| Big Blue Khao Lak Blog |
|
Big Blue Blog
Sunday 9th January
We are very happy to celebrate Kayleigh Newman's new promotion; she became our Operation Co-ordinator at the beginning of December. She is now in charge of ensuring things go right in the office and on the boats! A big role that she has taken on with a huge smile and an enthusiastic good mood!
Mihoko, Dive Master from Big Blue Koh Tao, arrived at the end of November to give a hand to Naomi in the office and take care of our Japanese guests. She is so quiet that it is hard to imagine that she is an ex-professional Cheerleader! She is a complete God-send; always working hard, always smiling and always feeding you Japanese sweets!
Never before have we had a Dive Master Trainee such as Claire; a beautiful French lady, with a huge heart and a fantastic attitude. Of course, she passed her PADI DMT course with great success.
Tuesday 9h of November
Pawara boat came back from the first trip on sunday and all the customers came back with a big smile, making the rest of us wanting to go out on the next trip which is on thursday the 11th. We´re looking forward to see some friends coming over to join us from Koh Tao for this trip and also new customers. Tomorrow Thursday we are inviting our colleagues from Khao Lak and Phuket to come and see Pawara and to have a snack and refreshments. It will be nice to get a face to the people we are talking to mostly every day. After that we get ready for the liveaboard trip, do lots of diving and hopefully get some of the lost suntan back.Thursday 4th of November
MV Pawara left the pier last night for the first liveaboard trip for the season, very exiting!!!
The weather is clear and what we have heard the vis is great and so far they have dived at the chinese wreck and East of Eden.
For us who did not make it out on this trip are looking forward to see photos when they all come back!
Monday 1st of November 2010
Our shop is now Open for the new season. After a lot of clearing up and getting the shop ready we are now a new team that is looking forward to our first liveaboard trip with MV Pawara on the 3rd.
Some of the crew went to the pier yeasterday to have a look at her and she looks great!
For this season we have a new manager,
Deano
He has worked as an instructor for Big Blue on Koh Tao for the last 5 years and was asked if he would want to take on a new challenge as a manager of Big Blue Khao Lak.
So here he is, starting to get lots of grey hair, going to bed early, drinking lots of coffee and trying to keep everyone happy, so far so good.
Wibeke
Has been living on and off on Koh Tao for the last 6 years. She will be working in the Khao Lak and our Ban Niang shop.
Kayleigh
Started to work for Big Blue on Koh Tao but for the last couple of years she has been with the Khao Lak team, working in the shops.
This season she will also work as a dive master as well as working a long side with Wibeke.
Dmo
He is our new boatmaster who has been in Khao Lak for the last 3 years after living on Koh Tao. He is an SSI and PADI instructor who will be our trip leader on M/V Pawara making sure that our customers have a good time.
Dennis
SSI and PADI instructor. He has been working for Big Blue Koh Tao.
Dennis is our German instructor who has worked with diving around the world and will be on M/V Pawara and our speedboat.
Pierre
Also coming over from Big Blue Koh Tao.
He is SSI and PADI instructor from France who will be working on M/V Pawara and our speedboat as well.
Panos
Our Greek/German SSI and PADI instructor has been with Big Blue Khao Lak together with Kayleigh for the last couple of years, he is based on land as our equipment technician but will also work on our speedboat.
Dan
Our videographer on MV/ Pawara
This team will work together with our Japanese
Takeshi, one of the two owners of Big Blue
Naomi, takes care of the Japanese customers in our shops
Mihoko, will help Naomi in the shops
Kuma, instructor and our own sumo wrestler
Mayuko, instructor and our flag designer
and of course we have our great Thai staff, both on land and on our boats!!
We are all looking forward to this season!!
Wednesday 17th March 2010
Another gorgeous day in Khao Lak - the sun is shining, the sky is blue, a fab day to be out on the boat diving!
The Pawara's exploring Richelieu Rock and Koh Tachai Pinnacle today, they'll be able to watch the sunset over the ocean, then a dive tonight at
Koh Tachai reef, a really cool divesite to night dive - often giant morays hunting, parrotfish asleep in their little bubbles, all different kinds of shrimp and crabs, octopus out and about...
Meanwhile our speedboat has whizzed out a boatload of customers to the northern Similans for some stunning diving and snorkelling around islands 8 and 9.
The snorkellers get to chill out in Donald Duck Bay, known locally as 'shoe bay' ( I think the rock the bay's named after looks much more like a shoe than a duck!) - an island paradise with the ubiquitous Similan white sand and turquoise waters - and see the plentiful marine life in the shallows whilst snorkelling, whilst the divers head off to explore the boulders of North Point looking for leopard sharks and the reef at Three Trees in search of turtles.
There's so many fantastic things to see whilst diving the Similan Islands, the macro nudibranchs and frogfish to the big sharks and rays, and a multitude of stunning fish and animals in between, you never know what surprises you're going to find during a dive!
We get a few species of marine life in the Similans that are a bit more rare than most, one of these being the bowmouth guitarfish. We see shovelnose rays sometimes too (both species are also known as guitar sharks) but a group of divers were lucky enough to find one of the bowmouth guitarfish at Breakfast Bend a couple of days ago. They're quite elusive, good spotting!
Now I know it seems like all we do is work, but sometimes we do get to party! Since Christmas was so chaotic for everyone, we deferred the festive jollies and celebrated Rick-mas the other day at Fanette and Rick's lovely new abode, it was really good to hang out with everyone, catch up and talk about non-work related events....we even popped open a bottle of champagne at midnight - Happy Rick's Year everyone! :)
- Amanda
Sunday 14th March 2010
Our latest addition to the divemaster training team - Patrick from Finland - is sailing through his course! Patrick decided that he wanted a life of sun, sand and sea so left his life of studying economics for a while and is out here for a while joining Kayleigh to become a divemaster!
