Our recent two week trip to Pattaya Thailand, our second in
two months, lasted about a week longer than I would have liked. Two reasons:
First, after one week I came down with an awful cold that felt more like the
flu; and second, we missed our kids—a lot. It’s understandable that contracting
an achy body cold could put a damper on a trip, but I was surprised at myself
for being so homesick for my kids. The fact that we took one of them along with
us in April on the first trip I think greatly stemmed missing all of them that
time; but this time it was just us, and “us,” it seems, was not enough.
Strange—it really surprised me; so, a little personal epiphany this time
around.
Once again
we learned that the area around Pattaya in Chonburi Province is chock full of
must-see places to visit. It amazes me that so many people, when I tell them
that we go to Pattaya, have no idea that there are so many things to do and see
there, other than the bars, nightclubs and beaches that Pattaya is evidently
mostly known for. Sure, there are bars and girls aplenty in the evening hours,
but during the day there are more family oriented activities than anyone could
possibly manage to fit in even if they spend a full two weeks there.
Last April, during
our last trip to Pattaya, we visited an aquarium called “Underwater World”
located just a short 15 minute drive from the hotels off Pattaya Beach. Don says
that over the last couple years of its existence he had passed it many times
but had never stopped in until taking us there. I still haven’t gotten around
to writing about that April trip (goodness, we made SO many!), although I
certainly plan to, so I can include all the great pics and vids we took as non
wet-getting observers, but this post came about after seeing that diving in the
tanks with all the wonderful fish is offered. Immediately, I KNEW that the next
time we visited that diving the tanks WOULD become the primary event of that
particular two weeks at Pattaya. (And sure enough—it WAS!)
Deciding which pieces of my personal dive gear to take along
with us to Thailand was a primary consideration on planning the trip. Don made
the correct decision to take along his BCD while I opted to use a loaner at the
aquarium. My “buoyancy compensator device” has the dive weights incorporated
into it while the aquarium’s does not, which means I had to wear a weight belt
and that sucked. As the years have passed and the pounds have packed on I
really do not have much of a waist. I was reminded of that unfortunate fact
when my weight belt continually tried to make its way down my hips, over my
butt and down my thighs. Aaargh! I really MISSED my own BCD. As it turns out I
had plenty of room in my check-in bags and would have easily met the weight
limits. Live and learn.
The fellow that runs the diving experience at the aquarium
is an expatriate Iranian fellow named Ali. He claims to speak limited English,
but you couldn’t tell that by me. I simply slowed down a bit my Michigan “speed
English” and he more than held his own with me. As an American retired
serviceman I have built up a lot of bad historical blood with the country of
Iran. For me, this has come about over the years starting in ’79 when our
entire embassy was illegally taken hostage by Khomeini’s underlings in Tehran. My
personal rancor continued to build in ’83 when 283 of my marine brothers were
exploded to death by one of the first of the Islamic suicide bombers. And then, in ’98, when 19 fellow airmen were killed
at the Khobar Tower explosion by another gigantic car bomb funded and fostered
by Iran, and not to mention all the IEDs that they continue to supply to
insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq that have killed and maimed hundreds more of
us, being aware of all that, you’d think that I would have an intense dislike
for Iranians just out of general principle. Thing is, in my travels around the world, particularly in
Southwest Asia, I have never met an Iranian that I did not cotton up to. Every
single one that I have ever chatted with I’ve found to be extremely personable,
deferential, and completely likable. Ali is no exception. He is intelligent,
well-spoken, and a gentleman. If you get the chance to dive with him, by all
means do it.
As usual,
the four of us made our way to the aquarium on our rental scooters, with our
gals packing most of our dive gear in backpacks as they clung to our waists in
the hectic Pattaya traffic. Don had stopped by to speak to Ali the day before
to smooth the way—I call it “Don doing his thing”—and once again, doing so was
well worth it since he got them to drop the price of admission; all we had to
pay was the $100 each for the dive. Ali had apologized for the cost but he was
correct when he explained that the uniqueness of the experience would be well worth
it.
We arrived
about an hour before the time we needed to start gearing up. I spent the time
BSing with Ali while Don and the girls scoped out the tanks we’d be diving through
the Plexiglas viewing tunnels. When it was time to get ready to dive Ali said
it would be okay if our gals accompanied us to the back area to help us suit
up. Truthfully, I cannot do it without assistance. My shoulders and other
assorted body parts and joints are just too shot to handle the gyrations of
putting on my wetsuit without help. I was surprised that the dressing area is
so lacking—only one plastic chair and no tables or enough hooks to store clothing
or personal items during the dive, but we made do.
It was a
thrill just to find ourselves in the back area of the aquarium. It smells
strongly of fish and seawater. I loved it. I went over to the big car-sized entry
tank and looked over the edge of the concrete wall down into the water.
Surprisingly, one of the largest sharks on site was resting inside, its
enormous tan body almost completely filling the giant space from back to front.
Seeing that gorgeous creature resting there in all its natural splendor I
couldn’t believe I would soon be coursing through the same water with it.
