February Diary 2008

Friday 29th February 2008-

Reckon it would be nice if we all put our hands together to congratulate Big Blue Diving's first Tech certified divers! So in a cacophany of ecoustics & fanfare congratulations Mac & Tully! These guys are now on the path to exceeding depths greater than 70 meters. That my friends is the equivalent depth or size of a 25 storey building! Its dark, dirty & very eerie! Canada lives there! And in the world of diving you've achieved a benchmark boys. Imagine diving 25 storeys only to find you can't see anything! Good work Canada & Congratulations Mac & Tully.

My computer doesn't go ping when I want it to. So when you ask me a question in our chat window I don't hear Ping when I'm supposed to. So apologies for those partial pauses people. Please be patient. My Ping will be programmed in presently.

Water clarity is very good at the moment. The troops returned from their morning dive full of the joys of spring having seen another species of shark today at Chumphon Pinnacle. Frequent shark visitors to Chumphon Pinnacle include the Whale Shark, the Grey Reef Shark, & Bull Sharks! & we do get them but not very often & that is the Black Tip Reef Shark. You are way more likely to see them snorkelling at the south of the island than diving out at Chumpers but there we go. Nice Find DM's- Don't forget to let the air out of her & put it back with the other inflatable fish when you've finished with her!

Thursday 28th February 2008-

So the big news in Thailand today is that Thaksin Shinawatra, the formerly ousted Prime Minister is back! He will now answer in court to the allegations of corruption. Now I have no idea if he's guilty or not & nor does any of this make any difference to anything you'd notice on your holiday to Thailand. But I do know that since he was given the old heave ho, he went & bought a Premier League Football Club, Manchester City, & introduced the world to the wonders of Chang beer. C'mon how corrupt could he be? He can't be that bad!

There's a new toy I want which I've now put on my Birthday wishlist. I'm actually feeling a little nostalgic actually as I put it on my Birthday wishlist in 1977 aswell! The underwater car in James Bond- the spy who loved me. Its what every man dreams to have & every woman dreams to have after she's got all the things she wants. Of course in 1977 it was kiddy sized. Now its adult sized & I really want one!

I'm not a religious man but today I witnessed the Second coming! Well kind of. Thomas, our German Jesus lookalike is back. He fogot the white nightgown & the sandals but otherwise he looks exactly like he did last time I went to church!

Wednesday 27th February 2008-

Now if you go to our Contact Us page on our website you will notice a brand new, very cool addition to the site. Its our online chat window! You can sit there wherever you are & can ask me anything you would like to! Isn't that groovy! I am of course hoping the sort of questions I get asked will be diving or at least Koh Tao related. Not sure this is going to work too well tho, if people keep wanting to know what clothes I'm wearing & if I like opera!

Its pretty busy again in Koh Tao people. If you are on your way over I really would encourage you to at least book your accommodation ahead of time. Last night we were still looking for rooms for people at 7pm. & of course at that time of night don't be surprised if suddenly the room prices double because the hoteliers know you are in a pretty desperate position if you still haven't got a room by 7pm. Look at Rick! Yesterday morning he had a hammock on his balconey available for rent at 100 bt. By Lunchtime, as rooms became less available he upped his hammock rent to 500 Bt. Then by 7pm last night he was in a sellers market & increased his price again to 1000 Bt. Of course he still wasn't able to rent it out tho, as it was a drastically over priced piece of real estate, but good fun to talk about with potential tennants!

Very successful Full Day Trip to Sail Rock yesterday. Glorious sunshine. Best viz there for ages & about 20+ meters in some areas, & in case you didn't know Sail Rock is probably the best divesite we have in the Gulf of Thailand. So great dive site, great viz, & great sunshine! Must have been a great day till you got back & realised how sunburnt you were eh Dan?

Tuesday 26th February 2008

The rain came did its business & left! All rather anti climactic, but the plants look better! Annoying thing with the rain is it tends to fill up all the pot holes with water so they just look like patches of unlevelled road. These innocuous little patches become deep wells everytime I drive my bike over them. & the annoying thing is that after driving these roads this bloody long I really should know that by now!