As if there weren't enough cool dive sites to visit, we've started going to another one! We've been heading out via longtail to the Seachart, a relatively new local wreck about 5km off Khao Lak. It's less than a year old but already chock-full of life, if you look carefully there's a couple of ornate ghost pipefish, and loads of juvenile fish. Along for the latest trip was DMT Patrick, but this time he wasn't there so much to see the beautiful marine life, his task on the trip was to map the wreck.
As part of the Divemaster programme you take part in mapping all or part of one of the dive sites in the area, so a couple of dives spent observing, measuring and documenting the depths, topography and coral help to give us all a better picture of the dive sites, which we can then use on the boats to give new divers an ides of the sites they're about to dive.
Mapping project out of the way and the DMT pair are in the pool today completing a skills circuit with Calvin, they will be practicing and demonstrating the 20 skills from the PADI skill evaluation, and performing equipment exchanges. Throughout their internship they'll be involved in assisting on courses and leading certified divers, and they'll be assessed on their watermanship and knowledge on subjects ranging from diving physiology, the environment and dive physics. Good luck with the exams guys! We'll be in the other room coming up with crazy ideas for your end-of-course Divemaster challenge :)
Still lots of mantas around for people, a lucky group of snorkellers saw them along with the divers at Koh Bon, and we've also seen them at Anita's Reef and West of Eden, rather unusual dive sites to see the manta rays at, but no less appreciated!
- Amanda
Monday, March 1, 2010
For anyone who's been on one of our recent Pawara trips, you might have been greeted by me saying "Sorry, our normal boat master Ric (also known as Boat Ric as I am known as Office Rick) will not be on this trip as his girlfriend is expecting twins any day now". We'll as of March 27th, Ric and his girlfriend gave birth to two healthy beautiful girls. Mom and girls are doing great. Now that the season is slowing down, Big Blue is going back to one speedboat. We had two speedboats for the majority of the season, with one going to Richelieu Rock and Koh Bon and Tachai, with the other going to the Similans every day. Well, March is when things start to slow down a bit, so we've cut back to one speedboat. Which makes it the perfect time to come. Great visibility, hardly any waves, more Mantas and not as many divers.
-Rick
Tuesday 2nd February 2010 Apologies for the delay in updating, what with back-to-back liveaboards on MV Pawara and more day trips on the speedboats out to the Similan islands and Richelieu Rock than you can blow bubbles at, things have been crazily busy West-side! Koh Bon and Koh Tachai (2 of the islands North of the Similans) have been proving immensely popular recently – not only are they beautiful dive sites, the visibility’s been great, with flat seas making the journey time to Koh Bon less than an hour - our favourite ocean residents are back!
The manta rays are here and are as playful as ever, up to 5 metres big, these gentle giants make for some fantastic diving experiences, either cruising over the coral reef at Koh Bon or barrel rolling and diving around and over the rocks at Tachai, they’re certainly a sight to behold – lucky fundivers the day before yesterday on a daytrip with one dive at each site and mantas at each too! Big Blue just certified 2 of our youngest (and most energetic!) students ever! Joep and Sjoerd passed their Open Water course making 4 amazing dives in the Similans. Rick has already offered them jobs when they become instructors as these guys speak 4 languages each! Also Ralph got his Bubblemaker certificate at the same time – a whole family of scuba divers J Hope to see you soon guys – come back next year for your Advanced Course!
Outside of our Khao Lak bubble, the rest of the world is realising more and more what a fragile ecosystem coral reefs are. According to a new study reported in the journal ‘Science’, coral reefs give rise to many more new species that other tropical marine habitats – new species originate 50% faster in the reefs than in other habitats. Coral reefs are often compared to rainforests in terms of their biodiversity as they give shelter to such a huge number of different marine species, and the destruction of this ecosystem could be devastating to the planet. The planet is losing 2% of its reefs each year, mainly due to human activity, and we need to act now to preserve the coral reefs before it’s to late. Save our seas!
Back to Khao Lak, and the last few Pawara trips have also been very successful, lots of mantas, leopard sharks, some white tips at Elephant Head Rock and Koh Bon plus the usual array of weird and wonderful macro life – seahorses, nudibranchs and ghost pipefish aplenty We’ve had a fantastic mix of people on the boats, newer divers and seasoned divers, plus a multitude of different nationalities.
Last but not least, felt I should mention our techie friends too. The technical diving crew from Koh Tao came across as part of their round-Thailand trip exploring the depths, caves and shipwrecks of the ocean, and headed out on the daytrips to Richelieu and the Similans,
plus a trip out on the liveaboard to show us recreational divers what we’re missing out on. Shame they ruined their macho image by being as excited by the manta rays as we were ☺Monday Friday 1st January 2010
Happy New Year!! Hope you all had a wonderful time last night – we did! New Year’s Eve is one of the few nights you can guarantee the majority of us will be out together in Khao Lak to raise a glass at midnight, and watch the sky fill with fire lanterns. Fun times in the Happy Snapper, live music, and so many fireworks you don’t know which bit of the sky to watch! Let’s hope that 2010 is a happy and successful year!
Some of us had slightly more sober celebrations than others, so we could cruise out to the Similans this morning, for a day at the office just like any other. Except our office has turquoise water, white sands, palm trees and spectacular marine life. (You know you all want to trade jobs!) A beautiful day in paradise…and some more stunning diving! Well worth sticking to the fruit juice last night, because the new decade got off to a fantastic start today, with a manta ray at Elephant Head Rock and 3 turtles at Breakfast Bend – end result: speedboats full of very happy divers (and dive guides)!
No rest for the wicked here, it’s all go go go, we’re wonderfully busy and filling up spaces fast on the speedboats out to the Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock – so come into the shop in advance if you’re wanting to book up some fun dives and we’ll get you out diving some gorgeous sites with some really cool (and modest ☺) Big Blue instructors and divemasters!
