March 02, 2008

Koh Tao (THAILAND)

Diving the Chumphon Pinnacle (Sharks!), and Koh Tao Really is Beautiful

One of the reasons I love New Way diving so much is because they make sure to have the first boat out on Koh Tao's best dive sight, the Chumphon Pinnacle.  This requires getting up at the ungodly time of 5:45 am - leaving a small window for showering in the cold tap and buying breakfast before the 6:10 am departure - but on the plus side, it is a much-welcomed opportunity to extract revenge on the group of roosters/chickens living around my hut: for once, I can disturb them, rather than being forced out of bed from their incessant cock-a-doodle-doos and clucks at 6:45 am every morning. (Another option is always to save $$ money on buying eggs from the grocer, but that might be a bit harsh.)

I was the only fun-diver going out this morning, so with Ian (Canadian) serving as my one-on-one dive master and guide I would certainly be getting my money's worth. Even better, none of the other divers on the boat  had their Advanced Certification (meaning they have to stay within 18 meters of the surface), so Ian and I were the only ones going down to 30+ meters where the sharks prowl the ocean floor. For someone like me, who first got into diving to overcome a life-long fear of sharks, being 100 feet from the ocean surface with only one other diver around is as real a rush as I could hope for.

Ian and I were the first ones in the water, entering with the typical James Bond forward flip, and before we even reached the ocean floor on our descent I could see two sharks swimming below. This is always my favorite view of these ultimate predators because their grace is so apparent; they really are masters of the ocean in much the same way jet fighters are masters of the sky. However, there is an equally inexplicable high one gets when standing on the ocean floor watching the sharks circle around, changing their course so it is approaching us, only to break away within meters. I immediately recognized the sharks as being two meter Gray Reef Sharks, but with frequent Bull Shark sightings (along with Great Whites and Tiger Sharks, Bull Sharks are one of the three notorious "human hunters,") I kept an eye on them for safety. Of course, knowing a Gray Reef Shark isn't likely to attack doesn't make them any less thrilling!

Also on our dive we saw a one-meter Giant Grouper asleep in a small crevice, schools of Great Barracuda and Yellow-Tailed Barracuda hanging around the aptly named Barracuda Rock, and the "normal" medley of jacks, angelfish, clownfish, fusiliers, batfish, cleaner wrasse, harlequin sweetlips, etc. However, the real rush of diving Chumphon is going down to 33 meters and coming face to face with the ultimate predators of the ocean, and having spotted five separate sharks today I certainly came up bubbling with excitement.

Our next dive sight was Green Rock, which along with Red Rock and White Rock make up several of the other popular dive sights around Koh Tao - so named because they were discovered by Italian divers. It is difficult to reproduce the high of the morning dive, but there was once more great visibility and it is always nice having a one-on-one dive master showing me around the sight.

Below is video taken from the deck of the dive boat while we were waiting to start the second dive - it is necessary to stay out of the water between dives so the body can adjust after being at depth for so long (preventing nitrogen build-up in the blood stream.) I still have time to work on the entry-part of my dive, but it is never easy jumping from a wet railing on a rocking boat...

I was back at the dive shop by 10:20 am, which is amazing considering I was already exhausted and felt like I had already accomplished so much in the day. For the remainder of the afternoon I relaxed at the many cafes on the island: reading the Salman Rushdie novel, The Satanic Verses, drinking plenty of 40 baht Chang beer along with Neil and David, and ultimately, taking in the amazing sunset shown below.