Travels of a Yukon Expat: Happy Birthday Vikki! Oh, and a Night Dive.

Yesterday, I made it. I finally got to do a night dive. I've been meaning to do one since I first arrived, but something has always gotten in the way. Teaching, sinuses, hangover... a variety of ailments or responsibilities. We went out on MM3, my favourite Mermaids Vessel. It's smaller, there's usually less customers, and it's just so peaceful in and around the islands down in Samae San.

Darran, an intern that was here during my last time at mermaids is here now on holiday, and we had the great luck to dive together. Our first dive took place in the afternoon on the Hardeep Wreck. It was... stunning. The diving in this part of Thailand can be a bit crap at times but, on the rare occasion, the visibility is good, and you see a few things that make descending to 27m in a dropping 20 current worthwhile. We found 2 blue spotted rays, a few angelfish, butterfly fish, but the majority of the dive was just spent exploring the larger open areas of the wreck. After 25 minutes, we made our ascent up the line and boarded the boat. Not even 20 minutes after being back on board, dinner was served.

Masaman Curry, steamed rice, fried chicken and spicy pork. So good. We had a while longer to wait until dusk, so the group of us divers lounged on the sun deck and bullshitted back 'n' forth and the semantics of British English and Canadian English. They're chips, not Crisps! The boat was moved to our second dive site, Shark Fin right before sun set. I managed to snap this photo:

No idea why they call it Shark Fin...

   Darran took a few pictures of me during our wreck dive. Will be sure to get them off of him before he leaves on Friday.

   So after returning from the night dive, I skipped back to my hotel room, ditched my gear, showered, changed, and picked up Darran on Pat (my motorbike). We made a b-line for the bar, Shooters, where our lovely friend Vikki was holding her birthday celebrations. Shooters is located on Soi Whitehouse, off Jomtien Beach Road and it is right across from what was the Original, True, Mermaids Dive Center where the 3 of us (and many others) first began their dive training. The bar is conveniently, located not 5 paces across the road.

   The night carried on in spectacular fashion. Bound to happen with copious amounts of cheap alcohol, great friends, wigs, a horn, flaming Sambuca, lei's, a passed out Master Instructor and dancing.