- Amanda
Tuesday 29th December 2009
Happy Holidays everyone! Here’s hoping you all had a fantastic Christmas – we certainly did! Santa brought us our new speedboat as an early Christmas present, so we’ve now got one speedboat taking us to Richelieu Rock, Koh Tachai and Koh Bon, and a second speedboat going to the Similans every day – so many choices of beautiful dive sites!
The Pawara arrived back from its Christmas trip yesterday, 4 days and 4 nights around the Similan Islands, same schedule, but this time with added festive cheer and we spent the whole trip (diving, beach trips, breakfast!) wearing Santa hats!
It wasn’t the most traditional Christmas, but it was glorious weather, awesome diving and fab company – couldn’t ask for more really!
The day trip out to the Boonsung Wreck today was also amazing, great visibility and a macro paradise, so many nudibranchs and different morays, ornate ghost pipefish, plus a few cuttlefish getting jiggy with it just to liven up the dive!
Just two days left of 2009, time to start thinking of some Resolutions for the New Year perhaps?! Actually, since we’re off to Koh Bon tomorrow, I’m going to focus my thoughts on hoping for some manta rays for our divers! - Amanda
Saturday December 19th 2009
The group from another highly successful and fun trip in the Similans on the Pawara returned yesterday – I can’t think of many better ways to spend 4 days and 4 nights than cruising round the Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock diving a selection of the best dive sites Thailand has to offer!
The dive conditions were brilliant, the weather was stunning (as my Rudolf-stylee sunburned nose and cheeks will attest to) and the marine life spotted was second to none, including baby manta rays, tigertail seahorses, ghost pipefish, leopard sharks and a whole variety of other weird and wonderful fishes. We sent yet another full speedboat of people off to Richelieu Rock today, as the only dive shop to send day trips out there, we’re adding extra trips so that everyone can experience this beautiful divesite – if you don’t have time to fit in a liveaboard, then the day trips are a fantastic way to dive Richelieu, not once but twice! Back on the mainland we’re all getting ready for Christmas - the tree’s up in the shop, (feel free to bring us funky presents to put under it, Santa!) and the advent calendar is being excitedly opened daily for its chocolatey goodness. 6 days to go, hope you’ve all been good! - Amanda
Friday 27th November
The oh-so-big McDonalds right opposite us (which has been forcing us all to gain weight for the past few weeks), has now added an extra attraction – a huge Chang Beer Garden! This glorious garden serves ice cold Chang on tap, fried chicken and has a stage for their pretty awesome live band. So come over to the Big Blue shop and sign up for some amazing diving and if you’re lucky, we might even treat you to an ice cream and a pint too! I spoke to my Dad a few of nights ago, who actually told me off for not updating the blog! I am just so pleased that he reads it! (Love you loads Dad =) Sorry it’s a little late people; it has just been so busy! The season has well and truly kicked off, our speedboat is full almost every day, we have seen Manta’s and Whaleshark’s already and the sea is as flat as a pancake and as clear as crystal; we are loving it! - Kayleigh
Similan Islands Beach Clean Up
Takeshi, Naomi, Fanette and I are all eagerly waiting for the return of the Pawara tomorrow after its first liveaboard. Lucky buggers Rick and Panos got to go and they have been reporting back every day to tell us how simply amazing it is. We're not jealous at all! The night they are back, we are hosting an opening party in Khao Lak for our prestigious liveaboard. And what better place to host this party than the Pawara itself! All are welcome to join, tomorrow night, Taplamu Pier, 7pm....
- Kayleigh
Loy Krathong, the Festival of Lights Last Monday was Loy Krathong, the Festival of Lights. This festival is held every year all over Thailand on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. "Loi" means "to float" and "Krathong" is a raft, about a handspan in diameter, traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk, decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles and incense sticks (please thank Kayleigh, one of our newly arrived staff from Koh Tao, for modeling the krathong for us...). During the night of the full moon, many people will release a small raft like this on a river. Governmental offices, corporations and other organizations also build much bigger and more elaborate rafts, and these are often judged in contests.
The festival is widely popular and everybody comes with their friends and families along the rivers and canals, which end up covered with hundreds of these little boats. Also, there usually is a stage set up for a beauty contest (to honor the goddess that inspired the festival), as well as a lot of firecrackers and fireworks, and of course a lot of food stands everywhere (thai people are crazy about their snacks...). The evening usually ends with people releasing a wish lantern in the sky, which makes it for a beautiful skylight !! That very same night, our first liveaboard trip to the Similan islands left for four days - four nights, with 13 customers and 9 staff! Those lucky divers are going to be very well taken care of! I can't wait for them to come back and tell us everything about their trip! -fanette
Nov 1st, 09 - A new line of eco-friendly products
New Eco-friendly products
Phuket Vegetarian Festival
The legend says that the tradition started in 1825 when a Chinese opera Company came to perform in the Kathu district for the Chinese miners Community living there. The whole company got sick from malaria and so decided to go on a strict vegetarian diet to honor the gods and ask for their help. The sickness then disappeared, leading the people of Kathu to embrace a ritual vegetarianism every year from the first evening of the ninth month until the 9th evening. This ritual is now believed to bring good luck to the individuals and the whole community.
The last day of the festival usually end up in a big procession in the evening, involving a lot firecrackers and magnificent fireworks. At midnight the festival ends with the "farewell" to the gods and the next day the lantern poles are lowered in all the temples, marking the very end of the festival. If you looking for more information and pictures about the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, go to : http://www.phuket.com/festival/vegetarian.htm
The Office Takeshi and Naomi, our Japanese Managers, just arrived in Khao Lak yesterday. Like us, they spend the low season in Koh Tao, and come back in October to prepare the new season of diving in the Similans. Koh Tao was still busy with a lot of Japanese customers, so the day before they left, they had to do 4 dives in one day, plus a night dive, and the very next morning, they were on the road to come over here! Now the team is reunited, and the 4 of us work everyday in the office, making everything ready (yeah, I know, it looks like a Starbucks in here with all the laptops... but our coffee is almost as good... and much cheaper!). Tomorrow, we have to go to Phuket because Takeshi says we have a lot of very important things to do there : important paperwork, important shopping for our new office, but also very important sushi dinner to celebrate the beginning of a new season in Khao Lak... I'm all up for that!