Nice to hear from so many of you on our Facebook Group. Sounds like you are all well & have had an enjoyable experience with us in Koh Tao. I also hope you know that we have all had an enjoyable time you guys being here. Just don't go & spoil it by coming back! Ony kidding Charlie! It will be great to see you mate, just leave your scottish dress at home!

Hmmm. I'm hearing rumours that the Full Moon Party boat which ferries people from Koh Tao to Phangan & back, partied alittle too hard & forgot to come back to Koh Tao. Apparently it ended up in Samui. When first I heard I was a little bit concerned by it as I reckoned the Captain & his boys must have partied a little too hard. But then I realised why they had to go Samui first! McDonalds run! Everyone's crazy for a McD's after a big party!

Sunday 24th February 2008
Now I've never been to Manchester but I reckon when I look up at the sky today it looks like what I reckon Manchester looks like! Wet & dark! Apparently we are in for 19 mm of rain today! That's alot! Its a good thing too people! We haven't had any rain since the last time we had rain and then we flooded! There's alot of flowers around here that look like they could do with 19mm of water!

Its reef check day today! Darren & his team of tough looking eco warriors are off to Japanese Gardens to check, photograph, record & report on the state of the corals! We'll be focusing on colors, breakages, regrowth & regeneration, fish life & water temperature. The idea is once a month we check out the same area & see if there has been any noticeable changes. Today will be the first recorded entry of the area & we hope to continue the project for many years to come. Darren will be an old man by the time he's finished this little project!

I think the saying goes- if it aint broke don't fix it! Well I've only gone & put these little boxes down the side of our web page & funnily enough since I've done it our emails have dropped right down! Either that or people have heard Alex aint doing the emails anymore! I'm confused. Anyhow the amount of internet bookings we got so far this month is more than the total number of bookings we got last year in the 3 busiest months! Not bad eh? So why did I go & try & fix the bloody thing with these boxes! Muppet!

Saturday 23rd February 2008
I have yet to find out if I actually have been a target on some gotcha tv or radio show, but yesterday I got interviewed by the Nation newspaper, one of Thailand's largest English newspapers to discuss what we are getting involved in at Big Blue with regards our environmental efforts to clean up Koh Tao. AS you may or may not know we like to pick up rubbish here at Big Blue in an effort to rid the island of plastic bags, polystyrene & other non eco friendly waste products.'I said 'We are all Saints & that the stairway to heaven will have lots of gold & glitter everywhere!" He thought I said 'the 7 11 has made pots of gold & littered everywhere!" Hmm,! I couldn't have put it better myself!

Wow! Ricky has been Divemastering here for way over a year already & I think yesterday was the first time he has had a day off with his Missus together! Aww sweet! Hope you had a nice day mate. Did you get breakfast in bed? Your feet scrubbed & your back rubbed? Lunch out? Afternoon walking the dogs along the beach? A cocktail at sunset then a dinner & a movie? Ponce! Get back to work!

Do you remember that DM we used to have here. Brummie, rugby playing bouncer who reckoned she could have us all in a fair tussle then went & dislocated her shoulder in a strong breeze! Sonia that's right! Well I've just heard from the Horse's mouth (sorry Sonia) that Thailands' premier diving Doctor, Doctor Luba has given her the all clear to dive again. That's great news! Well it is for Khao Lak! For us in Koh Tao it means she'll be coming back soon! You bastard Luba, I thought you were my friend!

Friday 22nd February 2008-
Got some extremely sad news I'm afraid. Alex & Lucy are leaving & going back to England! Massive shame. Thanks Alex for all you have done for Big Blue & a special thanks from me for answering all those emails everyday! We shall all miss you, well the others will miss you. I won't have time to miss you! I'll be too bloody busy answering all the emails! Good luck guys.

Guys, I got a limp sausage! Who brike Sausage's leg. Poor little Chippalata. She looks ridiculous not to mention the pain she must be in. That's got to hurt! Luckily our Dogmaster Rick was around to alert the emergency services who will be over shortly to set her leg & bind it to a stick & then put her in a plaster cast. Yummm, who wants ketchup & mustard with their sausage on a stick!

