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March 03, 2008 Koh Tao (THAILAND) Keeping Up with the "Real World", and Swimming with a Hawksbill Sea Turtle There were no morning dives going out this morning, so I was free to enjoy a lengthy breakfast down at Mae Head, where Cafe del Sol offers free wi-fi internet (thanks to a friendly French owner.) I am at the point where news no longer feels relevant to my life, but knowing I won't stay on the island forever forces me to keep up-to-date. Of particular interest were the upcoming primaries in Texas and Iowa, states in which Hillary Clinton really needs to score victories to quell Barack Obama's runaway success. It is mind-boggling the amount of money the candidates are raising for their campaigns: an estimated $36 million for Mrs. Clinton and an unheard of $55 million for Mr. Obama. Those are ridiculous figures for a single month, and the scary part is they are not one-offs: with seven or eight weeks until the Pennsylvania primary, another "big one" with roughly 150 delegates, there will be even more money coming in. When such exorbitant sums of money are being thrown around, supposedly in the midst of a financial crisis, it really makes one wonder how many favors will be called in at the end of this popularity contest. (In fairness, much of the money is being raised online, which probably alleviates many fears of interest groups calling in favors later.) The following is a very interesting excerpt from a Wall Street Journal editorial, detailing why Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat with a proven track-record for going across party lines and tackling difficult issues (and the battle scars to prove it), is struggling against a candidate with only three years of Senate experience, and no proven record of actually being an impetus of change outside campaign rhetoric... By now, the Democratic Party's ideas are largely generic. Everyone noticed that the Democratic presidential candidates were largely singing from the same script. Health care, public schools, green energy, the eternal shafting of the middle class, the unions, protecting Social Security and Medicare. This common script means that the Democratic primaries are largely an audition. The candidates are reading for a role. The lines are known. The part, however, is challenging. The Democratic platform may be familiar, but it is also infused with the quality of a dream. Actually, the word "dream" gets used a lot in Democratic rhetoric. What are essentially bureaucratic arrangements, such as health insurance or after-school programs, are promised as "universal." Meanwhile, "the middle class" is being offered a version of never-never land -- total public protection from the traps and betrayals of the private sector, which has been reduced to a kind of Grimm's Fairy Tale abstraction, the wolves. If you are selling a dream you need the best possible salesman to make it seem somehow possible. They found him in Barack Obama. Wonderland: Hillary's Close-up (Daniel Henninger) The Republics found themselves in a far different position with candidates covering a broad spectrum of policy issues and grossly different forms of conservatism. Of course, McCain will clinch in a couple of days so that race will likely quiet down substantially while Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton continue battling for the foreseeable future. Enough about politics, I will post a more complete candidate run-down tomorrow.
The second dive sight, White Rock, proved far more rewarding, and it reaffirmed its position as my second favorite dive sight - only Chumphon, where there are regular shark sightings, can ever claim first. We spotted three blue-spotted sting rays (all of which were sleeping under rocks or in caves), chevron fish, gobi fish working with shrimp, a masked porcupinefish, bannerfish, and the ultimate sighting of the day: an adult Hawk-Billed Turtle.
Life really is too easy in Koh Tao, but with another morning dive to Chumphon tomorrow morning there was no late night partying for me. |
I caught the 12:20 boat for an afternoon
dive with a friendly dive master named Liz (Manchester,
England.) The first dive sight was called Twins, which
isn't at the top of my list of favorite dive sights.
However, I did spot four white-eyed moray eels
(including one that was hunting in the coral), a
multitude of crown of thorns (which I debated
flipping over, thereby killing them, as they eat coral
and destroy reefs), and both six-ringed and
blue-ringed angelfish.
I wish I had video from the dive because
salt-water turtles are one of the most amazing sights to
behold in the water. Unlike their fresh-water and
land-turtle counterparts, saltwater turtles can move
quickly and they are great hunters with powerful jaws.
Liz spotted this particular one as it was swimming up to
the surface for oxygen, and we positioned ourselves
below it so that when it swam down it was in line with
us. After 30 seconds of following it from a few meters
away, I slowly swam in for a closer look and was within
half a meter (1-2 feet) of this one and a half meter
animal. At one point, the turtle turned and swam around
me, eyeing me the entire time as it passed directly in
front of my fins (which I tried to stick between us in
case it decided to bite.) It was a great rush, and
experiences like this are why so many people are
enamored with diving.
The dive boat got back to Koh Tao
at around 5:00 pm, so after unloading all the gear and
completing my dive reports, I went out for beer and
pizza with Neil and David at a nearby Italian restaurant
called Farango. There was an actual wood-fired
oven in the kitchen, and at only 160 baht/pizza (about
$5USD) I was in heaven. Neil and David will complete
their PADI Open-Water dive course tomorrow, so tonight
was a kind of mini-celebration with plenty of Chang
beer going around. This was also the first time Neil has
finished an entire meal by himself, so I decided to
include a photo of him celebrating his accomplishment
(he has lost 15 kilograms since arriving in Japan, and
now weighs under 50 kilograms!)