The Global Guy

I spent yesterday going to the Ang Thong national marine park. This area is a bunch of islands that are mostly uninhabited, and fairly small. The standard tour starts out somewhere on Ko Samui, and then you take a relaxing boat ride out a couple of hours to the archipelago of about 40 islands. Once you get there there is lots to do. We spent several hours kayaking thru the various grottoes and overhangs, finding several really decent snorkeling spots. One of the highlights of the trip is an island called Koh Mae Ko that features a closed lagoon connected to the sea by an underwater cave. Getting to it requires a bit of a hike thru some narrow and sharp rock passages, and a bunch of rickety bamboo ladders that have been worn down to almost nothing by the thousands of tourists that came before me.

After three long days of traveling I’ve arrive in Thailand finally. I’ve based myself on the island of Ko Phi Phi. I’m staying on long beach, which is around the back side of the island from the main harbor and ferry stop. Getting between the main town and our beach requires a taxi ride in a long-tail boat, so named because of the huge propeller shaft connecting the motor to the water.

The island is simply amazing…pure white sand, emerald green water, cheap beer, cheap accommodations right on the beach, and fun people all around. I picked this beach on the recommendation of the British guy I met in Bukit Lawang…he works at a dive shop right up the beach, so I figured I go check it out. The diving has been fantastic. We’ve been to several local reefs that were nice, if a bit average…typical reef fish and corral. However yesterday they asked if several people wanted to get together to rent a speed boat to head out a lot farther go see Hin Daeng and Hin Muang.

These are two distant reefs that were some of the best diving I’ve ever done. The names mean Purple Rock and Red Rock, and they were very descriptive. Hin Daeng was especially amazing…the very top of the rock sticks out of the water, and continues way past recreational scuba depths. The corrals were all an amazing purple color…I saw so many new (to me) types of fish and animals…it completely took my breath away…and that’s a bad thing underwater!Hin Muang was nearly as amazing…red corrals dominated the underwater landscape, but the highlight of the trip was the manta ray that showed up during our surface interval. I’d never seen a manta in the wild before, and it was simply majestic. It was the closest thing to an underwater bird I’ve ever seen…it didn’t seem to swim, but instead flew thru the water. We all jumped in with snorkel gear and spent a good 10 minutes swimming with it before it got bored and headed off for deeper water.

Pulau Weh is a small island at the very northern tip of Sumatra. I’d heard that it offered some of the best diving in the area, and that hardly anyone went there…that was enough for me, so I decided to head up there to check it out. From the town of Medan it was a 12 hour overnight bus ride interrupted several times by military checkpoints. The bus passes thru the Aceh province which has been under active insurrection against the government for several years. I was the only non-local on the bus, and I think I had the easiest time. They didn’t even want to see my passport…just my white face was enough for them.

Once we got to the town of Banda Aceh, I found the fast ferry to the island. I knew to head for Gapang beach, and with a combination of gestures and badly drawn maps I was finally able to figure out which truck was going that way.

This was probably the most primitive place I’ve ever stayed…toilets were just pits, and there was one shower (basically a cold hose) for three complexes of bungalows. All the places were pretty much the same…thatched roof bungalows up on stilts, with simple Indonesian cuisine available thru the day. Usually if you ordered 24 hours in advance you could arrange a special meal with fresh fish and veggies.

I wandered down to the Lumba Lumba dive shop, and decided to sign up for the rescue diver course. The shop was staffed with a combination of western and local divers. My instructor was a British guy who’d been living here for several months. The course itself was excellent, as was the diving. The corral was just amazing..hardly any damage, and just tons of fish. There was one dive where we found a wall full of moray eels just waving their heads out of crevices in the rock. I also got to see my first lion fish and cuttlefish in the wild.

The social life down here is very laid back. This is in a Muslim province, so alcohol isn’t a huge focus. It’s available, but since most people are diving the next day it’s consumed only very lightly. People usually hang out in one of the restaurants and chat…sometimes there will be a movie played from a pirated DVD. I saw the 2nd Lord of the Rings movie here for the first time, complete with badly spelled English subtitles. I’m not sure why they felt the need to include English subtitles, especially since the movie had its original soundtrack!