Kuala Lumpur

The Sama-Sama hotel Kuala Lumpur was pretty fantastic.
I had a haircut, a facial, went to the gym, was lazy by the swimming pool and enjoyed really good lamb chops and sirloin steak! I also had the best breakfast buffe I've ever had.
Sama-Sama was a really nice place to stay for a few days, the staff were really helpful and service minded.
The room was nice and the bed was amazingly comfortable.

I got back on Koh Tao Monday afternoon and on Tuesday I was back with conservation again, it was wonderful to get back into "work".

It's been a nice busy week with both diving and land work.

From the 10th of June until the 24th of June I will be handling the dive shop and administratiion with the different places to rent that are connected to the diveshop. I'll also handle all the money in and out, dive planning etc etc. Luckily I have some great people around me in the dive instructors, DMs and the other staff, people I think will help me out with the stuff that I'm new to.
It's a big trust Dev has given me and I will do my very best to do an excellent job even if this is something completely new for me.
Dev asked for my help since he needed to go to England for a wedding, and of course I wanted to help him out. But I will miss "my" conservation team and diving loads!!

I'm getting closer and closer to my 100th dive. Tradition is that you do that one naked but since I don't want to kill of all the marine life by giving them a heart attack I'll keep clothes on :)

I'm also posting a few photos from when I was on Koh Samui to see my sister. These restaurants serve sharks, and I hope people will not support their business. Sharks are not only very rare their meat is also filled with toxins and urea!

Kuala Lumpur on Friday

Friday morning I leave Koh Tao for getting my next 60 days. Also this time I'm going to Kuala Lumpur, but to another hotel which looks really nice.
http://www.samasamahotels.com/home

I going to enjoy their swimming pool, the fitness center and I think I will go to the beauty salon (I really need to get scrubbed and my skin is in desperate need for a facial :)) and of course their food, which by the looks of it will be pretty amazing.
With a little luck I might even be able to get my hair cut, it is really really in need of that. I'm starting to look like a scarecrow.
I am also going to enjoy things we normally take for granted, like hot water, clean sheets, fast internet and a nice bed and a TV :)

I'll post my review of the things I try out there, and you'll probably gonna get lots of food pictures :)

It's going to be nice just to be by myself for a few days, relaxing.

I'm most of you already know, but the Thai military has taken over power. They got tired of the fights that's been going on in Bangkok for quite some time.
There are no restrictions for tourists or anything, and of course here on Koh Tao everything is peaceful and lovely as always. I didn't even know about the Military siezing power (haven't watched the news for ages) until someone told me about it.

Two sea snakes!!!

Today we had a day off from work and did a fun dive at the Satakutt wreck and Pee Wee Rock. At Pee Wee we saw not only one sea snake but two!!
It was amazing!

Wohooo!! It's Monday!!

Mondays are EMP (Ecological Monitoring Program) day!!

After a relaxing weekend where I spent most of my time in the diveshop doing some touching up on the slates, data entering and also learning a little about how to run the dive shop and hotels, it is finally Monday!
Friday we also had a good bye dinner for Michelle, and she and I + a couple of the guys went for a drink after. She's a lovely lady and I will miss having her around, even though she was only here for a short time.

Today I did fish EMP and also a photo transect in Chalok Bay, after that I entered the data in our database.
Sadly the corals are not looking great, it is a lot of bleaching in them, it is really heartbreaking to see.
After my job was done I swam around and actually managed to take two of my best photos so far, one is of a Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray and the other of a beautful marbled Seacucmber feeding. Maybe my photoskills underwater is improving, guess you'll be the judge of that. :)

I'm looking forward to my trip to Kuala Lumpur this weekend, I'll be staying for 3 nights at Sama Sama hotel. Their reviews are really good and I can't wait to have a hot shower, sleep in crispy sheets, go to the gym and enjoy the absolutely wonderful Malaysian cuisine. For me, Malay food is the best in the world.

Yesterday I also had a call from my mum and dad, it always lifts my spirits talking to them. They are the best parents anyone could ask for, and I look forward seeing them in a few months.

Between June 10 until 23rd I wont do any diving unfortunately. Dev (he's the owner of the dive shop, Kopee cafe and hotel and Ban Talay resort) asked me to help him out. He'll be going to England and asked me to handle everything when he's away. He's giving me a big show of confidence in my ability to handle all the dive planning, hotel planning etc, and I am a bit nervous. I really don't want to let him down. I will do the best I can and hopefully that will be enough, I will now in about 1 month time. The good thing is that I will have a great team if dive instructors, Dive Master and the local staff to help me out.
This job is not something I want to do, I'm doing it to gain a new experience but mostly to help Dev out. Of course I will also do my very best to make things easier for Chad in the conservation by entering data, cleaning up and fixing stuff.
It's good that I get my 3 days in KL before, so I am rested :)
Biggest bummer is that my 100 dive would have been on the 10th but then I will be on land, perhaps I will have to squeeze in an extra dive before that :)
100 dive is a naked dive, hahaha, don't think I will do it naked though, wouldn't want to give the fish a heart attack.

