Divelah Members at Layang Layang Resort Pool

From Left - Alvin, Sean, Joseph and Andy

Anemone Fishes at Dayang (Taken with Oly C7070 w Ikelite Housing/Inon Z240)

And me.... Joseph (Patong Beach)

Agnes, Andy, Sean and Alvin (Patong Jungceylon)

Phuket Trip 1/5 to 5/5 (Joseph, Alvin, Sean, Andy and Agnes)

Another holiday!! Phuket trip was planned and booked in february. It was supposed to be a simple holiday but included two day dive trips a week before departure. That someone should be happy lar! Sean lor... Hehheh

Flight to Phuket was 6.55am. Alvin and Sean stayed over at my place for the night before we meet up with Andy and Agnes at the airport.

Day 1 - 1/5/2007 Raining
Reached Phuket airport at 7.35am and waited until 10.30am for the mini bus to fetch us to Little Buddha Guesthouse. After settling down, as usual makan first and it was at the food haven at Jungceylon. Went to the beach, foot reflexology, shop at Carrefour. Raining heavily. Alvin got slight fever, went to get panadol for him cos we got diving the next day. Dinner. End of day.

Day 2 - 2/5/2007
Picked up at 7.20am for the day trip dive to Racha Noi and Racha Ya. Today was the second day of the full moon, so expecting strong current. First dive site was North Point at Racha Noi, strong current was hitting everywhere. It was a dive, hide experience. Unable to do photography under this conditions. Big milk fishes and barracuddas in school. DM said he pointed to us a sailfish together with the milk fishes but I didn't see due to low visibility but I saw a Rough Flutemouth at very close distance. First time using my new force fins, not use to it. Second dive site was East Coast of Racha Noi, saw a school of Palenose Parrotfish feed on corals and school of White Collar Butterflyfish. Getting better with force fins. Third dive site was Dipsydoo Reef at Racha Ya, didn't bring my camera down and no current. Sigh! Spotted Garden Eels, a Mantis Shrimp and a few Lionfishes. Last dive site was Siam Bay at Racha Ya. Guess Siam Bay is those statues of elephants, gods at the bottom of the bay. Lots of Flounder fish and also another close encounter of Smooth Flutemouth among baby Barracudas. Wow! I can even stand on force fins. Back to guesthouse, have a quick shower. Not to disturb Andy and Agnes, we head for a Thai food dinner followed by foot reflexology. Alvin and Sean stayed up the night to watch football... Man U LOST! Haahaa...

Day 3 - 3/5/2007
First dive site was King Crusier Wreck. Alvin lost his SMB. This is a very beautiful wreck just that it was like a market place. Too crowded with divers. Lots of Scorpionfish, and there is a white-Eyed Moray Eel in one of the toilet bowl. Second dive site was Shark Point. Strong current at the surface and under plus visibility poor. Third dive site was Koh Doc Mai, another strong current at the surface and under. Almost gave up on this dive. One angmo lost his dive guide and wanted to get up into our boat. I can see his pale face, exhausted body and trembling legs. Must be fighting the current on the surface. This dive site is particular on wall dive. I saw a Harlequin Snake Eel, Boxer Shrimp as usual and many many Moorish Idol. End of dive and head back to Patong. Washed all the dive gears. Dinner with Andy and Agnes at Patong Seafood. Here I celebrate my 100th dive at Koh Doc Mai. We had foot reflexology again.

Day 4 - 4/5/2007
Andy bought his Mares regulators at a good price and SMB. Sean and I bought a T-shirt and SMB. Alvin got his SMB and book on Rabbitfish. Spent the whole morning at dive shop. Afternoon went to Wat Chalong. Back to Patong, Agnes and I had pedicure and manicure at Junkceylon. Also had my hair dye together with Sean. Vain!!! Evening, all five of us had face spa. Haahaa.... followed by Thai body massage. I did not really sleep back in guesthouse cos i had wrestling with Alvin and Sean after packing our gears. Who win? You guess.

Day 5 - 5/5/2007
Back to Singapore.

- Joseph Tham (Asking for more dives)

Krabi 19/2 to 24/2 (Joseph, Alvin and Sean)