Well if I'm going to give you 2 pieces of bad news in one day I may aswell go the whole hog & fill you in on a third bit of unfortunate drama. The viz has gone to shit!
But don't worry its Full Moon tonight. Thats all we need - one good tidal current will swoop it all away. This time tomorrow you'll be able to see so far we might even find the lost city of Atlantis at last!

Wednesday 20th February 2008-

Rumour has it that yesterday at Shark Island there was a mother whaleshark measuring 7 meters swimming next to her calf reportedly only 1 meter long. Hmmm. That made me think. If a whale shark can measure upto 20 meters as an adult then a 1 meter whaleshark must be a new born! Awesome! Camera's at the ready people. This shot could be worth something!

You may recall a few weeks ago me harping on about the dog problem we were having here at the resort. You'll remember we rounded them up & sent them out ParcelForce to a few difficult customers who we've had in the past. Those we kept- Uri, Ugly & Sausage are now all sporting their very own 'Big Blue Dog' Collars as donated by our Instructors. Very swish! First time Ugly & Sausage have ever worn a dog collar. Makes even Ugly look quite Dapper!

Its that time of the month when everyone deserts Koh Tao to head off for the Full Moon Party at Koh Phangan. 15,000 people all on one beach moving & swaying to the beats of techno & trance! Just not my cup of tea! Gimme a third the number of people, same beach, lots of pretty girls, some Duran Duran & a plethora of terrible haircuts. Now that's more my scene!

Tuesday 19th February 2008-

Its Official Big Blue is now big on Green! So much so that we have even been granted the Green Light! In other words Big Blue is the latest PADI dive centre to be awarded with Project AWARE Go ECO Operator status in 2008. Nice one people! Well done Darren! This means we are taking a determined stand to minimise the impact we have on the aquatic ecosystem whilst contributing to environmental, economic and cultural conservation- It's Big Green Diving Resort now!

Oi you! Whoever you are outside Aukotan yesterday about 3pm who nicked my bloody shoes! Give them back! Yours smell & I can't wear them! Make me walk like a Ponce!

Weather at present is pretty much the same as it has been for a while now! Bright & sunny! I can prove it too. The one day I go out on the boat I go beetroot red & now 3 or 4 days later my face looks like someone has been trying to rub me out! I got eraser poo all over my forehead my nose & the back of my neck! Remember everyone avoid peeling! Slip, slop, slap!

Monday 18th February 2008-

Its great being splattered across the face once a week with a douse of realism. You forget about the real world if you live on this NeverNeverLand too long! But every Monday the whole country wears yellow to show love & respect for the King Of Thailand. Its like an alarm clock. Its so easy to forget about things like traffic lights & Branston Pickle & even which day of the week it is, but once every week we get woken up! Wishing you all a very Happy Monday everyone! Its another beautiful Monday morning here in Paradise!

I got to be honest. As a certified diver if I was shopping around Koh Tao for a center to dive with I'd definitely choose us! Here's why. This afternoon we have a dedicated certified divers boat with only 7 divers & 2 DM's on it, going to any 2 dives on Koh Tao our divers wish to go to! So this arvo we are off to the magnificent Hin Wong Pinnacle in our search for turtles & soft corals & then my favourite divesite on the East coast of Koh Tao Laem Thien Caves! There are actually 16 swim thru's here & if you've dived it before you'll know what I'm talking about when I mention Star Wars canyon! If you haven't dived it before then its about time!

You do get asked some pretty weird questions in this job. My favourite was while I used to teach I was asked by a student one very wet afternoon - "If it rains while I'm diving will my pressure group increase?" Then yesterday I was asked "Can you cry underwater?" Where do people come up with these?

Sunday 17th February 2008

More whaleshark virgins were let loose yesterday. It was actually very scarey. Some of the smiles spread across these peoples faces so far I thought we might need to perform surgery! Nice one people! I remember when I lost my cherry to a whaleshark. Her name was Susan & she was from Hawkes Bay!

Ear mark the date people! This could be the very last time you see our Face book group in this perfectly functioning, orderly well conducted set up. I've let some of the ' the monkeys" out of their cages by making them administrators in our group & can't help feeling they are about to exact havoc upon my months of hard work!So Ally, Darren, Deano & G please control your monkey, Canada, please!