Mantas at Richelieu Rock October 19th, 2009 Our first customer has returned from his liveaboard on the Similan islands, and he was very happy with his trip. Indeed, they saw 2 mantas at Richelieu Rock! So early in the season it is very rare… We take this as a very good sign of a great manta season!
-fanette
First liveaboard trip to the Similan in less than 2 weeks! Here we are, just a little over two weeks before our first live aboard to the Similan islands. We have cleaned the shop, serviced the equipment, and we have almost opened the shop in Khao Lak… I say almost because we are there everyday to work on getting everything ready, but we don’t exactly have a boat yet… However, we’ve had our first customer anyway! He wanted to go on a Similan liveaboard, so we sent him on our partner’s boat! He hasn’t come back yet, but our friends already diving in Khao Lak at the moment say that the sea is flat like a pancake and the visibility is 30 to 35m!! Can’t wait for us to have our own boat, November 2nd! -fanette
October 12th 2009
The season has officially started last Thursday, at the Grand Opening of the Happy Snapper, the Headquarter for all the dive staff in town. For the six months of the low season, when all the dive shops are shut, most of the dive staff leaves the Similan to go working in some other places in Thailand or Asia. Then everybody comes back about a month before the beginning of the season to re-open their shops and get everything ready. All these people, all our friends from last season, where at the Grand Opening. It felt great to see them all, everybody was hugging, trying to catch up on those 6 months in other parts of the world. It felt like being back home… But after a couple of hours, it actually felt like we never really left. We stayed until the bar closed, enjoying the company, the live music and quite a few drinks.
If you’ve checked our website a few times in the past couple weeks, you may have noticed that we have decided to start running our own speedboat on November 10th. We are still running Similan day trips starting on the 1st of November, but we’ve decided because the beginning of November is usually not so busy, that we would team up with another dive school, use their boat and split the costs. It’s a much more ecologically friendly idea than 2 schools each running boats that are half full. And we think November will be the perfect time to start running trips- the weather reports right now have pretty big waves and high winds for the next week or two, meaning most companies running their boats now have to cancel all their trips. This is a good sign – a rough October usually means a great November in terms of weather. -fanette & rick
October 7th 2009
That’s it, we finally made it! After hours of packing and loading the truck; after pushing and howling the same truck with a full load of our stuffs but a completely empty battery; after arriving to a house on which we paid a deposit, but was already lived in, we are finally at home in Khao Lak, in a beautiful big house with a gorgeous garden! Not that we use it much lately because unfortunately it is raining most days… We spend a few days sorting out our new house and as soon as we could, we made a trip to Phuket. Our new boat, the MV Pawara, is on a shipyard, getting ready for its first trip to the Similans. The shipyard is quite an amazing place with all the massive boats on scaffolding... With its 35m long, the Pawara looks even bigger out of the water! A team of painters, carpenters, plumbers and cleaners work on the boat 10 hours a day to make sure everything is perfect. If only they could spend a few hours at our place to make it look as nice! -fanette
September 28th 2009 It is amazing the amount of stuff you can gather in 5 years… You never realize that you own so many things until you decide to move. After 5 years spent living on Koh Tao, Rick and I have decided to leave the island and permanently move to Khao Lak. Last season we worked in Khao Lak but we kept the house in Koh Tao with the intention of coming back. This year we have chosen to leave the house for good and move everything to Khao Lak; furniture, clothes, dive gear, TV, oven and stove, "the man’s drawer", 2 bicycles, 3 motorbikes, 2 cats, you name it! And all of this will have to fit in one truck… it's 24 hours prior to our departure and we are almost packed, then we will spend 6 hours on the night boat to Chumphon and about a 6 hour drive to Khao Lak !
September 8th, 2009 Is it that time of year again already? Time flies when you're doing emails for hours each day. :) Well, here at Big Blue Khao Lak, we've been incredibly busy for the past month. So busy, I haven't had time to even update the blog. But trust me, you're going to love what we have in store for you this season. Last season, Big Blue operated the Blue Dolphin, our 21-diver speedboat going to the Similans, Richelieu Rock and Koh Bon and Tachai. This boat was brand new last season and was one of the fastest and quietest and most eco-friendly speedboats operating. We had an incredibly successful season, with our boat fully booked almost every day. So this season we've decided to give people what they were asking for - a second speedboat. With this second speedboat, we'll be able to make snorkeling and diving trips to the Similans every day of the week. We've done this for the benefit of our customers who stay in hotels north of Khao Lak. For these people, going to the Similans meant going on one of our two trips per week, or having to get up one of the other 5 days at 6am to catch a very early taxi. Now, with 7 trips a week to the Similans, we can let these people sleep in until 8am and still enjoy a full day at the islands any day of the week. And of course, this frees up our second boat so we can give people the other thing they were asking for - more Richelieu trips per week. Last year 3 trips per week were not enough - we had people on waiting lists all the time. This year, we'll increase the number of trips to Richelieu, Koh Bon and Koh Tachai! But theres one small problem - we cant think of a name for this second boat. So we're asking you, our customers, to submit your best ideas to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it We'll pick a winning name on October 1. If we pick yours, you win a free diving day trip to any of our destinations! The other big news for Big Blue, is our liveaboard. Actually, its not big news, at 35 meters long, its HUGE news. Big Blue is now operating the MV Pawara, a 35 meter, 20 customer all-steel liveaboard. Details about the boat are on this website in the liveaboard section, but many more photos and details will be following soon. April 21, 2009
Big Blue just ran our last speedboat trip on April 17th. Thanks to all of you that made this such a wonderful season. Big Blue just finished our best season EVER. And we owe it all to you, our customers who recommended us to your friends and family, our partners who trusted us with thier clients, and took such good care of the ones we sent to you. On behalf of the entire Big Blue Khao Lak team, we want to send a big thanks out to everyone. And keep your eyes open for even bigger things at Big Blue next season!! We'll be opening back up around early October, same as every year. -Rick February 21, 2009
January 30th, 2009
And we've got another Koh Tao'er out here in the Similans for a while. Another long time Big Blue veteran, Barry, has come out to Khao Lak for a month to help us out during this busy season and enjoy a bit of the diving on this coast. Unfortunately, he was stolen by our friendly neighbors, Wicked Diving, to work on their liveaboard for a few days. What can I say, Big Bluers are in demand. Our DMT Micheal has just finished his course - in record time. 3 weeks, start to finish. This was helped by the fact he came to us with almost all the 60 dives he needed, but there was still a lot of classroom and assisting work which he completed by putting in a lot of late nights. Congratulations Mike, welcome to the ranks of professional divers! Lastly, some of the Big Blue staff here have decided to start taking Thai language lessons. After having lived here for some time, our Thai is still not yet what it should be. So if you come in to the office Tuesdays and Thursdays and here a bunch of poorly pronounced Thai, you'll know why.
