After taking a few days off from diving, I decided to go for my advanced open water certification. Mostly this gives me more of an excuse to dive, but it will also get me certified to dive to 30 meters. We went back to Chumphon Pinnacle for the deep dive, and I saw sharks.

Sharks, in case you didn't know this already, are just about the coolest fish imaginable. They're big and sleek and graceful, and unlike most fish, they move continuously and purposefully. We saw about eight gray reef sharks 20 meters beneath the surface at Chumphon. It was really an amazing experience to have them swimming all around us (they kept their distance, though).

I also saw the largest fish I've ever seen, a giant grouper (and it lived up to its name) about four and a half feet long. It probably weighed a hundred pounds. You'd need a lot of chips. And unlike the sharks, it was right in front of us, almost close enough to touch.

I missed the anemone fish (Nemo) on the second dive, but then I missed the movie too so maybe it wouldn't have made such an impression. I did see some cool stuff on a later night dive, including bioluminescent bubbles coming out of the water when I waved my hands and fins.

Sarah and Neal left today and I may leave in another couple of days myself, if I don't reschedule my plane tickets or decide to skip Angkor. But it's hard to leave this tropical paradise.

- posted by Joachim @ 12:35 AM