Yippee! Two out of three dive goals achieved!!! ♥♥♥
(But first, let's talk about yesterday)
10/01/2018: Yesterday, for the first time since I arrived on this island, there were gray clouds and a little rain during the day. Until now, it had only rained at night (but then it poured like crazy), and it often woke me up. I used the day to stroll through Koh Tao's markets. There are many stalls along the streets offering a variety of food. Some offer typical Thai rice dishes, while others try to lure tourists with crepes. A Nutella crepe here costs about 50 THB (Thai Baht), which is approximately €1.30. It's a bit cheaper than at a fair in Germany, but Thailand is not as cheap as everyone claims, at least not in tourist areas. Funny thing is, a regular supermarket shopping (water, sandwich, fruit, cookies, etc.) quickly adds up to 200 THB. It feels strange to have and spend so much money, even though it's not worth much (200 THB is about €5). I'm keeping track of what I spend each day. In the evening, despite the gray clouds, I couldn't resist having dinner on the beach before going to bed early because I wanted to go diving the next day at 7 am.
11/01/2018: Well, what can I say. How is it possible to be so lucky? I should mention that I already signed up for the afternoon dive at the dive shop yesterday. Just as I was leaving, I happened to run into Maxim (a French divemaster with whom I've done all my fun dives so far). He told me that he was going diving in the morning and that I could join him. So, I went back to the dive shop and switched my dive to the morning one. WHAT A LUCK! 😅
When my alarm went off at half past 6 this morning, I thought it was annoying that I changed my plans. Who likes to get up so early on vacation?! Not me. 😅 With sleepy eyes (even though I went to bed early, I couldn't sleep well because it rained so heavily all night), I went to the meeting point and met the others. When we boarded the boat, it was so stormy that I secretly regretted letting Maxim persuade me. The boat was rocking heavily, and huge waves kept splashing onto the boat. Try jumping into the sea from a rocking boat with heavy diving gear on your back! Man, I was really unmotivated. But we eventually went underwater together...
...and suddenly everything was calm. No matter how stormy and rainy it is on the surface of the water, you don't notice it at all on the ocean floor. We were at the dive site 'Chumphon Pinnacles', maybe you remember, I've been there before and I really liked it. Huge shoals of fish circling around you, shimmering in various colors. Everything was calm, and as always, everyone was quietly observing the fish along the seabed until Maxim suddenly started waving his arms wildly. And there we saw it: A whale shark. The whale shark is the largest shark (not a whale!!!) and also the largest fish currently present. It can be up to 13 meters long! Our whale shark was a 'baby' with a size of about 5-6 meters.
What fascinating and beautiful creatures. The way it floated through the water with such serenity and grace is truly indescribable. Whale sharks are generally not dangerous to humans, as they mainly feed on plankton and other small organisms that they filter from the water. They also eat fish up to the size of mackerel and small tuna. But not humans. 😅 Underwater, we couldn't really cheer, but you could see everyone's huge eyes through their diving masks, and above water, the celebration was made up for. 😊
This was our dive group for today:
From left to right: Anna (German), Charlotte (Danish), Maxim (French), Dominik (German), Karo. (By the way, the 'W' on the head is the underwater symbol for 'Whale shark'.)
I was sooo happy that I went along! Before going underwater for the second time today, I said to Maxim, 'Hey, today we're lucky, we're definitely going to see a small boxfish!' - and that's exactly what happened. It didn't even take 10 minutes underwater for Maxim to discover it hidden amongst the rocks. 😊 You should google 'yellow boxfish' (unfortunately, there's no photo because it was hiding), so you can see how incredibly cute they are! They're my absolute favorite fish, and I finally saw one on Koh Tao. And on the same day, I saw the whale shark. Unbelievable, I was sooo happy and still am! 😊 I think I've mentioned before that the whale shark is THE highlight here. There are so many people who have been living and diving on the island for several months and still haven't had the luck to see one. That makes you appreciate it even more! ♥
Yes, that was my day today. Now I just need to see a big turtle, and I will have achieved all three diving goals for this trip: boxfish, turtle, whale shark. 😅 They say you can see turtles while snorkeling at Shark Bay on the other side of the island, so I'll definitely go there!
By the way, I edited a little video because I think moving images can convey even more impressions than photos. I have a Dropbox link here (unfortunately, you can't post videos on this website, very annoying) where you can find my video. 😊
