....but winter definitely is not! It's so cold! Especially when compared to Thailand and Laos, where the whether was warm warm warm! And then muggy. And then hot. And usually sunny. And a little cool at night. But mostly warm. I miss the warmth...
So here's a brief synopsis of the trip. Krista and I left on December 22nd, and spent that whole day traveling. We took a 6am taxi to the 7am bus to the 10am flight, which included 2 layovers and 3 meals, then in Bangkok we took a 7pm taxi to the 8pm overnight bus and arrived in Phuket, Thailand at 8 am on January 9 and our trip was over.
Well, that's what it feels like now, but really we were in Phuket (pronounced Pooh-ket, not Foo-ket and definitely not the other option you're thinking of) for about a week. We picked it so we could go diving! Krista's been a certified scuba diver for some time now, but I'd only done a tandem dive (someone adjusted all my equipment for me, I just floated underwater) a few months before in Tanegashima in Japan. So I went to get my Open Water certification and Krista went to get her Advanced Open Water. I spent the first half-day in the pool, going over the basics like how to clear water from a flooded mask and take it on and off underwater and how to use your partners alternate air source and how to make a slow emergency ascent, etc. Some of them are quite unnerving, like breathing without a mask on. The pool was part of a resort about 5 minutes from our diving center (a place called Rumblefish Adventures) and by 10am it was PACKED with scuba instructors and students. There was a larger Korean group of about 6 people, and I heard French and Russian as well as a couple other Americans practicing similar skills. I was lucky - I was Chris's only student. Then we ordered lunch and he made me tread water in the pool for 10 minutes while we waited for the food. One of the skills you need to become a certified diver. That and a swim test. I basically floated in the deep end trying to avoid the other divers, who were like sharks under the water.
Then we did some dives on the beach. Krista came out with us. We saw a cuddle fish and a lionfish and many other fish I couldn't name. I was surprised at how quickly time went underwater. 45 minutes felt like 10 by the time we surfaced. Waddling in and out of the water with equipment on was a little odd. We did two more dives from the same beach the next day, while getting trained in various skills. Krista learned some compass skills, we both had buoyancy tests. Mine was a 30 second hover and hers was for 1 minute. Then she got to try some other buoyancy games, and I tried as well, but it was quite hard. One was to float above the surface of the sand with only one finger from each hand touching. When you breathe in and out, you move up and down, and the idea is to make it look like one-finger push-ups. If you inhale for too long, your fingers lift up off the sand and it ruins the effect. It's much harder than it sounds.
The next day we had a boat trip, with an overnight stay to an outer island planned. It was our instructor's favorite place to dive. As luck would have it, a storm from the Philippines(?) brought some big waves and swells our way and the trip was cancelled. The boat was rocking a little too hard so we had to turn back after about 40 minutes. So that day we chilled in the sun on the beach, and I started reading the series Krista brought, Game of Thrones. I was enthralled by the end of the day, so I kept reading them throughout the trip and have them still. Krista finished all 3 books (a total of nearly 3,000 pages!!!) and I'm almost done with the second. There are 5 total in the series I hear.
So the next day we went on a boat trip, and prayed for good visibility, but to no avail. Our dive site was Rachayai and it was a decent dive spot, though you could tell the water was a bit murky and the storm brought in lots of little jellyfish. My mask sprung a leak, but I didn't find out til I was in the water preparing to descend. Chris traded masks with me and spent the dive constantly clearing the mask. The next day we took another boat trip out to Shark Point and Anemone Reef, and those sights were Gorgeous! But again the water was murky, so the effect wasn't nearly as wonderful as it normally is this time of year. My dive instructor says I very nearly ran my knee into a sea urchin. I also ended up using my air much more quickly on that dive and so had to share a tank with the instructor in order to prolong the dive for Krista's sake. It was uncomfortable, but I'm glad we did because we swam past beautifully colored reefs surrounded by a wall of fish, spotted a well-hidden sea-horse and were practically attacked by a cuddle fish. On the boat trips, it finally dawned on me how much more comfortable it is to be under the water diving than on the surface preparing to dive, or loading on and off the boat.
Being under water feels like flying. And it's tempting to want to just swim around doing flips, except that you learn in the dive course that exerting yourself underwater is a Really Bad Idea. With so many divers, I found myself worrying about stepping on someone, or swimming up into someone. Suddenly there's a whole 'nother dimension of travel to worry about - on land you never worry about someone bumping you from below... usually. It's also easy to get lost without reference points, or lose track of your depth without a dive computer. Everything is completely different. And full of wonder.
Next we went to Laos! We hopped an overnight bus to Bangkok for the flight. I wrote down an account of sorts of our time in Laos - on scratch paper since I didn't bring a journal. It was really interesting stuff. Hopefully within the next few days I'll get that typed up. Our time in Laos was VERY different from our time in Phuket. But I'll get to that soon. I think there's also a whole entry to be made comparing these countries to Japan and also to Guatemala. Many people commented on how odd it was to have a tropical Christmas, but in that way it was like being in Guatemala, which reminds me of family, and so it felt very much like Christmas, in a small way.
