playing catch-up

Alright, it's been more than a week since I've made a full entry in here, so I thought I'd play a bit of a game of catch up and let everyone know what I've been up to!

In summary: diving, diving, more diving, Railay beach for 4 days, diving, diving, more diving.

I've managed to complete both my Open Water dive certification and my Advanced Adventurer certification while here, and log 15 dives. For my Advanced Adventurer certification, I chose navigation, deep dive, wreck dive, underwater photography, and night dive as my specialities. In doing so, I was able to do a full day trip out to the 85 foot sunken car ferry, King Cruiser (wreck dive and deep dive - 31 metres), Koh Doc Mai (really cool underwater caves great for photography), and also to Shark Point (just simply pretty!). The night dives have been some of the best I've done so far. There is something very mysterious, exciting, nerve-wracking, and peaceful about diving at night with only a torch for guidance along the reef. I've done 3 night dives so far and loved every one of them. Alot of strange creatures come out to play and feed at night - sea urchins, cuttle fish (my personal favorite, especially the big Pharaoah cuttle fish), strange tarantula-like crabs, and hundreds of lion fish. One of the highlights (one of many) was seeing a cowrie with its mantle out. I've never seen a cowrie in the water before and they only come out at night.

Last weekend, I took a boat from Phuket harbour to Koh Phi Phi and then on to Krabi and Railay Beach. I spent 4 hours in Koh Phi Phi harbour town, enough to make me realize I wouldn't want to stay there! At the Krabi harbour, I was swindled by a taxi driver and brought to the long tail boat dock where I caught a ride down to Railay Beach East. I stayed at the Railay Bay Resort and Spa, in a private bungalow near Railay East. It was a very nice spot - secluded, AC, comfy bed (unlike what I've been sleeping on at the muay thai gym!). Railay itself is an amazing place -all limestone karst formations, everything from caves to vertical cliffs to huge sink holes. I'll post up some photos later, but they don't do justice to the amazing scenary.

Railay itself is pretty quiet - a few large resorts, a few small guesthouses, and 2 strips of shops and restaurants. I found it quite a bit more expensive than Phuket, which isn't that surprising since it is remote and there's no choice of going further away to eat! But I had some excellent sea food (the barracuda was exceptional!!) and one of the best hamburgers I've had in the last long while that I didn't cook myself.

I spent the 3 days I had on Railay exploring, relaxing, reading, and snorkelling. The first morning, I got up early and decided to go to the hidden Princess Lagoon, just north of Phrang Na bay. I found the "trail head" and saw 2 people (bare foot) climbing up towards the trees. Some trailhead! It was one of the steepest trails I have ever seen, aside from what I've climbed in Nepal, complete with tree roots and rocks polished to a gemmy sheen by years of people walking on them. Luckily, partially knowing what I was getting myself into, I had worn good running shoes (although in hindsight, climbing shoes would have been more appropriate!). I started up this steep trail, ignoring the frayed hemp rope which was attached to who knows what at the top. I quickly overtook the insane couple in their bare feet, and climbed up and up and up. About 100 feet up, I discovered the first of the free climb sections, delighted at that point to do a bit of true climbing (hah!! that thought would come back to haunt me!) and scaled up quickly. At the top of the 15 foot section, I found a little side trail leading off into the jungle to the lookout - a window looking out towards Railay Bay West and a definite Kodak moment. After poking around the side trails for a bit and fighting strange hanging tree branches and searching for monkeys (none to be seen on the entire 'hike'), I headed back downwards towards the lagoon. Easy going for the first section, and then a rope leading down what can only be classified as a limestone slip-n-slide! If I hadn't feared for my short bottom, I would have slid down, but as it was, I was able to turn backwards and abseil down in leaps and bounds to the bottom. Well, the bottom of the easy section of the hike anyway. There I found the most massive trees I have ever seen - huge coconut trees and other tropicals that seemed to have come out of Heart of Darkness or some such movie. Possibly Jurassic Park! People had carved their names into one of the large coconut trees, which for some reason upset me.

Heading down, I manged to catch a glimpse of sunlight which let me know I was close to the infamous lagoon. It was at this point that I discovered that this nice little hike and workout was going to turn out into a 5.7 free climb! 3 separate overhangs greeted me, each a good 15 foot in height, each with slippery hand and foot holds, scary worn out hemp ropes, and sharp, jagged rocks below the overhangs which looked quite capable of splitting ones head open! The first one, I took as a challenge. Hey, I'm fit, I've climbed, it wasn't too bad of an overhang, how hard could it be? No problem, except for the HUGE FUCKING SPIDER hanging onto one of the hand holds! Anyone who knows me knows how much I absolutely detest spiders and usually react in pure terror. Especially man-eating sized ones. Calm, calm, calm. It wasn't going to harm me if I just slid past it. Maybe it was a vegetarian spider... I made it down, half abseiling, half climbing, hoping the ropes would hold. No problem! Paula 1, spiders and cliffs 0. So far so good.

Again, the 2nd drop off, although a bit more difficult and requiring a bit more thinking before stepping over the edge, was conquered without any broken bones (no spiders were harmed). Feeling somewhat brave, cocky and on an adrenaline rush, I moved down to the 3rd overhang.

