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 :-)