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!
Monday, March 21, 2011
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
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)