Scuba Diving in Paradise

Young Man had the incredible opportunity to go on a scout trip to Koh Lok and the Similan Islands where he completed his PADI scuba certification, earned a bunch of merit badges, and had the time of his life.

As we were dropping him off at the airport for his first ever flight without us, I just couldn't help but feel so proud of what a great kid he is. Young Man has a heart of gold and even though we were excited for this opportunity for him, it was still hard to see him go, mostly because I knew we would miss him so much!

Here's what he said about the trip (pictures are from other scouts and leaders on the trip):
Day 1: My flight to Phuket left at 11:30am so we got up at around 8 and left the house at 9ish to be there by 10. It was a two-hour flight, so I took the opportunity to study my scuba workbook. When I landed, me and the other 3 people I was going with went outside to meet the van driver picking us up. After a quick lunch at a nearby Subway, we commenced the 1 1/2 hour drive to the house we were staying at for 3 days. We beat the people that were driving (they left the day before to start the 17-hour drive) so we decided to check out the beach. It was great. The other group got there as soon as we got back. My favorite thing about the house was that it had a ping-pong table. That was set up almost instantly and was played nonstop until bed time. I didn’t ever get a blanket this night so I was freezing in the cabin I shared with 3 other people (they insisted on aircon).

Day 2: We woke up early, ate, and then started playing table tennis. At 9, we set out to go to the pool where we were doing our training and meeting our dive masters. That lasted until about 2pm.When we got back, we listened to music, ate some more, went to the beach, slept, and played even more table tennis. We had our first oceanography merit badge lecture that evening and went to the beach at night to collect plankton samples. We came back and spent the next hour looking at the hundreds of tiny animals we found in the water (including three jelly fish which we thought were clumps of plankton at first). I forgot to ask for a blanket and the was cold all night again. I was smarter this time though and slept in a hoodie and a towel.

Day 3: Waterfall day! Everyone except for me and a few other people went to a nearby waterfall to hike, climb, and explore. The people who stayed played table tennis all day instead. (-= One of my friends that went to the waterfall climbed up to a restricted area, fell off, and broke his wrist. No scuba diving for him. He had to be flown back to Chiang Mai for medical treatment. We got on the boat at 10.00pm that night and went to bed at 11. This was my last night sleeping inside without a blanket.

Day 4 (Day 1 on the boat): Wake up was at 6am every morning. We went to the main room for the dive briefing and all of the introductions etc. Normally we dove at 6.30 but on the first day, we didn’t get in until 8am. The first dive was good but the second and third ones were the best that day. I saw pistol shrimp, both kinds of mantis shrimp, schools of barracuda, coral everywhere, hundreds of fish etc. In between dives we played chess, slept, and watched movies. I finally decided to sleep on the open aired roof of the boat because it was much warmer outside. This was my first night actually sleeping well.

Daily Dive ScheduleWake up-6am
Dive one-6.30am
Breakfast-7.50am
Dive two-10am
Lunch-11.30am
Dive three-2.00pm
Snack- 3.10pm
Dive 4- 5.00pm
Dinner- 7.00pm

Day 5: The same as day 4. We started a chess tournament. We saw lion fish, scorpion fish, moray eels, shrimp, seahorses, more mantis shrimp, and the first turtle of the trip. I again slept on the roof and it was amazing.

Day 6: Supposedly the best diving in Thailand and I believe it! We ended up spending all four dives here- http://www.richelieu-rock.com/. It was sad because several people were sick that day and decided to sit out on the first dive. I almost stayed but decided to go at the last second. On that very first dive we saw the whale shark. I was glad I went then! We were swimming close to the bottom when our dive instructor told us to look up and there it was! A 5-meter-long whale shark. We swam up to it and had to grab on to the rock wall we were scuba diving below because of the current. The farthest it got from us was about 2 meters away as it was swimming up and down slowly with its mouth wide open. We observed it for the rest of our dive (20 min) The closest it ever got was about an armslength away as we and it were swimming away. We didn’t see it any of the other dives but they were also amazing dives. I fell asleep on the roof of the boat and missed the last dive but it was ok. This night started normally with me sleeping on the roof. It started sprinkling at about 3am though so I moved one level down (a roof but no walls) and fell back asleep. It started really pouring at 4 though so I woke up again no longer safe from the rain. I had to wait until 6 for everyone else to wake up and the day to start.

Day 7: On the last day, we were only doing two dives and the 7 of us that were flying back weren’t allowed to go on either of them for nitrogen reasons. We hung out, slept, played chess, and ate while the others were diving. Two mantas were seen which made jealous. The last dive was also pretty sad to miss. Huge schools of lionfish, barracuda, and several fish. There were also hundreds of scorpion fish throughout the dive site. We got to the dock at around 1.30pm and left for the 1 hour drive to the airport. Our flight left at 8.30pm. Five hours to wait. Ughhhh. We could have been home by 5pm instead of 11pm! With school the next morning! And I had already not slept well the previous night. Ughhhh. Overall it was an amazing experience and I absolutely loved it!

We were so happy to see him (one of the last ones off the plane!) when he finally got home and can't wait to go diving with him soon!

Waterfight in Paradise

Ever wondered what it would be like to participate in a giant waterfight with thousands and thousands of people? Let me tell you, it is FUN (and wet)!

We have been anticipating Songkran since before we even moved to Thailand. It is based on a religious Buddhist holiday and the Thai New Year celebration. The deeply devout focus on sprinkling perfumed water on ancient Buddhist relics and monks and the elderly. 

