For A Purpose

Phuket Trip (Chapter II)

Chapter II. Yeah, you bet, here’s another load of pictures in your face! Hahaha. Pictures are a necessity in such a post. :P But wait, don’t scroll down the pictures first.

The previous post was about my first two days in Phuket and my first dive trip to Racha Noi Island. And since I still have 300 over pictures balance, I decided I’ll post all the good pictures in three chapters. So there’s one more to go... :)

In continuation, today’s post features the snapshots of our third day (Saturday, June 21st) in Phuket, which was mostly spent on the West Coast Divers boat. We cruised for about 3 and a half hours to our day’s dive spot: two of the Phi Phi Islands – Koh Bida Nok and Koh Bida Nai – which were planted opposite each other in the middle of the deep blue sea.

Once again, I suppose it’ll be easier for me to narrate our adventure through the pictures. So don’t just zoom past them; read the captions, too! ;)

On the morning of the 21st of June. Back to Chalong Bay, again.

My dad and I at the pier.

Nataly and I at the pier. On the right is the big jolly truck that picks us all up and sends us to the boat at the end of the pier. I remember someone was saying who'd want such a boring job. All the truck driver does everyday is drive back and forth from one end to the other end of the pier. Easy job, but so utterly dull!

The West Coast Diver boat. This one ain't as grand as the Phuket FantaSea the day before, though.

Holgen, briefing us for the day's trip. Hwai Tah was guessing that he's Irish, but it turned out that he's from Germany. Haha.

Here's what the top deck looks like. Can you believe that we sat there for three and a half hours???! And there's one thing very peculiar about this boat, everyone in it was so utterly dull. Nearly all the other divers there were like "anti-social" (I wonder if they thought the same about us...) and half of them were sunbathing or asleep throughout the 3 hour journey. But hey, our group was considered the noisiest bunch, you know. More of that in a while. :P

Hwai Tah with his DSLR.

It was blazing hot at the beginning of the journey. Especially where I sat. But hot and sunny is better than cold and rain, I suppose...

A mini island with Chalong Bay in the background.

The breakfast was simpler. We had ham, tuna, and cheese sandwiches. With bananas again, of course.

Beautiful perspective. Its like 3 islands sticking out in a row.

Posing at the deck with the mini island in the background.

Okay, it was literally blazing HOT. And there were actually people sunbathing at the deck. I don't know how those people actually sunbathe in that kind of heat. Burning their skin off, literally.

Oh I love this picture! There's a story behind it.

"Hey Nataly, look at those hills, how come it looks as if there are shadows on them? Is it the color of the trees or something?" I asked.

"My dear, its the clouds above it la!" Nataly replies laughing.

Man, I REALLY had no idea that the dark green patches on the island were actually caused by the fluffy clouds hovering above it! Honestly, I have always noticed this, but I never noticed the clouds above it and neither have I bothered to ask someone what they thought of it. Hahaha. *Slaps forehead*

A long-tailed boat.

Coke ad. :P

The sea at a diagonal angle!
Aha! Here's the part where we decided to break the dullness and rock the boat.

We decided to play the all-famous mafia game! Haha. It reaaally helped ease our boredom. Sitting on a boat like this for three hours just waiting to arrive our dive spot is totally out of the question. We had to find a way to make it fun and while our time away.

Jacky was voting someone out in this picture.

Being suspicious. Oh oh, spot the flab in this picture. Hahaha, the first thing my sister said when she saw this picture was, "Gosh, look at the guy's fat stomach!"

The mafia champs! Haha, funnily, only my dad and I managed to trick everyone and pretend to be the "innocents" until everyone else voted everyone else out and finally found out that we were the mafias!

As we were playing and making the most noise in the otherwise silent boat, I noticed a storm approaching. The heavy rain clouds came out of nowhere and it was catching up on us. Fast.

Ooh, this is a really nice island. Looks pretty ominous, especially when the sky darkened and threathened to rain. I forgot the name of this island. It's one of the Phi Phi Islands. But we weren't heading to such a big one.

Holgen and another guy briefing us on our first dive stop, Koh Bida Nok.

Guess what, right after the briefing, the wind blew so strong and the heavy clouds started to spray rain on us. It became rather chilly and the sea suddenly looked so dark.

