachai where - at least Henning with his guide - had one of the best dives in his careers ever. Even the guide said so. The pinnacle was surrounded with fish, big tunas, barracudas, jacks...all hunting for the thousands of small fish, a turtle sleeping in a small cave, lobsters, amazing seafans and corals.....and then while they were on the plateau on 12 meters suddenly 10 huge black mackerels approached, escorting the feeding biiiiig Manta! Henning took his regulator out of his mouth and kept on smiling. Hanging on the rope during the safety stop, they were in hundreds of blue fusiliers and yellow stripped snappers.

The last day - once again - Richelieu Rock. Some where jumping early, others skipped the first dive and enjoyed only two until one o clock.
But everybody was more than happy, great vis, almost no current and so much fish, sometimes you had trouble to see the rock.

Beside the diving we learned how the bubbles in a Leo beer are build, some of us couldn't believe how beautiful life can be once you are out on the sea, others were eating all the time, some where sick and had to sleep a lot and others recovered from being sick and had a great trip!

Thanks to everybody it was a awesome time! Hope to see you again, travel safe and have fun!

Monday, February 7, 2011