Congratulations Alison & Danielle on performing what was an absolutely hysterical Divemaster Challenge Beauty Pageant. Of course being of Yankee origin Alison is a lot more used to dancing & parading around in sequins & high heels & being the center of attention than our Danielle who being of Pommie origin is far more at home standing behind other people in a queue in a supermarket somewhere with a nice hot brew! An excellent DM Challenge & a comical pageant! So that's why you pay good money to become a trained diving professional, to dress up & look beautiful!

Friday 15th February 2008

Today is the islands annual festival to Save Koh Tao!It starts with a little ceremony of all the island elders & decision makers, & all the kids from Koh Tao's only school. The kids dress up & the school marching band plays some kind of unrecognisable jingle for everyone. Then the elders speak & then someone comes over to me with a mike in my hand & asks me to say something in English! Hmmm! not sure how I got roped into delivering a 5 minute speech to everyone, but I did!

The gist of which was that we are trying to clean up our beaches, educate the local people & the children & stop the import of plastic bags & other non biodegradable products. Then I told everyone that all the dive shops would be offerring a free dive to anyone who wanted to participate in the underwater cleanup that we would be organising in the afternoon on Maehaad reef!

And then in the afternoon over 120 divers gathered to help in cleaning up Koh Tao! I'd say that each diver picked up at least their own divebag size worth of rubbish! Other noticeable pieces of trash picked up off the bottom of our ocean were a JVC player, ceiling light fittings, a toilet complete with cistern & heaps of metal cookie tins! A heap big pile of rubbish! Thankyou everyone for participating in saving Koh Tao!

Wednesday 14th February 2008

Congratulations Yvonne! She is now a fully fledged PADI Instructor & is going to go out tonight & celebrate like Its Neinsehn Hundred und Nein und Neinsig!

Well some people have landed us in the poo with our other halves today! Darren! Look mate it works like this! If you do something which makes you look great & the rest of us look bad then you aren't exactly going to be making too many buddies around here! If you are going to go spend 1000 bt on a suitcase worth of roses for your Missus then at least let your mates know so we can go get armed with ours! Girlfriend Crawler!

I admit! I need help! I am completely snowed under! We are so happy to be this busy but I need more hours in the day! Poor old Deano & Ricky who had to go to Burma yesterday on their visa run were then told to come back on the night boat, instead of staying in some hotel on the mainland, cos they both had to be back by 9am to start courses. Didn't look or smell very nice by the time they got to work but then that's the Welsh & Irish for you!

Tuesday 12th February 2008

So our eco warrior, Darren is hyping up the event we will be holding on Koh Tao on 15th February- the clean up Maehaad day! Its not the prettiest town, Maehaad, or the most welcoming either when you first arrive in Koh Tao- be warned those of you on their way over, & being a busy little harbour there is quite alot of mess around so we're off to pick it all up! Its free& it'll make you feel good! Anyone care to join us for a good feeling free dive?

Its always a sad day when you say goodbye to people or staff who have been here at Big Blue so long so we are all very sad to have to say goodbye to Chin, our ever so friendly cashier. He has been here almost 3 years now & is looking for a new change. So good luck Mr Chin. Its been a blast.

Wow, I know Koh Tao is beautiful, it always has been, but has it really taken this long to get the word out! Koh Tao has been getting busier for the last few years but so far 2008, well its busier than a one armed brick layer in Baghdad! Thailand's number 1 Rock group 'Loso' were even playing live in Aow Leuk lastnight! Its that busy that even the most popular group in Thailand came to little old Koh Tao to play a concert! Amazing Koh Tao!

Monday 11th February 2008
Cheers Sonia I forget to tell everyone yesterday. We have another website & its specifically tailored for our Big Blue Office in Khao Lak. Well worth having a look at www.bigbluedivingkhaolak.com . I gather it isn't very busy over there at the moment which surprises the hell out of me cos at this time of the year the Similans & Surin Islands are usually very active with the Manta Rays especially at the cleaning station in Koh Bon. You haven't experienced the true beauty of diving till you've dived with Manta Rays. Cmon guys off your arses- go manta spotting in Khao Lak!