They traditionally clean their houses and visit the temples to make merit for an auspicious start to the new year.  Most of them also head downtown by the thousands to participate in the world's biggest and baddest waterfight where the rest of us join in the fun.

My Man had to stop in to work for a few hours Monday morning, so we decided to head in with him. We kicked around a soccer ball and read while he made sure everything was OK at the consulate. 

We had a picnic, then left the car there and walked a few blocks over to Thapae Road where the big Songkran parade was scheduled to start at 1:30. 

Honestly, we didn't really know what to expect, but pretty soon we had the drill down. There were lots of people lining the streets armed with squirt guns, hoses, or buckets of water and everyone just splashed everyone else. 

There was laughing, shrieking (some of the water was cold from melting ice), and giggles. Everywhere were smiles. I don't think I've ever seen so many happy people, from little kids to wrinkled old men, Thais and farang all together. 

The carefree silliness was completely contagious and soon we were throwing buckets of water everywhere. And even though it was complete water chaos, most people were pretty nice about it, especially the older Thais who would gently pour cups of water on your back, almost apologetically, and smile "Sawatdiipiimai" (Happy New Year). The buckets of water lining the street were water ambush zones. At first, Funny Guy would try to fill his squirt gun at the barrels where we would both get completely blasted with water, captive as we were. 

Soon we got a better system. I would quickly scoop a pitcher full of water as we walked by, no stopping (we still got soaked, but much better than stopping!) and then I would fill the gun from the pitcher of water after we were a little ways on. 

After about an hour walking up the road, we came upon the intersection with the moat road (where the biggest Songkran party in town is). There were SO many people. The only time I've ever seen that many people in one place before was at the International Fireworks Festival in Seoul, and that didn't have water splashing everywhere and music blasting and everyone laughing and dancing and throwing water. It was great. Probably the coolest thing I've ever seen.

And then I looked down and couldn't see Funny Guy.  Sheer panic overtook me. There were about eight ways he could have gone. There were so many people. I had no idea where he could have gone. And why?!

(Looking at the GoPro video later, we watched him look up, not see us--even though we were right behind him--and rush off to catch up to us.  He probably mistook someone else for one of us--one of the fun things about Songkran are the colorful island shirts everyone wears, but it can be a little disconcerting keeping track of people when you see the same shirt on twenty different people at any given time.) My eyes were off him for only a few seconds, but that was long enough.

My Man stood at the intersection waiting in case he got back to where he'd left us. Young Man and Darling Daughter took turns coming with me to look through the crowds and down each street. 

We kept checking in with the police to see if they'd found him.

Long story short, we reunited and enjoyed the rest of Songkran, but if I could erase those two frantic hours, I surely would for all of our sakes.

Note to self: don't get complaisant about making sure your kids have your phone number memorized!!!  Even when you move a lot, make them learn it! Or pin it to the inside of their pocket. If our little guy could have given someone our phone number it would have made for a much better afternoon.  We were all so, so happy to be reunited.

On our way back, we got to see the Songkran parade. 

As we were walking down the Thapae Road, the parade was coming up so we got to see most of it. It was great. 

People showed respect by sprinkling (some more respectfully than others) beautiful golden Buddhas and floats, monks and costumed groups. In turn, many of the parade participants threw water back at the crowd.

The water antics along the side continued as well and more times than I can count, I stopped to snap a picture and someone took advantage of my distraction to completely clobber me with water. One of my very favorite things was gasping and then looking up to catch the laughing grin of the perpetrator. You just couldn't help but be giddy with silly happiness the entire time, surrounded by so much fun and laughter.

By the time we got back to our car, we were already plotting our next Songkran adventure.

But first, we were starving. Although there were lots of vendors courageously trying to sell food along the streets (soggy donuts anyone?), 

we opted to wait and go to a Thai cafeteria instead--Thai food never tasted so good! 

It was so cold inside with our wet clothes and the air conditioning, though, that we ate fast and then took our smoothies outside back into the heat to dry.

Wednesday, we took advantage of an invitation to go in the back of a friend's truck for a few rides around the moat. 

It was a completely different way to enjoy Songkran and the kids liked it even better. 

With a giant barrel of water in the back to refill buckets and guns, we had constant ammo and a good vantage point to attack from. We were also bigger targets and got our fair share of water back. 

Lots of people set up along the roads specifically to ambush groups that go by in trucks. They throw huge buckets full of water into the truck bed and then try to run away before we can get revenge. Most of them end up just as wet.

After a few hours of fun, we stopped for a few minutes on a quieter part of the moat for some snacks. 

The kids were cold from all the ice water and windchill from the moving truck and it felt good to dry off a little in the sunshine and snack on hot butter roasted corn. Amazingly, we didn't get attacked for that whole break.

Overall, our adventures Wednesday were a lot calmer, probably partly because we went fairly early (11am to 2pm). I heard from other friends that the moat got pretty crazy Wednesday afternoon, but while we were there, traffic was moving (albeit slowly) and the crowds were fun but not too crazy.

Pictures really can't capture the crazy awesomeness of Songkran in Chiang Mai (who wants to worry about a camera when you're water fighting?!) but we got some good video too so hopefully My Man will put that together soon. And if the world's biggest waterfight isn't on your bucket list?  It should be. Until then, here are a few more pics to give you a little idea of what it's like:

 

Happy New Year!!! (And yes, although the masks and goggles look dorky, the kids were very glad to have them!)