Ali said
that most of his diving clients when they approach him to scuba in the tank
have absolutely no dive experience at all. With Don’s hundreds of dives since
the mid 90s and my two years and 60+ dives, Ali was quite pleased that all he
would have to do is float in place and watch us do our thing. I asked him what
we were allowed to do as far as the sea creatures we’d be swimming with and his
answer was almost shocking to me, “Anything you want. You guys are experts
after all.” He did go on to warn us that the groupers at times could be a
little aggressive and the same would be true with the large female shark during
feeding time. At that I told myself to definitely keep my body parts out of the
mouth areas of ANY of the fish in there, a pledge that I forgot about the
moment I entered the water of the tank. For a moment I had the stupid thought
that if I DID get bitten by something in there that it would provide a really
cool souvenir. I’d much rather have an awesome kiss bite scar from a shark than
one of those silly tattoos I see on so many people these days.
I just
completed compiling a video that I’ve already placed on YouTube of all the
clips I took during that first dive in the tank containing among other
creatures, sharks, groupers, tuna and sea turtles. The rest of this post is about the
contents of the 9 minute video, segment by segment.
The first 50
seconds shows Don and Ali making last minute preps and exchanging final words
as we then submerge and enter the tank space through the entrance of the entry
tub. It’s interesting to see how the air space above the water is completely
draped with thick black plastic with banks of bright spotlights at the central
apex.
There is an
immediate thrill when realizing that there is nothing but water between me and
the big fish swimming around the tank. They pass around, above and below us
without seeming to care about our presence. I’m not sure if I felt blessedly invisible
or satisfyingly accepted; either way, it was cool.
I thought
the sight of being so close to the sharks would be off-putting, but it wasn’t
like that at all since they convey absolutely no threat whatsoever. There was
no fear at all, only excitement.
It was fun
also to “spy” on occasion on the “civilian” observers under the curved clear tunnel
plastic. Some of them seemed more taken
with us scuba divers than with the sea creatures around us. I do know that a
lot of them took a lot of photos of me; every so often they’d flash me good
with their camera strobes. I had to laugh into my regulator at one point during
the fish feeding period when suddenly I heard an almost urgent knocking on the
glass tunnel upon which I was resting. I glanced down and saw this odd looking
Asian man giving me the strangest look. He reminds me of one of the Dumb-n-Dumber characters, probably because of that bowl haircut. I suppose he was compelled to demand my acknowledgement.
I nodded and went back to my fish watching. Check him out. He’s in the video
almost 8 minutes in.
Twice in the
video I was fortunate to have one of the large green sea turtles pass very
near, looking for a food handout more than likely. At 6:10 you can see what it’s
like to swim with one while holding onto its shell. I placed the camera atop of
its back and followed along just behind it while lightly grasping the edge of
its shell. I did this several times and learned not to hold on too tight. It
would let me know to let go by jerking its shell hard side to side. As long as
I didn’t impinge its motion though, it was completely happy to let me tag
along.
Don was kind
enough to take the camera from me a time or two to get me in some shots. At
about 4 minutes into the clip I can be seen closely inspecting the big fleshy
colored female shark as she lays uncharacteristically (for sharks) on the tank
floor. I was thinking it might be sick but I soon figured out what it was
doing. It lays there with its snout inches away from a pipe pumping in oxygenated
water. Normally, sharks must stay in motion to allow water to pass along its
gills so it can “breathe.” In this case the big girl is lazily letting the
onrushing water do all the work for her—a very smart shark that.
Oh, and
there is another pipe providing the same rush of oxygen rich water to her right, closer to the viewing tunnel where some of the groupers and other smaller
sharks do the same thing as the big female. In fact, in the very next segment I
approach very closely another smaller spotted shark with its gills being washed
by the pipe water. Putting the camera right in its face next to its right eye
you can see it idly staring back.
At 7:31 the
big female becomes excited by feeding time when two of the Thai tank workers on
scuba sets come in with buckets full of small fish. You can see in the video
how close she comes to me and in fact she didn’t just pass near but fully
pounded into my side with a thud. She did that three times. The first time she
powerfully bashed me full into the back of my hamstrings making me think that
either Don or Ali had just banged into me for some reason. I swung around to
confront my attacker and imagine my surprise when I realized that I had just
been powerfully tackled by a very large excited shark. All the fish approached
me in similar fashion on occasion during the feeding time, I suppose since they
have been conditioned to associate divers with being fed. Ali had warned me
about that, telling me to keep my distance. But it was awesome. How many people
can say they’ve had something like that happen to them?
Watching the
two Thai fellows go about their feeding duties I notice they opt not to wear
fins, instead keeping their buoyancy negative so that they can keep their feet
mostly on the bottom. I’m thinking that they do it that way so that they can
stay vertical, otherwise, trying to manhandle the sharks with one hand while
shoving the bucket of fish into their snout with the other would be nearly
impossible.
After more
than 45 minutes in that first tank Ali gave us the “get out of Dodge sign”
indicating the end of the dive. After a short break we headed over to the next
marine tank containing the huge rays. The next post and video will cover that
dive. Until then….