I am in the airport leaving Phuket. It has been busy and as I write this, I cannot believe that over 1/3 of my trip has now passed. I have one more week in Thailand (Bangkok and Chang Mai), then I will be off to Cambodia for a few more days, and finally (for SE Asia, at least) I will spend 9 days in Vietnam. It’s funny, when I planned this, I thought that I was going to have enough time to see everything that I wanted to see but have since realized I was wrong.
On September 5th, I fly from Hanoi to Katmandu, Nepal for the next leg of my journey. Nepal will be a little cooler. It should be in the 70’s during the day so that will be a nice change from the inferno that is here but only a short reprieve before the deserts of Egypt and Jordan.
So back to Phuket…
Off the southwest coast of Thailand, in the Andaman Sea, is post-card worthy collection of crystal blue water, white sand beaches, and hundreds of picturesque green islands. Tucked in the middle of these islands is the largest, Phuket (Tom, it is pronounced
poo-kett, thanks for asking). Phuket is a wretched hive of filth and depravity. I felt dirty just walking down the street. If it were not for the perfect seas surrounding it, I could see no reason spend time here. I wouldn’t be surprised if God smote this place like Sodom and Gomorrah. Actually, he almost did during Christmastime of 2004. That is when the tsunami hit this entire region killing hundreds of thousands.
Looking around Phuket or any nearby island now, it is impossible to see or imagine the chaos and destruction of the tsunami. Everything is rebuilt. Talk to anyone that survived, though, and they have stories making that time sound like hell on earth. The divers, like anyone else that morning, were not exempt from the fury of the ocean. If their boats were on the open water, not much happened. If they were diving a deep site, even underwater, not much happened. For any dive boats that arrived early to their shallow water dive spots that morning, the destruction was complete. Luckily, the diving usually starts around 10:30 or 11:00 here so most of them were spared. The dive shops, boats, and divers of Phuket played a key role in the following weeks and months to help in search and recovery and also to clean up debris clogged harbors. One of the dive masters with which I spoke was 15 minutes away from his dive site when the wave hit. They were close enough to feel a little shaking of the boat and then, moments later, see a white wall of white water hit the island they were approaching. Another dive boat was going to Phi Phi Island which is often considered the jewel of the area. At 10:00, when the wave hit, they were still an hour away. Unfortunately, at the same time in the harbor at Phi Phi, a ferry was unloading 500 people and getting ready to load 500 more for the trip back to Phuket. Nobody survived. The dive guide on that boat told me that over the next few weeks, several dive boats volunteered to help clear the harbor of bodies and debris. His boat pulled up 180 bodies in one day. It sounds like it was very grisly.
Most of the underwater reefs suffered little to no damage making the diving around Phuket some of the best on earth just as it was before the tsunami. I dove three days and it was fantastic. However, everything leading up to, between, and after the diving (like most things in SE Asia) were completely chaotic and unorganized.
The first day, I went downstairs to the dive shop at my hotel to get ready to be driven to the boat. Jimmy, the Korean guy who runs the dive shop gave me the briefing for the day. Most of it was pretty standard: car ride, boat ride, two dives, lunch, etc. The part that was a little different was when he told me that if there were Europeans on my boat, I shouldn’t speak to them. I have tried very hard to figure out why this was the case and to this moment, I have no clue. I even asked him the next day and he put his finger over his mouth in a shushing motion and said, “just no talk.”
The ride to the harbor was an excruciating hour of picking up and dropping off what seemed like a million people. Again, to this moment, I can’t figure out where half of these people were coming from or going to. At the marina, I was herded like cattle onto another bus to drive the kilometer or so down the pier. At this point, I still haven’t spoken to anyone and have no clue where I am suppose to be going. Finally, I see two dive boats with my dive shop’s name on them and I know one of them is my ride for the day. As I looked at the boats, I noticed that one boat is full of white people: mostly Europeans, I guess. The other is full of all Asians. I had looked in the mirror that morning and remembered that I was white so I started to head for the “white” boat. Imagine my surprise when Jimmy shows up out of nowhere, says, “no your boat,” and pulls me onto the “Asian” boat.
“But…but…white…boat…English…maybe?” I muttered.
Jimmy said, “no your boat.” I later came to conclude that not only was Jimmy the “Godfather” of Phuket diving, I think he also liked to see me squirm. The first picture below is of my view of the white boat from the asian boat. The other two are of my view of my boat.
