Thailand: Day 6

Our first full day in Phuket was another day of scuba diving! Well, Christina was a good friend and went snorkeling even though she doesn't like being in the water and I went diving. The coral and fish were much better in this part of Thailand. We got picked up in the morning by our dive company and headed to the pier. We loaded up in a nice boat with multiple other dive companies. The best part? It was just Newton, my dive master, and me diving together. Small groups are definitely better because they can point things out to you and you don't have other divers scaring the fish away.

We had a long boat ride out to Racha Yai (behind me in the far distance) so we took advantage of the sun and saw a few jelly fish too. Our first dive was in a cove off the island. Christina enjoyed a beer when she was done snorkeling and feeding the fish.

The most memorable part of the trip were the Trigger Fish. Thank goodness that Newton had warned me about these guys ahead of time!

 When one starting biting my fins the first time, I freaked out a little bit! I thought I had kicked Newton's tank or hit the coral, but it was an 18 inch fish chomping on my yellow fins! He attacked a few times, swam around us and the longer we held still, the further away he swam. During the second dive, when another one came around, I just watched him and laughed. At least he didn't go for my fingers. Those teeth were scary looking! Definitely a few memorable dives.

After we got back to Phuket, we headed back to the hotel and got cleaned up, put on some nice clothes and headed to dinner. We went to a restaurant one town over recommended by LP. Christina and I had a nice romantic dinner, just the two of us. :)

Over dinner, we decided that we wanted to go to Phi Phi island the next day since our trip to the Vegetarian Festival didn't work out. At 10:00 pm, we headed in to Patong City to find a tour company. Luckily, things around there were open late, so we found a place still open and booked a trip that left at 8 am the next morning. Perfect!

We even had time for a beer and to check out the Lady Boys. I love Thailand!

Lombok: Day 8

Our second day in Lombok was also one of my favorite days cause we decided to go scuba diving. Krystal is also certified so it worked out perfectly to be traveling companions. We did two dives this day. The first one was called the Meno Slope. We were diving off of the Gili Islands specifically Gili Meno.

Our first dive was a drift dive meaning that the boat would drop us off at one spot, we would follow the current and they would pick us up at a different location. I've done drift dives in Guam, but nothing like this. The current was strong and fast! I joked that I felt like the turtles in Finding Nemo. Once you were in the current, there was no going back. This was scuba diving in fast forward. If you missed something, you weren't going to see it again cause the current just pushed you along. Because of this though and the lack of effort you have to exert while swimming, our dive was just over 50 minutes which is pretty long for a beginner diver like myself at about 20 meters.

The turtle we saw was over a meter across!

After our first dive, we stopped for lunch on Gili Meno and rested for a bit before our second dive. Usually you have to wait a couple hours between dives to let the nitrogen out of your blood naturally.

Our second dive was a slower current and there were more rock formations with smaller fish. We did see a HUGE moray eel though!

An amazing day! I absolutely love diving and wish I could do it more often! I'm excited for future trips when Glenn and I can go together!

Izu Fun Dive

I am behind on some big events of the last few weeks, but I will try to catch up! I was out of town all weekend visiting a friend from college and I have a big trip that I leave on in a week and a half. So much to do! First, a couple weekend ago, I went scuba diving in Japan! The water wasn't as clear as Guam, it actually reminded me of when I got certified in the lake in Minnesota, but with much different sea life. Yesterday was Marine/Sea Day in Japan (a national holiday) so this is a good post to follow that!

My friend Nicole and I signed up for a tour through Camp Zama's tour office. It was advertised as a refresher/fun dive for new divers. That's us! We started the morning early with a 3 hour drive south to the Izu peninsula. The best part of the drive was towards the end when we had amazing views of Fuji across the bay. An amazing backdrop for our dive.

Our tour guide, Yoshi, had an underwater case for his camera and was able to take some pictures for us during the dive! Since our group was so small, only 4 people, it was easy to stick together and get some fun shots! The area that we went diving at, Osezaki, is a very popular place for divers. Underwater, they had rope courses that you could follow and different "sights" along the way.

Here I am with a Winnie the Pooh (Pooh-san) statue! This was close to the underwater shrine as well!

The cluster on the right side in the plant are squid eggs.

We did two approximately 30-40 minute dives with a lunch break in between. Our max depth of the dive was about 55 feet. I really enjoy diving and am becoming more comfortable with my skills and my buoyancy. I can't wait to go diving again somewhere!

Guam was Great!

Here's a picture from my diving trip in Guam. We did two dives on Saturday afternoon. Glenn isn't certified yet so I went with a couple other people from the squadron. Here I am with Tom and Chris in front of the American Tanker. The deck of the tanker was about 70 feet and the bottom rested at about 120 feet. This picture is near the cabins on top of the deck. You could swim through a few of the rooms behind us and well as below the deck. Very cool!

Someone even added an American flag to the ship! We also dove the Blue Hole which is a famous area of Guam, but no pictures there unfortunately. I wish we had time for more diving. The Blue Hole was my deepest dive to date at 82 feet. The visibility was 100+ feet though. Amazing! I'm definitely hooked!

SCUBA!

While I was home this week, I visited my friends and family, attended Laura's wedding and also finished my scuba certification. Back in November before I left for Japan, I had finished my classroom work and my pool work, but I still have 4 open-water dives left.

I set up a private class because I had limited time while I was home and we went out to Stillwater, MN and dove in Square Lake. I'm now an official PADI Open-water diver! I can't wait to get my card in the mail! It's been awhile since I have dove and I forgot how much I love it! I can't wait for Glenn to get certified so that we can go diving together.
I had to complete a series of skills I learned in the pool and show that I was competent to dive on my own, but I don't think I'll be doing that for awhile. I think I'll go on some dive tours and things until I get comfortable. I'm excited to go diving in Japan!