I've been doing my conservation internship for about 3,5 months now and I'm loving it. Every day you learn something new or see something new or just manage to get a good photo. Chad is the heart and soul of the New Heaven Reef Conservation Program, he's not only a brilliant teacher who knows so much about the marine environment around Koh Tao, he is also an amazing teacher and on top of that a great guy. He's also got a fantastic team working for him, Play, Pau and Rahul who are just as keen on teaching you and answering all your questions.
The thing that still bugs me is tying knots :) I've been practicing and practicing but it is something with tying knots and my brain that just don't seem to be compatible, but I will keep on training.

Last night I watched Sherlock Holmes 2 and had a wonderful pizza from Fishies, with half of it left and still loads of movies and the hard drive Dave (DMT in New Heaven) lent to me, tonight will be cold pizza and movie :)

Bluespotted ribbontails ray, my best fish photo so far

Marbles seacucumber feeding. To me it is beautiful!

Monday!!

When the weekend comes I always long for Mondays!

Had a wonderful EMP-Monday today. Before I started my fish survey I saw a seasnake! They are absolutely beautiful, so graceful and amazing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banded_sea_krait

I did the fish survey and also the photo transect where you take a photo every meter of the 100 m line. I hope the pictures will work, I'll get feed-back tomorrow.

Now I'm sitting on my balcony enjoying the breeze, it might actually be a storm coming, the wind is picking up!! Really really hope I will finally have my first real tropical storm since I got here.

It is nice and cool this evening, can't be more than 26 degrees.

I just hope the storm will come, it's already getting a bit more calm....

Sitting here on my balcony after an amazing day with New Heaven Reef Conservation Program, I can't think of anything I'd rather do! It's not just the diving it's the planning, logistics etc... I get to use the skills I've gathered during all my years of working and at the same time learn so much more things.

Sea snake

Porquipine fish

Parrot fish

heavy lifting

It's been a wonderful week of diving with surveys, artificial reef maintenance and building two concrete mooring blocks in Chalok.
Concrete is heavy in the water, let me tell you it's even more heavy on land. Yesterday we moved 25 pieces of concrete with an average weight of 70 kg's. After moving them on land we also had to install them in the water (that was the easy part :))
After we had fisnied installing the first longtail boat come and we watched it use one of our newly created moorings, that felt pretty good.
During May loads more of these will be installed around the island, This is a collaboration between the DMCR (Department of Marine and Coastal Resources), longtail captains and us.
The negative from ysterday was that when I packed my gear my regulator was missing from the dive school. After all dive boats were back from the dive we all checked through everything again, but no sign of my reg.
I mentioned that I was going to the police today to file a report for insurance purposes, and two hours after that it mysteriuosly re-appeared.... Don't know who had it or who brought it to the shop.
I'm happy to have my reg back put unfortunately whoever took it has scratched and made a crack and the glass on the pressure gauge, the dust cap wasn't screwed in properly either. Monday I go back diving so then I will see if the crack in the glass is to deep and if there is something else that person has done with my reg.
I'm very disappointed in whoever took it, from now on I will keep my reg and BCD with me, even if that means that I have to carry it back and forth from my home every day.
The good thing is that I also discovered that it is some great people out there. One person here on Koh Tao contacted me when she heard the news and offered to lend me an old reg that was newly serviced for my rest of my stay here. That was so very kind of her.

News flash! I now know who took my reg and will have a word with him about the scratched glass! It was one of the freelance dive instructors who took mine instead of his own, how he can make that mistake I have no idea since me reg is very different and weigh much less than the other private regs here.

Here's some more pictures for you.

Storm over Koh Phangnan and Koh Samui, blue skys over Koh Tao

One of the turtles we saw at Hing Nam pinnacle

A marbled seacucumber feeding, they are so cool

Isn't it beautiful?

A young coral fighting for survival amongst all the algae

A young and an old boring clam

Photos

A boring clam

They come in an amazing variety of colors

Hiding among the anemones

Blue sponge on a massive Diploastrea coral

Crown of Thorns, when they get to abundent they need to be collected

Anemone forest

Beautiful giant clam