January 20th, 2009 Big Blue Khao Lak has a DMT! For those who don't know, a DMT is a DiveMaster in Training. This is someone who has chosen to go in to diving as a profession and is taking the DiveMaster course to get certified to work as a diver. The Similans are a great place to do your DiveMaster, but here at Big Blue, we limit the number of customers on our boat to 16 to keep things comfortable, so theres not always room to put a DMT on the boat. Therefore we price our DMT course a little higher than some other shops. But we've also got an amazingly loyal fan base. One of Chris's students from last year returned all the way from Germany just to do his course with Chris. He refused to do his training with anyone else, regardless of how much less it would be. So we'll be putting out one more Similans-trained DiveMaster. What a place to do it! :) January 11th, 2009
January 5th, 2009 Happy new year!! December 25th, 2008 Merry Christmas from Big Blue!!! December 19th, 2008 When this blog doesnt get updated for a while, you can sort of consider that a good thing. It means that things are busy enough that I don't have time to do it.
November 28th, 2008 I had something really nice which I had planned to write for this blog entry. It was about an ordinary moment drinking beers with our boat staff after an all-night work session getting the boat ready for the first day. I know that moment was a bit ordinary, but I also know it will be one of those moments that I'll look back upon years from now and think about how really extrordinary it was. But since the news of the airport closings, I think I'll leave that story to another time. If you're planning to come to Thailand soon, then you've seen the news about the closing of the Bangkok airport. I've said before that it is hard for people here in Khao Lak to believe that this is going on. We never see any type of news here in the beach areas. Locals and foriegners here seem to spend our time enjoying life, so we don't spend time watching the news. Although, when something like an airport closure happens, we hear about it. But we still have trouble believing that this is happening in the same peaceful country that we are surrounded by each day. It really is such a sad thing. I understand the people in Bangkok wanting to be heard. They want change and they feel that by making an international incident, they will have their voices heard and will be closer to that change. But what THEY don't understand is the people who they hurt. It's not me, and it's not you. I can work somewhere else if the tourism industry is hurt too bad, and you can vacation somewhere else. But its all of the Thai people around me who have put their lives energy in to creating a business like a resturant, a hotel, or a massage shop. Most of these people were devistated by the Tsunami of 2004. But they survived and went on to rebuild their shops starting with nothing. And of all the people I know who survived and rebuilt their shops, most are still living on the money they earn each month, and they right now are depending on this tourist season to help them through the rest of the year. And now the groups in Bangkok, who are from the same country as my neighbors, are putting my neighbors hopes in danger. So, all I ask of you is this. Keep an eye on the news in Thailand, and do what is best for your safety and those you are traveling with, but if you can keep your travel plans to Thailand, please do. The country is still beautiful and full of smiling faces. And when you do make it here, please support as many locally-owned businesses as you can. Stay in Thai-owned hotels rather than big international hotels , and eat at the little stalls on the side of the road- their food is better anyway. :) November 16th, 2008
We actually just had 2 big festivals here in Khao Lak, the national Loy Kratong Festival and local Season Start Festival. The "Season Start" festival was on our doorstep. Quite literally. They shut down the road in front of the office and lined it with about 150 tents, each one selling or making something different. Some tents even sell 'kratongs' which are little floats that people set adrift in the sea on the night of Loy Kratong (the 12th of Nov), but for the most part the tents are just local businesses wishing each other a good season. Its sunny, the hotels are open, the dive operators are running, the fishing and cruise boats are running. All round, its looking like a good season start. The other fesitival was Loy Kratong and its a big one. Its probably second biggest festival in As promised earlier, here is the picture of the 5 guitar sharks found by our Chris on one of his recent dives. The big one as 3m long!! Click the photo to see the full size image.
November 6th, 2008 The beautiful weather has returned to Khao Lak. Not a drop of rain since my last update. And its all because of me. Because we were getting so much rain, I decided it would be a good time to plant some new grass on a couple of bare patches in front of the shop. Since that day, we haven't had a drop. You're welcome.