Funny that Koh Tao, well the whole gulf of Thailand actually doesn't get Manta Rays. We get Whale Sharks though, but they do tend to be a little smaller than the visitors to the west coast of Thailand. But I think we get more of them. How many Whale shark sightings have you had over there this year, 2008, Khao Lak? And Manta's? We got 5 Whale sharks & 0 manta's this year so far in Koh Tao. Not bad, thats an average here of just under 1 a week. Rick's group yesterday were our most recent set of broken whale shark virgins!

Can't get a room anywhere! No rooms left on Sairee beach again! & I don't even know why! The amount of people coming to the island has increased so much in the last few years. A word of warning to any of you thinking of coming over in the next few days weeks or even months! If you don't want to spend your first day on Koh Tao wandering round searching for rooms then book ahead! I'd highly recommend it!

Sunday 10th February 2008

Pretty good turn out at Darrens surprise Birthday bash last night. Think Mummy & Daddy Darren were pretty impressed aswell. Had a surprise Buckland Birthday BarBQ bash at Vibe. Thanks Dave for sorting that out. Nice job too Ally, who managed to keep it all a secret & organise the food & cake & MC Deano for his mammoth soliloquay!

Meant to do this ages ago but it slipped my mind! We need to welcome Hendrik, our new Swedish Instructor, to the fold! Hendrik is a relatively fresh Instructor which means he is extremely keen to do well & impress! & so far he has. He does seem to have a habit of leaving his reg lying around a bit but as long as Ricky & I get our 2 beer penalty fine each time he does, I don't think either of us really mind!

Got to love Rick's idea for a T-shirt! "ATV's Suck!". Got to love the fact that he actually went ahead & got some printed! Also got to love the idea that he not only went & sold everyone he printed he actually made a profit out of it aswell! I guess he should do to cos he's right! ATV's do suck. They are big, noisy, death traps & if any of you coming to Koh Tao soon please don't rent an ATV, cos we all hate them! & we got a T-shirt to prove it now aswell!

Saturday 9th February 2008

Our Delboys Birthday today. Happy Bday Darren. & how about that for a nice prezzie! His folks arrive today! Well some people would call the arrival of their parents to the island on their birthday a nice prezzie, some may disagree! We're all going to have a big party tonight to celebrate Darrens well spent 34 years acting the clown! Happy Birthday Mate!

Well if any of you were interested in watching an operation in progress you missed the fun today! Had the fantastic girls from the Animal Clinic, Wendy & Jay, come down & give our lady dogs the snip so they can't have anymore babies! Think we've had enough of them lately! & then the clinic took mummy & her kids off to the clinic to find owners for them all. And suddenly we are back to our Big Blue brood of 6. Thank god!

I don't like repeating myself & I'm not one to harp on about the rights & wrongs of this world, but I just can't help feeling that some things are completely barmy! I mean, why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?!! Why do the Japanese continue to slaughter whales on a mass scale while the world does nothing to protect them. So at the risk of repeating myself... Please people... SAVE THE WHALE! Harpoon the Japanese!

Friday 8th Feb 2008

We got the troops on the case for the translations of our web pages. Soon we are going to be advertising to the world in not only English & Japanese, but also French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Finnish & Maori!

I have a morality question for you! You may be aware that in recent months we have had a bit of a mongrel epidemic. Our Canine's grew from 6 to 16 in a matter of weeks, which I'm sure you'll agree with me is a few too many! So we had a meeting & decided to give the dogs to the animal clinic with a healthy donation & ask them to take care of them all! & that's what was agreed! After a restless nights sleep I've decided I can't do that to all the dogs so we are going to get rid of all the new ones & just keep our six originals! So my question is this...If electricity comes from electrons then does morality come from Morons!

Can you feel it? I can sense it in my waters! You see there are two main kinds of ocean currents, those driven by the wind and the earth's rotation that affect the surface waters, and those driven by density that affect the deeper waters. Its these deep water currents, with mixes of cold & warm water creating thermoclines & also the extra accumulation of salt water that are so important here in Koh Tao because it helps to mix the deep waters, bringing oxygen and nutrients to the area, which in turn brings in the little stuff like plankton which inturn brings in the big stuff like Whalesharks! So all those of you who experienced thismornings strong currents at Southwest Pinnacle- not to worry, its a good thing!