19/2/07
Arrived at Krabi airport at 1750hrs. We stay at Wanna's Place Hotel facing the Ao Nang beach (2390baht per night. Expensive! Airport transfer at 500baht) Yummy! That night, we had seafood dinner (1530baht) and whisky too. Opps! Diving tomorrow, so we only drank a little. After that, we had foot and body massage.
20/2/07
Aqua-vision dive centre is just right next to Wanna's Place where we were going to do our dives with. Our first dive was Koh Doc Mai, followed by Shark Point (2900baht). Sean and I had only our rash vest and swimming trunk cos I checked the internet that the water temperature was between 28 and 30 degree C. Shiok right? No leh, we met with 26 degree C for both dive site. Very cold!!! Alvin wore his new 0.5mm scubapro wetsuit he bought from HongKong. Stylo lar!
Koh Doc Mai offer sheer wall dive. At first the visibility was poor and in my mind was like diving in Singapore. We descent to 30m and the visibility became better. I was greeted with longfin bannerfish, moorish idol, scorpionfish, red firefish, boxer shrimp, white collar butterflyfish, grouper, sea slug, yellow tube coral etc.
Shark Point was the dive site we look forward. Without disappointment, we had our very close encounter with Leopard Shark. Cuttlefish, map puffer, school of giant snapper, moray, spotted box fish, beautiful sea fan were among the marine life here.
And... we had our DVD in this two sites but cost us 1800baht!
We had local food for dinner and later shopping for dry bag.
21/2/07
There were 10 of us on this dive trip to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang (5300baht). We travelled there by speed boat which is around 2.5 hrs.
Hin Daeng (red rock) is the deepest wall dive in Thailand. Guess what? Water temperature was 25 degree C. Freezing cold! Met with a group of redtooth triggerfish followed by giant moray. Lots of moorish idol, firefish, bluespotted grouper, bluelined grouper, rabbitfish, banded boxer shrimp(usually found in pair), durban dancing shrimp here. Scorpionfish are common too. Emperor angelfish among the beautiful one. And I get to breath nitrox from the DM due to low air at 50 bars.
Hin Muang (purple rock) is also another nice dive site just few hundred meters north of Hin Daeng. Nice purple soft coral everywhere. I had a close encounter with a huge titan triggerfish at the cleaning station. School of bigeye snapper swam by. Flutefish, small lobster, tasseled scorpionfish, spotfin lionfish and best is a 5' - 6' marbled stingray laying on the sand with a leopard shark. Sean also get to breath nitrox from the DM due to high nitrogen level resulting 8 mins safety stop and low air. Why leh? Angry with Alvin and me disturbing him from taking photograph, he dive deeper to chase the leopard shark away so we cannot take picture of it. Aiya... play play dun angry lar.
Back to Ao Nang beach, we showered and head for Krabi town for more local food by public bus. We also had swensen ice-cream. Yummy! Yummy!
22/2/07
We are doing two local dive at Ko Si and Ko Ya Wa Bon (2500baht). We travelled there by long tail boat and there's only 3 of us with a DM. Ko Si visibility is fair. On this site, we saw cleaner pipefish, lots of nudibranch, razorfish, ornate ghost pipefish, seahorse and swimming among thousands of yellow tail baby barracuda. Ko Ya Wa Bon is a cave dive where the channel is 60m from east to west. There is also a large air filled chamber where we ascend and had a good look at it (with our regulator on). Inside the cave was pitch black, we found huge lobster, large blue-ringed angelfish and decorated crab.
After the dive, we went to Wat Tham Seua (Tiger Cave Temple) where we had to climb up 1237 steps to the top of the mountain. A huge sitting Buddha, golden pagoda and a 360 degree view of Krabi. Our dinner at the Krabi river side. Hiya, so hungry after the climb. Foot massage again back in Ao Nang beach.
23/2/07
Sightseeing at Ao Thalan by kayaking. (full day 1100baht) Main attraction were the canyon, mangrove forest, limestone cave and lagoon. Too tired due to kayaking.
At night, we ate at a very nice restaurant called Blue Mango and had a 3hrs full package spa (steam, body scrub, massage and fascial) at one of the resort (3070baht). Shiok! Shiok!
24/2/07
Half day elephant trekking with sea cave, fish farm and pineapple plantation visiting. (1300baht) Boring! Boring! Back to Singapore at night followed by a midnight movie - Hannibal Rising. And and... I gained additional 2 kg lei! Faint...

- Joseph

AKAN DATANG

Layang Layang - Labuan on 16/06/07 to 22/06/07 starring Joseph, Alvin, Andy and Sean.

DiveLah Members

From Left : Andy Su, Joseph Tham, Sean Lim, Alvin Lim

Dive With WhiteManta to Seven Skies

Simply Terrible!

All the four of us were looking forward to our very first LIVE ON BOARD dive trip. We boarded the "WhiteManta" who berthed at TMFT around 6.45pm. A briefing was held by Vincent (WhiteManta's boss) and the estimated time of arrival at Seven Skies was 0900hrs the next day.After the briefing we went up to the sun deck to enjoy the night scenery before heading back to the cabin for the night.

As we could not contain our excitement, we woke up earlier than expected the next morning. We reached the seven skies dive site at aound 9.00am. My first dive was very exciting with my buddies - Alvin, Andy & Sean. Our first dive was exciting despite the deep depth and strong current. Not enough air also, so have to ask Andy to go up with me. Wait! We were all in a group. So... all went up together lor. Out of a sudden, a white manta ray was below us. Big and swimming gracefully despite the strong current. Shhh! Got tears in my eye leh. Too happy Lah. But shit, lost my snorkel.

Second dive was called off due to dynamite fishing nearby. So second dive was moved back to seven skies. The dive operator (Vincent) asked if we still want a third dive at seven skies." !@#$% who want!". On the way, we saw pilot whales! Third dive was at Katoaka reef. Hmm! delicious for this dive as Sean spotted barramundi cod. Big one! Alvin missed this one otherwise can spot a string of sticky stuff from his mouth. Arrived at Aur in the early morning but the operator didn't inform us about dawn dive, miss it! We were briefed that we would have our first morning dive at Aur Pinnicale 1. The four of us went into the water and was going to descend when Vincent told us to come back to the boat. The reason being that the current was too strong and the visibility was poor (Wonder how he knew while all the while he was not in the water). The dive was abandoned and we had our forth dive at Pulau Lang.

The operator, Vincent also informed us that after this dive, the next one will be at "_____ rock" which was supposed to be the best dive site in the region. He didn't inform us about the next dive depth so we didn't dive deep and so miss the baby whale shark at depth 30m which was spotted by Patrick Leong from Mako. Later up in the boat, we were informed that it was our last dive. !@#$% I have just started to warm up. This trip was supposed to do 6 dives but we had 4 dives only. Food was not enough. There were 30 divers instead of 20. "SO OVER CROWDED". TV room was occupied by the operator and assistant, therefore cannot watch any DVDs (somemore sleep at 10.30pm). Disappointed on this dive trip but I am glad my buddies made this trip fun and exciting.

Thanks. Joseph.