Chris got back from working another liveaboard yesterday (and he's back out again today). He decided to go in a different direction than usual on one of the more popular divesites, just to explore. Well, looking for leapoard sharks mostly. He didnt find any. Instead, he found 5 guitar sharks!! One female about 3 meters, surrounded by 4 males about 1.5 meters. Unfortunately, they were at 32 meters deep and his camera was rated to 30m and it flooded. The camera died, but the memory card survived, so pics will follow soon. So we're still making improvements to the shop, and spending some time this week servicing our Nitrox system, which should be functional by the 15th. That means any customer can request Nitrox, or if you've never tried it but want to learn about it, we're set up to teach you. October 30th, 2008 Mantas Mantas Mantas!!! Just a few days ago one of our friends from another dive shop saw several Manta Rays which hung around Koh Bon for quite some time. Very unusual for this time of year, but no one is complaining!! However, in the last 2 days the weather has turned a bit rough (not unusual for this time of year) so no trips to Koh Bon until probably November 3rd or 4th. We’re still diving, but just limiting our dive sites to the Similans. Happy birthday to Big Blue! So we’re celebrating our 5th year in Khao Lak. If you work in a dive shop, you know what that means. Its tank testing time. There are strict standards about maintaining and testing scuba equipment, such as scuba tanks have to undergo a very rigid test every 5 years called a hydro test. So the customers who’ve come in the shop in the past week have been treated to the loud sound of our tank valves being removed as we get ready to send the tanks to Phuket for testing. Sorry about the noise. As a Khao Lak employee, we have to drive a car from time to time, so one of my first tasks was to get my Thai drivers license the other day. The road test was the easiest I’ve ever seen in any country. It was done in a parking lot and consisted of 3 skills. Stop on a line, reverse through a narrow space, and parallel park. There were about 12 people taking the test with me, and of the 8 that went before me, NONE PASSED! I can’t describe how nervous I was. I thought surely it must be harder than it looks if no one was passing. Some people told me it was their second, third, and fourth times taking the test. It was just as easy as it looked and I passed no problem. However, this does explain some of the things you see on Thai roads. Dr Luba from the SSS diver safety network came to Khao Lak the other day to give all the dive shops a presentation on emergency management. The systems in Khao Lak for handling dive emergencies have always been top notch, and once a year we all get a reminder on how to use all the resources to the best of their potential. This year the parks office has 3 speedboats at different locations just for evacuations, plus a dedicated ambulance in Khao Lak just for divers. So rest easy! Furthermore, Dr Luba is regarded as one of the best diving medical authorities in all of Thailand, and we’re lucky to have him in our province just a phone call away. Thanks again Luba! We had a lot of errands to run in Phuket the other day, so we stopped by the shipyard where our new boat is being built. Its right on track to be in service on November 15th. I must say, it was the best looking of all the boats in the yard. Its about half a meter wider than most speedboats in the Similans, which doesnt sound like a lot, but it's the difference between making the journey to the dive site with your toes under the tank rack, or streched out comfortably. Last but not least, we’ve confirmed our schedule for the 08/09 season which does include THREE trips a week to Richelieu.
The staff are all excited as it’s our favorite site and the more chances we have to go, the happier we are.
Hopefully you’ll feel the same!
Oct 24th, 2008 Well, we finally made it. Most of the Big Blue Khao Lak staff works in Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand for half the year. So for us its 6 months here, 6 months there, and 6 months here.... Takeshi and Naomi made it here a few days ago, and Rick and Fanette made it here only a couple of days ago due to some truck problems before leaving Koh Tao. Even after supposedly getting it fixed the truck broke down TWICE along the 300km road trip. If you've ever lived in Thailand you know the troubles of finding a decent mechanic, if you haven't then pray you'll never have to find out – it’s the most frustrating experience ever. In the end we made it, and the cats even survived the 17 hour ordeal. Yesterday was our first official shop clean-up day. We took down all the cobwebs, swept off all the dust, chased out all the stray cats and started to get organized again. The 4 of us took a couple hours to get it all looking rather presentable. It's still got a little ways to go, but it’s a good start. We're also looking at making some improvements to our shop to make a little more room to relax outside the shop for those customers who like to come back, have a beer and discuss the days diving like we often do. Chris is doing some pre-season work on one of our partner Liveaboard boats. He said the diving has been spectacular and he's already found several hiding spots for frog fish and ghost pipefish, and a rare porcupine stingray he's never seen before. He said he's looking forward to coming back and working at Big Blue as day trip leader as four days in-a-row away from his 2 year old are just too long for him. He says he'll be happy to be able to go home to his family each night. He came in earlier today to help us service some of the regulators - on his day off none the less, what a guy!! On a final note about Chris, his wife is the one that makes all of our food. She also does catering for some of the fancy high-end hotels in the area. We had so many complements on her food last year, and we're happy to say we've agreed to hire her on as Big Blue Chef Extraordinaire again this year. Bon Appetite! As you know, the Similans are only diveable from October to April, so for those other months, those of us working in the dive industry have to find somewhere else to go.
Some stay around Khao Lak, many go to Phuket, but a large number go to Koh Tao. So many so that the day I got here I already knew more people in town than I thought I'd meet all season. Oddly enough, many of the dive staff working at various shops in Khao Lak come from Big Blue Koh Tao. What can I say, we're just diveaholics - we can't get enough of it. However, Big Blue Khao Lak is much smaller than the Koh Tao branch, so there’s not enough room for everyone here. But already I count about 13 Big Blue Koh Tao'ers working at 5 different shops here in Khao Lak. Who knows, maybe we'll even be having Koh Tao reunion parties around town!