Thursday 7th Feb 2008

Our Full Day Trip to Angthong Marine Park was a fabulous success, as if it was ever going to be any different! The sun was out, the sea was flat, the tourists kept away & the islands looked at their most magnificent! Apparently the diving was a little disappointing cos the viz was pants, but the swim thrus were swum thru & the air rings were round & had an air like quality so everyone had a jolly good day! Hurrah!

So its quite clear! Alex has done a runner! Obviously earnt way too much money last month & him & his Missus have jetted off to South America to live like drug lords! Hopefully that isn't strictly true & Alex will be back soon. He blimmin well better be, I got sores on the end of my fingers from all this typing I've had to do since he left!

Had a really hard time sleeping last night! Couldn't escape the ghastly images of our Deano & his quite stunningly beautiful new missus smooching like love sick teenagers at the waters edge for the whole world to see during sunset. Ghastly!

Wednesday 6th Feb 2008

So its always a magical day when you go out diving & one of the last things you expect to turn up turns up! I'm talking of course about the largest fish in the sea- growing upto 20 meters & weighing upto 20 tonnes- the Whaleshark. A very interesting fact I learnt the other day about the whaleshark is that the Japanese DON'T hunt or fish for the Whaleshark because they are regarded as a good luck symbol. In Vietnam they are even revered as the Fish God! Cool eh! Well our Fish God yesterday measured in at a pubescent 4 meters & made a lot of virgin Whaleshark spotters very happy. Not sure our Open Water students are aware of how lucky they are.Just to give you a clue- Jacques Cousteau dived for 20 years before he saw his first whaleshark! & apart from the fact he was French, I reckon he was pretty lucky!

Now being a kiwi, I was of course aware it is Waitangi Day today - New Zealand Day! What I wasn't aware of was that the Thais would be celebrating it in such style today.There are literally fireworks going off all over the island today since about 7am thismorning! Completely befuddled as to why Thailand would be celebrating a New Zealand holiday in such style I came into town to be greeted by dancing dragons & juggling acrobats- aah! Of course! Chinese New Year today aswell! Happy Waitangi Day China!

A very pleasant House warming Party for Tim last night who has moved into Hannahs old house on Cape Big Blue. Its a very Big Blue community on those cliffs up there what with Rick & Fanette, Alex & Lucy, Canada & Yvonne, Jim & Andrea, & now Tim aswell. Might think about moving the resort up there aswell then we won't all have so far to travel to work!

Tuesday 5th Feb 2008

Would very much like to thank Jerry & Ari for last night's banquet of delectables at the opening of their new restaurant in Sairee, at the crossroads, inbetween Brother's & the new Farango's Sairee. Great location, good turnout, top food & excellent waiters & waitresses- they got Tuna, remember her? & Ooo from Thongs- remember him? Keep your eyes on this place its going to do really well!& the name is Don Yangs. Sounds like the Mafia's Chinese Takeaway!

And then after all the free nosh, it was off to the Beach Bar to celebrate the festivities with Jeroem who is now another Big Blue certified Divemaster. Now Jeroem used to be the Cable Guy in his previous life so his DM Challenge last night revolved round his impressions of 10 channels off Cable TV! I didn't realise they still made Red Hot & Dutch in Holland!

So I can see why Alex has gone off for a few days. He asked me to take care of the emails while he was away, which is of course not a problem, well wasn't a problem a few weeks ago but now with our new website... well I just spent the last 5 hours replying to over 40 enquiries! Now ordinarily I would of course be stoked to see the website is doing so well. I'd be even more stoked if the website was doing so well & Alex was here to answer the emails!

Sunday 3rd February 2008-

I guess it must be really cold in Scandanavia right now cos I think the whole of Stockholm got off the Lomprayah this morning & came to Big Blue. Good job we just took on a Swedish Instructor aswell! Welcome Henrik. We hope you are happy working with your new BB pals, & will encourage the splendid Scandanavian habit of sunbathing topless right outside our restaurant!