But thankfully, all of us were pretty cool and calm divers. Hahaha. No one voiced out any worries of having to dive amidst heavy rain and strong wind and swelling waves. We continued to wear on our dive gear and pray real hard that the rain will stop once we jump in.

I was the only one who decided to continue wearing my normal swimsuit. Everyone else prefered wearing the dive shorties in case it was cold in the water or something. Even my dad! Hahaha.

Off for another underwater adventure!

Oh wow, looks like the rain DID stop once we all jumped in! God is so good! I bet all of us were silently thanking God for halting the rain once we went in. Haha, it was so sudden. The rain clouds just blew over. A passing storm.

And... thankfully, the water wasn't cold! So it wasn't a bad decision that I continued wearing my swimsuit. Ahaha. :D

The island opposite our first dive spot. Koh Bida Nai.

The looming island.

By the time we came up about 40 minutes later, the Sun was back in action again! Oh, how I love the warmth the sun gives! Our first dive was good. The visibility was about 20 metres! Even after the storm everything resumed its calmness underwater! Amazing. I found that I actually enjoyed the second day's dive better. There were more stuff to sea. Schools of fish and loads of corals - fan corals, staghorn corals, anemones (I really enjoyed touching it!), etc.

One of the crew guys picking his nose while my dad was having a hard time climbing up. Ahahaha, kidding. I don't think that's the real story. Nataly was snapping this shot at the top deck I think.

Oh, credits to Nataly for noticing and snapping this poor guy on the edge of the jutting rocks! He actually got washed or dragged up the rocks by the waves! Probably dived too near the rocks. How very dangerous. The crew had a hard time saving him from the rocks. Oh it must have been scary...

Having our lunch. I should like to add that I always have very little appetite for lunch after a dive. (The food's good, though.) I puked after each dive on this 2nd day trip. The boat was much rockier and the waves were less calmer, so yeah, I puked quite a bit.

The sea resumed its dazzling blueness after the storm passed!

While having lunch, Holgen briefed us on our second dive spot - Koh Bida Nai. The other tiny island opposite Koh Bida Nok. (Unfortunately, I don't think Nataly took any pictures of us on our second dive.)

Oh how I wish we had an underwater camera!!!!

Oh this is simply beautiful.

Us taking a group shot at the open deck with one of the islands in view. I wish I asked my dad more about the islands. He would have told me which was which! I keep forgetting. Ahahaha. They look pretty much the same to me. x)

The guys.

Holgen and I. My goodness, my hair looks a mess! That's one thing I didn't like on every boat trip. The wind will blow your hair like crazy. You'd end up with an dishevelled afro at the end of the trip.

My dad having a cuppa' coffee on the way back.

This picture makes we wanna' say: To infinity and beyond! (Sounds familiar. Can someone gimme' a clue of where this phrase was said??)

My goodness, my hair's flying all over like crazy! It felt very sticky afterwards. All the sea salt and wind.

Being happy with the sunset glowing in our direction.

Sherrene attempting to fly on a boat??? Hmm, seems a bit absurd. :P (Really, she was the one suggesting to do the flying poses on the deck. Maybe the wind adds to the whole "soaring" effect.)

Hwai Tah and Holgen.

We enjoyed sitting at the edge at the railings and sticking our legs out.

Haha don't worry, you're not imagining things. There really is a Buddha statue sitting on top of the hill. They are still halfway through building it.

The sun setting below the hills! Beautiful to see it from the boat. This was my only opportunity to take a sunset shot during this trip. We didn't manage to go to the beach on all five days to take a sunset shot, can you believe it??

We were all watching the sun go down.

Hwai Tah and Sherrene. Dang it, too bad the twinkling sun sank behind the hills already. Otherwise this would have been a perfect shot!

Seven of us posing as a group at the jeti.

The last perfect shot! :D

Thank God so much that at least I had the chance to snap this. =D

And oh yes, not to forget, my dad’s birthday falls on the 25th of June! Yes, exactly, that’s like three days ago. x) We celebrated in Phuket with the others. More of that tomorrow. Anyway, Happy Blessed Birthday, dad!

Chapter III the next post. ;)