Oct 15th, 2008 Well, we're getting ready for the 2008/2009 season here at Big Blue. So far, things seem to be looking good. We have some friends in the Similans right now doing some pre-season exploratory dives and they said that the visibility is already 15M+. That's incredible for this time of year. Usually its less than 10M vis for the early parts of october. So hopefully that's a good sign for a great diving season. And as far as the weather is concerned, its also been sunny and nice for the past 5 weeks. For those of you who knew and dived with Erik Engberg, the Big Blue Khao Lak manager last year, he wont be returning this year. He has some personal projects he's working on, so I'm taking his place. My name is Rick and I've been working for Big Blue for 4 years now. Mostly in Koh Tao, but sometimes I would fill in over in Khao Lak when it was busy. So some of you may have been diving with me before as well. If you have any questions about the upcoming season, please feel free to email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Right now Big Blue is set to open its doors Nov 1st. Some staff will be there as early as Oct 19th servicing the regs and checking out the rest of the equipment and blowing the dust off the furniture. If you're in town, stop by and see us. We'll be taking bookings for trips starting Nov 1st. For those who remember Chris, he will be coming back as well, which we're all extremely happy about. This will be Chris' 4th season with Big Blue and his 8th season in the Similans as a dive leader/instructor. He is known throughout the Khao Lak area as the guy who can find anything on a dive site, and the guy who knows what the currents are doing just by looking at the waters surface. We've always considered ourselves lucky to have him, and again we're happy he's coming back this year. As for other preparations, Big Blue is getting a brand new boat built for the 08/09 season as you read this. It should be finished Nov 15th. It is an exact copy of the boat we had last year, which was the nicest boat working the Similans. If things are busy enough through the season we may be using both, but for now the plan is to be just using the new one. I'll post some build photos soon. Speaking of building, you're reading our brand new website, just completed last week. A lot of the content is from last years website, but its due to be upated soon. If you have any suggestions or things you'd like to see on our new website, just let me know. Lastly, if anyone is curious as to the political feelings inside the country right now, it's quite peaceful. There are some demonstrations in Bangkok by groups who are unhappy with the current government, but the rest of the country is business as usual. Resort bookings seem to be at the same levels as they were last year, so it seems people are able to recognize this as the peaceful protest that it is. I've been to Bangkok several times in the past 2 months and have seen nothing out of the ordinary. Well, that's it for now. I'll try to post up new information here on at least a weekly basis. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll post up the answers here as well as in an email to you. See you in Khao Lak!! -Rick
|
While our liveaboard the MV Pawara keeps on cruising on the amazing Andaman Sea, our speedboat, the Blue Dolphin takes our guests out every day to some of the best dive sites in Thailand. 
.jpg)
The diving reports coming back are incredibly jealousy-inducing, lots of leopard sharks, big rays, few huge napoleon wrasse - our eagle-eyed DMs are finding all kinds of weird and wonderful creatures for the divers - every trip there's something new to see!
Barry's back from his sabattical in Bangkok - he signed up for a Thai language course, so is now back chattering away in Thai to all the boat staff, enriched educationally after his trip, but also culturally - I think he spent as much time in the cinema watching all of the Oscar hopefuls as he did in the classroom! Nice to have you back Bazza :)
Things are still pretty hectic here in Khao Lak, with speedboat trips each day out to the Similans, Koh Tachai and Koh Bon; the Pawara's off out again tonight for another cruise with 20 excited divers, off to partake in some beautiful diving from Richelieu Rock all the way back to the Boonsung Wreck. I'll be crossing my fingers for some lucky diving - hope the big fish come to play for you all!
Wow, so much has happened since our last blog update. Namely we've been really busy with a lot of customers, so we havent had much time to make updates. For those interested, Manta Season is still upon us in the Similans and on most of our trips to Koh Bon or Koh Tachai we are seeing multiple playful Manta Rays. However, make sure you don't book a trip that Rick is working on as he seems to be bad luck. The only trip that Mantas were NOT seen on in the past month was the only trip that Rick WAS on. However, Fanette seems to be the good luck charm recently as she saw Mantas in the North Similan Islands the other day, which is quite a rarity.
Last but not least, the Big Blue Tech Team from Koh Tao made one of their regular trips out here recently and kidnapped Rick and Fanette and took them to the Koh Sok National Park and made them go cave diving. It was a very awesome experience. The caves were formed when the valley was dry over millions of years, but was flooded 25 years ago when they build the dam. So theres a lot of stalagtites and stalagmites you can swim around. Another neat thing is that there are forrests of trees underwater, standing where they did the day it flooded. They dont fall over naturally because there are no large waves and no currents, but they're so brittle you can push over a 10m tall giant tree with one finger. If you want to try to get on one of their cave trips, check out www.bigbluetech.net
%20bubblemaker%20(ralph).jpg)
We’ve had honeymooners on board, and then last trip even had an underwater proposal – congratulations to Erica and Christian who popped the question underwater and got engaged in style in the Similans! Who wants to get married on the Pawara?!
Another beautiful days diving at Richelieu Rock yesterday! We had a full speedboat of excited divers go out to the world-
famous dive site. There were sightings of Giant Moray Eels, a new type of Ghost Pipefish, Durban Dancing Shrimp, Stone Fish, Harlequin Shrimps, Scorpion Fish, Tiger-tail Seahorse’s and much more! Jealous anyone? Naomi, Panos and I, who had been sat in the shop all day, certainly weren’t...
Speaking of fishies, this undated photo released by Census of Marine Life and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shows a transparent sea cucumber, Enypniastes. It is creeping forward on its many tentacles at about 2 cm per minute while sweeping detritus-rich sediment into its mouth at 2,750 meters in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. The Census of Marine Life’s latest report has claimed that there is 5,600 new species in addition to the 230,000 already recorded! Scientists hope to increase the figure by thousands before the census is done in October 2010. In the tally, researchers have cataloged 17,650 species below a depth of 656 feet (where sunlight ceases). Who would have thought?!
A couple of days ago, Amanda and I got down and dirty by helping to clean the beaches of Similan Islands 4 and 8. We were joined by a team of enthusiastic workers from IQ Diving, Wetzone, Scandinavian Divers and
As for me, this is my first time in Khao Lak and I have now been here for 2 weeks. It is safe to say, I love it! The place is awesome, the people are fantastic, the diving is out of this world, the islands are stunningly beautiful, the work is great, and to top it off, there is a huge McDonalds right opposite our shop! All I can see from my desk is Ronald McDonald waving me over, tempting me with his 15 baht an ice cream sign. Still haven't decided whether it is a blessing or not....