So Sonia left last night on the overnight boat bound for Khao Lak. She got there at about 9am this morning fresh faced & ready for a day of room hunting & finding one's bearings. Not sure she was quite ready to be dumped in at the deep end! She's shop girl today. All alone on the other side of the country with only Simon, Keith, Joachim, Paul, Klaus, Takeshi, Naomi, Robyn, Oscar, Becky, & Marcel to keep you company from Big Blue. Erik is off on a visa run. Guess you better do some work then. If anyone wants to meet the best shop girl in Thailand ( & give her a little bit of support) you'll find her in our Big Blue Office in Khao Lak at the moment, asleep, under a pile of papers I'd imagine!

We got another Full Day trip coming up but this time instead of going to the Internationally accredited Sail Rock we are off to the world famous Angthong National Marine Park. You may know it better as being the National Marine Park where one of the islands for that book the Beach by Alex Garland was set on. Now we shall be going there for the beauty of what is both below & above the water. If we happen to find any weirdo's hanging out on one of the islands we will not be picking them up & bringing them back to civilisation! If you ask me the world would be a far greater place with one less Leonardo De Caprio's anyway!

Saturday 2nd February 2008

So we've had a small friendly neighbourhood hawksbill roaming round White Rock with us this week. Beautiful creatures & if they could talk I'm sure they would sound like Owen Wilson! Hawksbills frequent rocky areas like Laem Thian Cape, coral reefs like Hin Wong, shallow coastal areas like Aow Leuk, lagoons or oceanic islands like Shark Island, and narrow creeks and passes like inbetween Koh Tao & Nang Yuan Island. They are seldom seen in water deeper than 20 meters. Apparently adult females are able to climb over reefs and rocks to nest in beach vegetation to give birth, but I reckon they just like the Koh Tao nightlife.

I almost feel sorry for Alex & Lucy this week. They are off on a visa run to Penang and are going to try & make a little holiday out of it. Well its Chinese New Year which is possibly the biggest holiday weekend in Asia & you can't get a ticket on the overnight train,(luckily they did!) But, they can't get a hotel room anywhere on Penang Island so I was feeling sorry for them till I realised well at least they can either sleep in McDonalds or at the cinema! Now I'm jealous as hell!

I'm recruiting! I'm looking for someone who can sell & work at our newly opened booking office in the Khao Sarn Rd. I need someone who can dive, knows about diving, about Koh Tao & the Similan Islands & wants to live & work in Bangkok. Naturally the position will come with a work permit & salary will be commission based- the more you sell the more you earn! Oh yeah & FREE diving everytime you come to Koh Tao. Anyone know anyone good who is looking for a job in Bangkok? Please ask them to contact jim@bigbluediving.com for a good time!

Friday 1st February 2008

In the old days if you as a foreigner wanted to own a business in Thailand then you had to have a Thai partner. So Big Blue is owned by a Swede- Michael, & it is also equally owned by a Thai- P'Pon. Together these guys have brought Big Blue from the days when they struggled to pay the rent to where it is now, one of the Top Dive Centers in Thailand/ South East Asia. All that in 16 years. They are also BTW the longest serving Thai western partnership any of us know of. About time we all sat around for lunch & had a yarn about the good old days... when there was no electricity, tourists would arrive on the island by overnight coconut boat & horses were used for transportation on the island instead of cars! Sounds like Cornwall!

I'm extremely proud of myself today cos by enlisting the help of a friend or 2, we have deciphered the gobbledeegook that is the programming behind installing PADI e-Learning onto our website. Yeah I know! Cool. So now if you are interested in doing any PADI Dive Course you can study the theory part at home & then of course save yourself when it comes to being here on holiday from spending much time in the classroom. Click here to see how it works http://www.bigbluediving.com/wrapper/elearning.html After looking at it tho, I got to be honest- I'd still rather be taught by an Instructor in person! Up to you!

And by the sounds of it we re about to have a spontaneous 'Bye & see you back again soon party' for our Sonia. She will be headig off to Khao Lak tomorrow I believe to work in the shop there till the end of the season or so, cos she has a shoulder injury & can't dive for a while. So spontaneous party it is then. Cool haven't had one of them for what, oooh, 2 days! Good luck sonia & see you when you come back.