Ko Phangan diving & whale sharks :)

The arrival in Thailand was nice: warm & humid weather, easy to do anything and to communicate with people.The heaven of backpackers & tourists for years does indeed facilitate everything you are trying to do, and is –still- damn cheap, even compared to Africa.
The “world-tour feeling" also started to grow bigger, as Thailand is the 7th country in a row, and I am entering a 3rd cultural area (putting all Southern Africa in the same pot, not sure it's right).

View from the plane of Haad Rin, 

South East peninsula of Ko Phangan, 

where the Full Moon parties are hold

From Bangkok, I flew directly to Ko Phangan, small island South of the Gulf of Thailand, famous for the Full Moon parties organized there since the end 80s. The place is also in the middle of great diving sites, so I organize 2 days of diving to become a certified divers.

Sail Rock diving site

The island has a very laid-back and relax atmosphere, while at the same time all the infrastructure to party, it sounds great ☺. 1st night starts well, meeting with my dive instructor and his friends to drink few beers on the beach.



The 1st diving day is great. So good to be back under water, and see all those fishes and corals. We dive on “Sail Rock”, one of the best diving site of the Gulf, and I can only comment it is very good.

1st dive jump

Note: the weather and water are so warm, it is crazy. 30°C at night feeling like 35, and 37-40°C during the day feeling with 45… you sweat a lot the 1st days!!
The sea is actually barely refreshing, and we can dive without wetsuit… the average water temperature between 20 and 0m is 30°C!!! Probably 32-33 at the surface, 27-28 at the bottom. I think the sea on the beach shores was around 35+ degrees, you need to go to the pool behind the beaches to refresh a bit during the day. And clearly, I never used hot water for any shower!
The 3rd dive of Day 1, i got to do the "Fish identification" course for the Advanced diving certification, and had to draw fishes that I was seeing under water... Quite fun to do, though clearly I can improve ;)
















Of course, from the boat cruise there is quite some good views on the island... cannot avoid to put few pics of those nice Thailand island forest ending onto white-sand beach shores then to a turquoise sea...

Yeah.... that's for my mom' ;))

2nd of diving day is… completely awesome. The Sail Rock diving site is known to have whale sharks from time to time… but it is quite rare. That day, we have been blessed. From the start, not even ready with the diving gear, we got a “small” 2.5m baby shark coming around the boat, and I quickly snorkeled around him. I actually jumped from the boat in front of him and got face to face at few meters… impressive!

A whale shark passing by the boat

Then during the 2 dives we did, we saw another 2-3 sharks… didn’t realize their size while in the water, but actually they were huge when looking at the videos afterwards. 4m for one, and probably 7-8m for another…

Check the size of the shark vs. the boat
and people on it...

Outstanding feelings when swimming with them in the water. They are gracefully moving their tail and body on a steady pace, while few fishes stick below them… Fantastic show to enjoy for 1-2mn. I guess the best is to share the compiled movie I edited! ☺

After all those great time and feelings, time for some beers on the beach with Luke (my instructor), as well as some Q&A to get the Advanced certification... easy :-)

Sunset from the Diving center beach

Oh! On the island I also meet up with Emma, friend from Geneva and previous neighbor... that is cool! We are checking the nightlife on the famous Haad Rin beach, but stay reasonable given I have to dive, we'll keep more for the 2nd part of the week!