Patong Beach to Koh Pha-Ngan

Early start and an hour on the bus going around Patong Beach picking people up, no shows etc etc. 5 hours across country to Sutrat Thani which seems to be the bus operator's marshalling point, miles of palm trees of various descriptions and not much else. Usual amount of over excitable locals, lots of organised chaos and plenty of shouting. Lots of bright shiny first-time-use backpacks in the pile waiting to go to Koh Samui, Pha-Ngan and Tao. Beautiful boat crossing, lots of tiny islands popping out of the ocean all around the horizon

And a beautiful sun set,

Farewell Bali hello Thailand

Time to move on, flying with AirAsia asia's answer to Easyjet. Much the same idea but AirAsia a bit sharper and fresher copying the same model but less aggressive on pricing, especially luggage, presently lugging around about 50 kg, with dive equipment, manuals, books so on and so forth. Everything according to plan, pick-up worked successfully so overnight in Patong Beach, Phuket. Thailand very different from Indonesia, thais are much more successful at developing themselves, downtown Patong Beach not for the fainthearted at night !

Final Bali Dives !

Fantastic 2 dive day, first to Manta Point. Dropped in and immediately 3 large Manta circling around. Continually in the company of one or two until the Baliscuba and Blue Season crowd cleared off then at least ten or fifteen showed up when it was quieter, at one point surrounded by at least six of them. Just sat there watching the show until the tank was out (10 bar) and up, got quite cold in the end 25 deg C down there.

Second dive at the famous Crystal Bay (Crystal exclusion zone around this site, due to fatal accidents last year), therefore first time to dive this site. Sandy bay, fantastic coral garden and massive drop-off into the channel, hence violent currents with the tides. Our guys had done their homework and we caught the slack high tide just right, and were rewarded by the elusive Mola Mola !

Lembongan

Public boat to Lembongan ?! Windy and a swell coming in onto the reef whilst we are waiting, can be interesting out there as we know, let's see what happens ! After more than 3 months out here my body is fully acclimatising which is a bit odd, it's 28 degC a little breezy and feels cold when the sun is not out.

So crossing was fine except the water kept crashing over the roof, all of us soaked, retired inside half way across. Lembongan is a beautiful unspoilt place, your true tropical island. Drying seaweed on the beach, this stuff stinks !

Wandered around on a scooter this afternoon, viewpoint, Mangrove swamps, Made's Paradise Point in the Mangroves for a beer, cockfighting in the street, Yoga session and finally met up with l'équipe française.

All systems go.

Paperwork all seems satisfactory at the Consulate, a somewhat primitive affair the housekeeper seems to run the Warung out at the front on the parking lot, but no complaints, all very helpful once we had managed to gain access, visa promised for Monday afternoon, flight booked for Wednesday for next installment of this story.

Off to see Stéphanie in Lembongan for the weekend, dive and goodbye etc etc.

The Crystal crowd saw this Whale Shark at SD off Nusa Penida (mum don't worry they are filter feeders so plankton etc only !) today so who knows we could get lucky off Lembongan as he is around !!!

Diary Note

Paperwork arrived from Mike, looks like a runner.

Support the Sharks by signing the petition

Roger

Note to self, very interesting conversation with Kesari Roger. Running around researching various subjects this afternoon.

OWD 3 & OWD 4

Same sort of format for Tulamben, this time with Jakob replacing Jesper along with the 2 Japanese, well the bus was going anyway so may as well make the most of the diesel. Got the cert at the end of the day so again all happy. Clearly some gaming going on with the certs since they have realised that I am getting ahead of Robin, it seems the freebies are being pulled back.

OWD 1 & OWD 2

A bit mob handed with Asmui for student Brad, a bit over-whelmed by 5 of us since Jesper was along for the ride along with the japanese Mami and Matsuki, not sure they were observing or taking a free dive or what, but it's all the same for a bottle of air.

Project Aware day

Collaboration for ProjectAware.org beach clean up with 4 local schools getting involved, amounting to over 250 people turning out to tidy up the Mersarati (?) which was in a filthy state thanks to the locals. A bit of a drop in the ocean (no pun intended) but very constructive from an educational and awareness point of view.

Evening fundraising party with an excellent turnout from the Bali dive community and the usual fun and games this time being supplemented with a gaol and real police officers ! Only got arrested once fortunately, and bailed out by Rob for a bottle of beer, so got off lightly !

OWD #3 and #4

Finishing off the referral with Reshad and Simonil, not good conditions on the regular spot in Sanur vis a vis current and visibilty, but 200m over by the platform it was ok for visibility so job done successfully, they were happy and I got the certs, so everybody happy !

Serangan and Benoa

Spin out on the scooter to aforementionned peninsulas for a wander around, meet Andrew etc, lads at the Warung sporting 2 thumping great GTs on the back of their scooter for dinner.

Sanur OWD 1 & 2 with Simonil and Rashid

Father and daughter combination from Mumbai, first dive was diabolical, lousy visibility and strong currents (full moon tomorrow) not a great introduction. Descended down onto the Jack lines and clung on for 20 minutes to qualify as a dive whilst Toto performed his tricks, then back up again. Esti and I both thought that was it, but Toto persevered and patience was rewarded after an extended surface interval the conditions completely changed and the second dive was fine, which meant the OWD 2 skills were done satisfactorily.

Evening saw the Kimonos come out for the Japanese IDC candidates who passed out on IE today, evening was a little more sedate than the last IE ;-)

Project Aware Speciality

Joined the Divemasters for Holly's Coral Speciality, could be certs in it if any of them want the card. Interesting stuff but not too much about identification etc.