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