I spent the next two days on the “Asian” boat with 40 other people being the only person on it who spoke English. I realize that I’m in Asia but what the hell? I think that many of them felt sorry for me as several tried to strike up conversations in their best English. The communication was painful but everyone was very nice. One night at the hotel while going downstairs to get a bottle of water, I got invited, via hand gestures, over to a table with a few Koreans that were on the boat to join them for dinner. One of the guys had just got his instructor certificate and they were celebrating. The water that I was suppose to get turned into several bottles of Korean whiskey. The stuff actually wasn’t that bad. It hit me like a ton of bricks but wasn’t really that bad. I also have no clue what I was eating (pork, maybe?) but it was spicy as hell and good.
Back on the boat, my dive guide was and old Japanese guy named Taka who dove with a Katana sword. I’m not kidding; I took a picture. He was actually a very good guide, had a camera, and took a lot of good pictures of those two dive days.
Remember though, like I said, the diving was great but everything else is chaotic. I am used to easy Caribbean diving where everyone stays near the boat while diving. Here, everyone breaks off into groups of 2 or 3, goes their own direction, and the boat drives all over plucking people out of the sea when they pop-up. I always wondered how the “Open Water” scenario could actually take place and now I know. By the time everyone surfaced, divers were separated by several hundred meters bobbing around in the waves. They didn’t lose anyone from my boat but the second day, another boat left without three divers and had to come back for them. Luckily, for two of the three days, we dove close to shores that had beaches. Worse case scenario is to kick to the shore and wait for a boat….I think.
The third day, I had one of the best dives of my life. We went to a spot called Shark Point which isn’t normally on the dive schedule this time of the year due to weather and currents. I happened to luck out that day and the conditions were right to dive it. It was amazing. There were sea fans taller than a person. Everything was absolutely pristine due to the nutrients from the currents and minimal divers most of the year. We even saw a leopard shark swim past. We followed it; he circled us and then set himself down on the ocean floor. We went down, let the air out of our vests, and sat down on the sand next to him. I was close enough to touch it. A German guy that was with us took some photos of me next to it and said he’d email them. I hope he does so I can put the picture on here. While this was probably the nicest dive I’ve had, it was also, by far, the most difficult. The currents were so strong that, for most of the dive, it was useless to flight them. I felt like one of those reporters that goes out into a hurricane they seem like they will blow away at any minute.
I also got offered my first job since being layed off. Taka took some videos of me diving and apparently was showing them around because he was impressed with my diving skills. I was told that I should get my dive instructor license and come back to work on a boat. I don’t think the pay is what I’m used to but the lifestyle would be second to none. I don’t think I could live in Phuket, though.
The dive sites are a few hours via boat from Phuket so there are several hours every day to read, sleep, or just relax. I really liked the rides to and from the sites. The only negative is that it makes for some very long days. After a 6:30ish AM pick-up each day, I didn’t make it back to the hotel from between 5-8 PM. I was beat at the end of everyday from spending all day in the sun. Cue the violins; now is when you feel sorry for me.
Yesterday I couldn’t dive due to flying today, so I took a tour of some of the islands on the other side Phuket. One of them was the island used for filming the James Bond movie The Man With The Golden Gun. It is now just a giant tourist trap. It is a scenic tourist trap but a tourist trap nonetheless. We also did some sea canoing around some islands and into a cave. That was interesting as there were a lot of bats in the cave. Also, again, there were very few English speakers around. I’m a talker. These days have been killing me.
The tour was nice but wasn’t the greatest day that I’ve had. Our tour boat looked like it was one wave away from capsizing. The dive boats were much more comfortable. On the tour boat and everywhere for that matter, we were packed like sardines. It was a scenic ride but way too long and uncomfortable. I did make friends with a guy named Ahmed from Oman (in the Arab Gulf, as I was corrected). He was on a “gentlemen’s vacation” away from his girlfriend back home. We hung out most of the day and I leaned a lot about Oman and the Mid-east culture. It made me have some more appreciation and understanding for the Arab culture but also made me realized even more how vastly different their world is than ours. Despite the vast chasm between cultures, when you sit and talk to someone about their everyday life: successes, trials, and hopes, you realize that the human condition is not that different no matter what your background. All most people really want is family, safety, friends, love, and the chance to be happy by whatever standards they use to judge.
Right before we got back into the dock, one of the crew got on the microphone to thank us for coming. The crew had been polite and mild-mannered all day long. All of a sudden, MC Hammer starts playing and we are treated to a 20 minute strange break-dancing show. It was so out of place and unexpected. I laughed the entire time.
Overall, I enjoyed the diving and area around Phuket. I would go back for that reason but the Island itself wasn’t my favorite.
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