The festival probably originated in India as a Hindu festival similar to Deepavali as a thanksgiving to the deity of the Ganges for giving life throughout the year. Apart from venerating the Buddha with light (the candle on the raft), the act of floating away the candle raft is symbolic of letting go of all one's grudges, anger and defilements, so that one can start life afresh on a better foot. People will also cut their fingernails and hair and add them to the raft as a symbol of letting go of the bad parts of oneself. Many Thai believe that floating a krathong will create good luck, and they do it to honor and thank the Goddess of Water, Phra Mae Khongkha.
.jpg)
.jpg)
This season, for our brand new liveaboard, we have decided to get some eco-friendly shampoos, conditioners and soaps in every bathroom for our customers. At Big Blue, we strongly believe that we should limit our impact on the environment and for that we do everything we can, including providing chemical-free products to all our divers. Our shampoos and conditioner are made from Prai extracts, a member of the ginger family, that has a long history of use in thai herbalism; It is a well know cleanser and a very effective moisturizer. As for the soaps, we use hand made soaps, prepared locally by 
.jpg)
Right now in the Phuket and Khao Lak areas the Vegetarian Festival is going on. This is an annual event that takes place on the 9th month of the Chinese calendar. Participants go a 10-day vegetarian / vegan diet to get spiritual cleansing and to bring merit for themselves and the Community. For nine days, they are running processions through our town, throwing firecrackers and playing loud drums to scare away the evils and then will walk around in trance performing rituals and self mutilations. It is quite an impressive thing to watch as some of them stick knives through their cheeks, walk on burning coals, climb up ladders made of blades....jpg)
The festival begins with the raising of a Lantern Pole in each temple, with which the gods are invited to descend. At midnight, the pole is hung with nine lanterns signalizing the gods that the festival is about to begin. For the next few days, the locals bring their house gods to the temple, along with offerings of food and drink. It is believed that the house gods will benefit from the spiritual energy that fills the temple. Right now street processions are taking place, where we can see the participants walking the streets in a trance. These 'Ma Song' are devotees whom the gods enter during the festival, giving them protection. They perform self tortures to attract the evils onto themselves in order to relieve the community from them and bring good health and peace of mind.
they show a school of sardines being chased around by sea lions or sharks and they all move around with th
e exact same movements? It's usually one of those really neat scenes in the documentary that you could just watch over and over. Well, on Koh Tachai, you can be in the middle of this scene. Instead of sardines and sea lions, its young fusiliers about the size of your finger (perhaps about 500 of them) being hunted by a group of about a dozen trevally, the biggest ones being about 60-70 cms long. If you swim out to the school of fusiliers they apparently feel safer being around you so they swarm around divers, making it feel like the trevallies are hunting YOU. Great dive!! Also, theres a nice leopard shark hanging around that seems to like to follow dive groups. 
I asked Chris if he could think about anything in particular to write about for the blog, as I spend most of my days in the office, and he spends his on the boat. I seem to always be mentioning the masses of Manta Rays we've been having, so I wanted to talk about something else. Chris said, "Honestly, its been the best week of diving in the Similans I've had in years. We've had multiple Mantas on SEVERAL sites, we've found Harlequin Shrimps on Richelieu for the first time this year, we've located twice the number of Ghost Pipefish, and the seas are glass-flat." Well put, Chris.
I'd say the average Big Blue customer makes about 2-3 dive trips with us while they're here. Then there are those who come and make just one trip. And then there are those who come soley to dive and just dive as much as they can in their 2 weeks here. Usually we just get a few people like this each season. Its rare we have 2 of them at once, but in January we did. And they both left on the same day. Last night we bid farewell to Kathleen and Lars. They didn't know each other before 2 weeks ago, but by the end of the trip, they'd had logged more dives with each other than most couples log with each other. Both of these people did so many dives with us, we had to use the back of their check-in form to log all their trips. It's customers like that who bring so much energy to the shop, that it seem so quiet when they leave. I guess it also helped that they'd hang at the shop with all the staff each night for our nightly post-dive beers. Farwell to you guys, and we'll see you next season!
Well, the year has started off quite well here in Khao Lak. After a slow start to things this season with the airports closing, tourists have come out to Thailand in record numbers. Here at Big Blue, we've been extremely busy with our Japanese customers. As you may know, Big Blue Khao Lak is half Swedish owned and half Japanese owned. So there is a lot of marketing done in Tokyo. So over the past 2 weeks, our own boat has been full with our customers from Japan, and we've had to rent a second boat just to accomodate the rest of our customers. Personally, the Japanese customers are some of my favorites. They tend to bring a lot of gifts and food to share with the staff here. This year in particular we had a Sushi chef diving with us who made in-house Sushi for us each night. No fish used were caught on his dives that day. :)
day for everyone living here. I do say everyone, because even for people like me who were not here whne the Tsunami happened, I still have a lot of close friends who were here, and just seeing them be affected by the anniversary is moving. But it's also a nice reminder of the spirit of perseverance. To see the photos of the damage, and see how much has been rebuilt and to re-live the stories of heroism and kindness is really touching as well. There is a memorial in Khao Lak which is actually an old patrol boat which was washed inland about 1km. It stands as the local Tsunami memorial, and it's where people gather for the anniversary. I just happened to walk out of the shop at about 8pm and saw a non-stop string of wish-lanterns going up to the sky. People were releasing them by the thousands. It was a truly awesome sight.
Christmas time until last night. Probably because things have been pretty busy. See, this time of year is when so many of you decide to come on vacation, which means it's when we actually work the hardest. So I think for me, what gets me in the Christmas spirit is looking forward to that last day of work before you have your Christmas holiday. That was the feeling I was missing. 
Festival time is upon is again. One thing you'll realize about Asia is that they love their festivals here. When I first started traveling in this part of the world, I really thought that I just lucked out being in the right cities at the right times while they were having festivals. Now, after several years living here I've just realized that there are festivals here all the time. Wait and see, when you plan your trip here, see if it happens to fall in a festival week.
