Surin Islands, Day 1, Wednesday, November 18, 2009

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I woke about 4, then twice more before 6, when I got up, packed as quietly as possible, since no one else was moving, and left about 6:30. I turned in my key and got my deposit, then waited. A few minutes after 7 the minivan showed up 5 other young people. We stopped at the Ramada Resort for another couple, then rode comfortably in the van driven like mad, as many drivers in Thailand do.

We arrived at the Greenview Tours building and dock before 8, signed in and picked up masks, snorkels, fins and a towel. I left the mask, since I use my 20 year old prescription mask. I tried on 3 fins before finding one that fit well. The staff was all very helpful and polite. There were probably 25 tourists, many from Germany, or thereabouts, judging from the voices. We boarded the speed boat, a small, probably 20 foot long, fairly new plastic, I think, hulled cruiser, with 3 outboards. On the boat we were given life jackets, and a short talk about the boat and safety, and took off at 8. The boat ran fast over the fairly calm sea, with very little bouncing. The engines and wind noise made conversation impossible, but I guessed which one was Sofie, the only one in our minivan without a partner, and said hello. In an hour and 10 minutes we were at the beach.

Mikey found us and introduced himself, then left allowing a Greenview staff member to show us to our tents, about 200 feet away, near the beach on the other side of the only nearly flat piece of ground in the islands. We left our packs in the tents. I was the only one with a lot of stuff, because I had asked Paul to allow me to get on a northbound bus to Bangkok, in Khuru Buri, rather than return south to Khao Lak first. The bungalows would have been safer for my stuff, but I didn't want to pay the extra 2000B per night that some couples did. I think they were all booked up anyway. Demon Diving subcontracts for the minivan, boat rides, food and tents, providing only the snorkeling guide.

Greenview showed us one tent and said 'for you', meaning both of us, thinking we were a couple or family. Sophie immediately said 'No, we each paid enough to have our own tent.' And there were 3 tents in a row, so Mikey had one, Sophie had one and I had the middle one.The tents were self-supporting, large, probably 10 feet by 10 feet, with netting and floors. We were on the sand, so couldn't keep the sand out completely. We were also provided with a thin pad, a thin sleeping bag and a small pillow. The pad was too thin for comfort, but I was tired enough both nights that I slept soundly.

About 10 almost everyone who came over on the boat got back on with snorkel equipment and we went to 2 different snorkel sites.The water was warm and the nearly calm, with visibility of 20 to 30 feet. Much clearer than Pattaya or Ko Tao.

Sophie wore long pants and a long-sleeved shirt in the water, which I found out later was because she had a bad sunburn, with blisters and swelling, on her legs and feet, and probably on her arms. She had gone kayaking in Ko Phi Phi, alone, on Sunday and the sun screen washed off and there was wind on the way back.

I took only my UW Olympus camera in the morning. I got no good photos, but tried a lot. My sinuses were congested, so I couldn't get more than about 5 feet deep. The guides were the Greenview staff. Mikey was on the long-tailed boat with a couple who were going back later that day.

We came back to the beach for lunch, all Thai food, and all very good. We sat at picnic tables in a roofed area and had plates and bowls of rice, soup, seafood and beef or chicken with vegetables. All our meals were similar, with enough variety to keep it interesting. Most of the meals also had a baked fish.

After lunch we went back out on the same boat and with the same people to 2 different sites. The sites differed mostly in the coral types and depths. Most of the fish were the same in all locations, with no sharks or other large animals, in sight, although they were in the area. We did see thrashing water nearby from the boat, possibly from turtles.

I tried out the camcorder again with the weight zip tied to the bottom of the case. The weight helped, but the case was still too buoyant for me to go underwater with it. Unfortunately, the sun is too bright to allow anything to be seen on the screen, except the white Handycam name on startup. I usually listened for the tone when I pushed stop, to know that the recording had stopped.

We were called back to the boat at 3:30 because rain was starting and the wind picked up a little. There had been almost no wind til then. The rain was light and it stopped shortly after we returned to the beach.

I asked Mikey about another weight and checked around the area, which took only a few minutes because there is only one large building for almost everything. The dive guy has a belt but needs the weights on it. I called Paul to tell him and he said he would send down another weight.

After dinner, we 3 talked for a while. Mikey Gaus grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, from the age of 5. His father moved around til then, because he was in the Air Force. Mikey doesn't want to live in Kansas, and has lived in Australia, where he learned to dive, and spent 6 weeks, I think he said, last summer on a car-with-small-engines rally from London or western Europe somewhere, to Ulan Batar, Mongolia, driving with a teammate in an 1100CC Citroen which broke down often. He flew into Thailand a month ago and got this job as a dive instructor and snorkel guide.

Sofie Goossens is a journalist with a women's magazine in Belgium and is debating whether or not to accept a promotion to manager. She is suffering, on this snorkeling tour, which was to be the highlight of her vacation, because of the blistering sunburn, which she expected would heal overnight, but is so far getting worse. She had rejected a shot of Cortisone, on Tuesday, because she thought it would make her more sensitive to the sun. The swelling in her ankles and feet got worse after that. She wore the long pants and shirt to keep the sun off her skin, but she is in pain and feels she needs to go back to the mainland for treatment, to make certain that the blisters don't open and become infected.

So my outlay for today is nothing extra.