Bindu's Repose

What Next?

It's about time for an update, me thinks! :) So Wade and I made it onto the liveaboard with Coral Grand in Khao Lak, Thailand. We spent a pretty intense four days diving. I really enjoyed getting back into a major diving mode, and it was really sweat having Wade along! We saw Leopard Sharks and Manta Rays as well as: Octopus, Lobster, Cray Fish, Nudi Branc (sp?), Ghost Pipe fish, Eals galore, and much much more ;) Wade and I did several dives, with just the two of us, which was really cool! I'm definately looking foward to finding me some regular dive buddies to dive with, rather than going out with DMs most of the time! The boat and crew were great! The food was mostly great with a few minor exceptions, the other divers were pretty cool. One guy who makes tons of videos who showed us videos in the evenings, and crazy itallian woman who seemed to bounce rather than swim when she was in the water (you go Nico!!!!)...

So after 4 dives a day for 4 days, we made it back to the mainland... Had a bit of a hastle with our room, but got it sorted quickly. Then Wade and I took a minibus down to Krabi town. The town was OK, but nothing particularly special... it seemed to be half tourism and half trade... that was nice... and the food at the night markets was very good... Thanks Ot for the amazing iced tea and interesting conversation! We spent a day at the Tiger Cave which is a Budhist temple that hosts a personality cult for the main monk... was quite interesting, if not particularly inspiring :) There were loads of monkeys (not a pun) so we spent a lot of time taking pictures of them... and some time hiking back behind the temple. We whimped out on the 1200 step climb up to a huge gilded boulder and mini-temple... It was covered in scafolding... but folks who made the trek said the veiw was great (I'm glad for them after that much effort! :) We did not make it out to the Islands near Krabi since Wade was having major aqua-phobia :) actually having vertigo from an ear infection contracted while diving... Understandably, reducing the appeal of doing water based activities...

We did head out to Koh Lanta, which is a pretty big Island south of Koh Phi Phi. They had 6 resorts about 10 years ago... now they have over 200... we had a hard time getting into a room... hot bothered, hungry, not communicating well... ended up in the place that I walked away from at the start of looking for somewhere to stay... ;) I spent a day snorkeling which was OK, but not fantastic, was just nice being out on the boat and snorkeling for me, and Wade read and slept... Seems like we ate a lot and slept a lot for a few days... then Wade headed down to Malaysia and I moved to some neigboring bungalows (cheaper smaller room for 1 person) for a few more days hanging out. I went diving on Hin Daeng and Hin Muang which are 3 hours boat ride south of Koh Lanta... I dove with Koh Lanta Dive Center because several of the folks from the liveaboard had recommended them, and because I bumped into Rob and Karen who had also been on the liveaboard, we ended up diving together, which was way cool. Hin Daeng was AMAZING, really wonderfull dive! Hin Muang was a dissapointment, but mostly because the current had really picked up so we had to work hard to not get very far and most of the fish had buggered off :)

From Lanta, I headed to an island even further south called Koh Hai. I stayed at Koh Hai Villa, which was nice, but a little too quite... that's why I went there... for quite... :) Had a very relaxed few days, snorkeling, swiming, playing with my poi and even a bit of juggling on the beach... Now I'm ready for civilization.

After an incredibly painfully loud longtail trip, I'm in Trang city... just booked a ticket up to bkk so I can sort out the rest of my trip... At this very instant, I'm thinking about going to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, then heading to New Zealand for a bit over a month, then heading home... I think I'll goto Australia another time... I'll be sad to miss the diving, but I'm feeling like getting home :)