Xmas 2024

Picked up at 8.30 by Tony short drive to the port where they were unloading the latest catch - truck beds full of ice!
Onto our long tail boat. I'm a bit obsessed by the engines in these. They take old diesel truck engines and repurpose them with whatever they have so they're all very different in configuration - the long tail being the extension pole between engine & prop. Means they can manoeuvre in shallower waters and turn in a very tight circle!
We stopped off a beach with a monkey group (pos macaques) to throw some bits of banana to them while they climbed into the mangroves to try to catch them. Some getting a bit of a dunking in the process!
Then onto our first dive spot - although the coral is very damaged there are signs of some regrowth & fabulous array of fish. We were given bits of banana to hold and a school of yellow & black fish came & ate it from my hand - there were a few who confused my fingers for banana and then my arm and ankle - no harm done!
Then I found a large squid (pronounced se - quid by the Thai which has caused a lot of confusion in restaurants) only to notice a much smaller female beside him. Both really well camouflaged apart from the iridescent blue line around their "skirts?" Then they went head to head and he embraced her there for quite a few minutes before letting go and he just hung around while she appeared obsessed with a crevasse between some rocks. I think I was watching se-quid porn! A new one for me.
Another sure another selection of fish. 3td site was off a beach covered in rings of debris brought in by the tide - plastic everywhere. Rubbish on the sea floor and very few fish. The monkeys kept trying to eat plastic & drink from empty plastic bottles! So sad.
Off to another location with a beautiful sandy beach a short walk in from the mangroves where we moored up. Lunch and a dip in the glorious sea. And then back via a market to buy some fresh ginger for hot tea. But what phenomenal lemongrass bunches!Read more