Chapter 2......and Plan B

You are now in touch with Mike Laurent, AOW and bar. Passed my Advanced Open Water PADI course, so I hit the bar on the boat! Does that mean I am now Well Dodgy?

Had a great time since last post (only 2 weeks ago but seems longer):

• 3-day liveaboard diving trip to Phi Phi Islands and Hin Muang / Hin Daeng rocks - 9 dives in 3 days including my first night dives! Liveaboards are really good, you dive, eat, rest, dive, eat, rest and then beers after last dive of day whilst looking at all the photos and watching the sunsets
• 3-day expedition to 2 nature reserves in next province, Phang-Nga at Khao Lak (coastal) - endless beaches, staying in wooden huts behind the beach; and Khao Sok (one of oldest primary rainforests in the world). Still too wet to trek after end of recent rainy season (mud up to your thighs and leeches everywhere, nice), so had to go in by elephant (not what I wanted at all but no choice) and out by canoe. Needs more time to explore properly, so may be back!
• 7-day liveaboard diving trip to Similan Islands (Thailand), into Myanmar islands and back via Richelieu Rock (Surin Islands) whilst doing course. Stunning places. Deep dives to 35 metres, night dives into caves and tunnels up to 16m long with 1 square metre exit at 25 metres depth. Getting quite exciting at times.

Myanmar has hundreds of uninhabited islands off the coast, all rainforest to sandy beaches and 27C water! And nobody there, only Moken (sea gypsy) people. We were the only dive boat in the entire place, quite spooky really.

On a more sombre note, the Tsunami sort of haunts the coast. Chatted with a tuk-tuk driver who lost his sister and took 5 days to find his wife, who was one of only 2 survivors from a beachfront hotel kitchen staff of 35. He said as noone knew what this was everyone was watching / photographing the seawater disappear leaving fish all over the exposed sea bottom, as the wave sucked all the water into it. Sucked dry for 10-15 minutes, then they saw the wave and ran for it, he escaped 6000 around here didn't. The wave was about 7 metres high in Khao Lak, moving faster than a car and went over half a mile inland just flattened everything. Also destroyed many coral reefs, so the beaches are now being eroded as no more protection. Still photos stuck on trees as memorials, some with small offerings of flowers, incense sticks.

And so to Plan B. As from December 1st, crossing into Myanmar for diving now counts as a formal exit and re-entry trip (before they just paid a visa fee ($200 per person) and sailed on). So, as I have a 3x60-day visa for Thailand, my passport got stamped and I am now officially into my second 60-day package. I still had 15 days left on my first package which I was going to use up and cross into Laos for New Year, NO LONGER!

So Plan B is now to stay in northern Thailand until the end of January. In some ways it is good as I can really see a whole section of the country that I would have missed - all the mountains, rivers, treks and hill tribes along the Myanmar borders and into the Golden Triangle. Very remote and have to check each step with the Thai army to make sure that Thailand and Burma aren't having yet another border war. Also hope to now get to the ancient capital cities of Sukhotai and Ayuthaya. But the effect will probably be that I won't be able to see much of Vietnam on this trip, Laos will be Feb, Cambodia in March then back to Phuket for 08/04 flight to Malaysia.

That's it! Photo link is http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Thailand_2007_Chapter_2 I have put captions on photos to try to give some sort of reference points.

Cheers!

Mike