Koh Phi Phi III

I’m feeling great after 2 dives and a 5 dollar one hour Thai massage. I am officially certified to dive to 30 meters now. It’s no big deal really, you just have to make sure you conservatively follow the RDP (Recreational Dive Planner) and do a 5 meter safety stop. The RDP is a chart you use to plan your dive times to make the risk of running out of air or getting decompression sickness (the bends, basically) very low. The 5 meter safety stop is another tool to make the risk very low. You just keep yourself at 5 meters below the surface for 3 minutes before surfacing. No big deal, just remember to do it and make sure you have enough air in your tank to do it.

We looked for leopard sharks, which sit at the bottom and have no teeth, but the visibility was a little low so we didn’t see any. We did see lionfish (spiky and gnarly), trumpetfish (long and pipelike), yellowtail clownfish (black with 2 white vertical stripes and yellow fins), a moray eel (not electric) opening and closing its mouth as they do, and a nice cluster of 4 or 5 lobster hiding out under some coral. It’s cool going down to 30 meters because as you start to ascend the colors of everything becomes more pronounced and vivid. All of a sudden the fish are bright blue and yellow and the coral is green and purple and orange cream.

Another cool thing we saw is maybe a distant relative of starfish. If you cut them in half you get 2 instead of killing. The shape is kind of sun-like with 50 or more points, it’s black on the outside and bright purple in the middle, and hundreds of sharp spikes stick out on the top of it for protection. According to my instructor, Dennis from Switzerland, it eats and destroys the coral and the spikes that stick out of it are quite poisonous. Someone he knows pricked a finger accidentally once and he couldn’t bend it for 3 days. Since they destroy the coral, Dennis said divers often stab them with a stick, rip them off the coral, and stake them into the sand to die. Weeds of the sea I guess. Very pretty nonetheless. Pretty but dangerous, like the world.

I could try to describe the underwater world more but it’s probably better to find pictures of undersea near Phi Phi and look at them. The diving experience is what it’s all about though. Each dive gets better. The first dive I was concentrating so much on technique and gear that I didn’t get to enjoy the view too much. With each new dive, the technical aspects become more and more subconscious that I can concentrate on seeing and trying to remember what I see. And simply enjoying the quiet dream-like state. Your breathing becomes more natural, deep and slow breaths, your bouyancy becomes more neutral (you don’t sink or float up), and your movement becomes more efficient and natural. All those things allow you to stay underwater longer because you conserve air. I kept myself real calm on the 30 meter dive and we were able to stay down for 40 minutes. We only went down to 18 meters max the second dive and were able to stay for 50 minutes. Diving is such a rad activity because you leave at a reasonable time, 8:30-9 am, do a dive, eat lunch, doa dive, and get back around 2 pm. Then you have the rest of the day to muck around and get gnarly Thai massages and watch Fire Dances.

I watched a Fire Dance last night and got chills down my spine. The performers generally have a rope in each hand with a ball of fire on the end or a staff with fire on the ends and they twirl them around their body in time with rythmic music, mostly techno-type solid beats because it works well. One of my favorites was to “Breathe” by Prodigy. You have to have a little Prodigy. But my favorite was to a heavy rock song where the chorus hit really hard and made you feel like head-banging, so every time the chorus hit the kid amped it up, spinning the fireballs in a massive frenzy and turning himself into a torrential hurricane fireball.

I think I may stay here and turn into a diver.