My first thought was "holy fuck, I will never make it down that alive". My second thought was thinking back to the person who shall remain nameless who suggested that I go and visit this lagoon and thought "were you guys fucking crazy?!!!". Turns out they were smarter than me and didn't go down these overhangs, something I found out after returning bleeding and scaped up! Anyhow... :)

I admit, I sat on that 3rd ledge for a good 20 minutes, contemplating the rocks (very nice, almost made me appreciate soft rock geology!), had some water, and then tried to figure out how badly my head would be smashed open if the ropes didn't hold, or if my right arm didn't hold out when I started to descend! I started the descent 4 times, unsuccessfully. Finally, I decided "fuck it, if other people before me have done it, it can't be that bad, right?". So I stepped over the ledge, attempted to find foot holds, of which there were none for my short legs, and finally realized the only way I was going to get down was to go down hand over hand down the rope. Easier said than done. I slipped that last couple of feet, landed not so gracefully on the jagged rocks below, scraped up my legs and wrenched my right middle finger pretty good. But made it down in one piece! Then realized I had to get back up. Did my insurance cover helicopter evacuation? Could I survive at this lagoon with the litre of water in my bag and the small fish in the water? Adrenaline kicked back in and I wandered down the last bit to the lagoon.

Only to find out that the tide was out!!! Shit! All that work to find a shallow, mud-filled hole!

Argh.

But a very nice, peaceful mud-filled hole it was. I wandered around a bit, took some photos, had some water, washed my wounds. Until 4 Russians showed up and started making a whole hell of alot of noise and I decided my time at the mud lagoon had come to an end.

Not surprisingly, getting back up was no where as difficult as getting down. I was able to see where to put my hands and feet, found a chimney to shimmy up which offered alot of leverage, and, exhausted, got back up to the top viewpoint. Getting back down to the trailhead wouldn't have been difficult if I hadn't been exhausted, so as it was, I had to watch my step carefully and make sure I didn't make any stupid mistakes. At the bottom, very dirty, sweaty, bleeding and tired, but exhilarated and happy, feeling a bit like an adventurer, I headed back to the mortal realm of the beach to clean off.

The rest of my time on Railay was not nearly as exciting as that morning! I spent one day out at Koh Poda snorkeling (beautiful), and the rest of the time relaxing, exploring various caves, taking sunset photos, and enjoying the food and drink on Railay East.

Back in Phuket after 4 days on Railay, I went straight back to diving. This past week, I went on a night dive on Wednesday (very cool - lots and lots of cuttle fish!!), did 2 long tail boat dives off Koh Pu on Thursday (excellent visibility, best I've seen yet, but this was the first dive I have ever been truly cold on - frozen in fact, and the water temperature was 29 degrees!), and a day trip out to Racha Noi and Racha Yai yesterday, 2 islands directly south (1.5 hours) of Phuket. They weren't the most memorable dives I've had - the visibility was excellent, but the sea life wasn't plentiful for whatever reason. We did see some really cool nudibranches (sea slugs), some huge morays, and did a few swim throughs, but it was pretty quiet. Still, an excellent day out. That is until we hit 3 metre swells on the way back. I had taken sea sickness tablets prior to the last dive, but they were no match for the harsh conditions that we rode in on the way back. The worst was that the wind was E-W and we wer going North. So the motion of the boat was perpendicular to where we were going, the worst possible thing for my sensitive equilibrium. I did my best for the first 15 minutes, sat on the bench inside the boat and tried to convince myself I wasn't going to be sick. Then I went to the washroom and that was it. The confined space, being thrown around like a pinball inside a jar, the puke factor took effect. And after a lecture by our dive master about only throwing up off the back of the boat, not at the front, the sides or in the toilet, I broke the rules and used the toilet. I made it back to my seat beside my instructor, feeling a bit better, only to have the waves get bigger and that was it, again. This time I managed to race to the dive deck at the back of the boat and our dive heroine of the south seas spent the next while upchucking ever so gracefully into the swells at the back of the boat!! I started to pray to the sea gods for either (1) dry land, or (2) a quick death at sea. I was so happy when Phuket harbour came into view. Joel wasn't feeling all that well either, so the two of us had a very quiet ride back to the dive shop in the van!! I was sick all evening. And the world kept rolling and swaying all evening long as well. I finally took a gravol, some melatonine and tried to sleep, hoping the nausea would go away over night. It almost has, although the world is still not all that steady and the queasiness is still slightly there. I'm still not entirely looking forward to eating anything!!

I have 2 more days in Phuket and then it's back to Bangkok to meet up with Nat and John. Yeah!! Today, I'm headed up to Surin and Kamala beaches, north of Patong, as I hear they are beautiful. Tomorrow, I might head inland to a waterfall north of Chalong. We'll see!! I plan to enjoy the sun and warmth. I've been spending my evenings at the dive club, having a beer or two and chatting with the instructors and owners, who are a great bunch of people. Wednesday evening, after my night dive, I went off to another bar with them. 2 beers and I was exhausted!! Plus I hadn't had supper. I took off around midnight and headed home, but the next morning I felt like crap! Dehydration kicks in pretty easy here, especially with no food and a couple of beers!!