Our 3-week holiday from work was approaching, and we’d originally planned to stay in Malaysia, perhaps to visit Borneo. In the end, however, we headed to Thailand. This decision was largely based on the desire to scuba dive, and finding a good first place for Miki to experience it.
So it was that we landed on Phuket island one week before our holiday began (we’d done some research and were reasonably confident we wouldn’t have internet issues there – we didn’t).
I’d been to the island briefly ten years ago to complete a scuba diving certification but had experienced very little of the island during that visit. I’d heard that it attracted a lot of tourism so it hadn’t jumped out to me as a must-see place as I generally aim to avoid more crowded destinations. I hadn’t realised until we arrived, that it’s a major holiday destination for Russians. Many signs around the island were written in Thai, English and Russian, indicating that it was a long-established vacation spot for them.
We arrived on a Friday and the following day Miki jumped straight into his scuba training – he had a day in the pool to practise skills first before we would head out to sea. While he was doing that I’d planned to have some quality alone time and was also tasked with sorting our SIM cards. I started with the SIM cards to get that task out of the way. After taking a bus with holes where there are often windows and an open entrance at the rear of the vehicle (creating easy embarking and disembarking and allowing a good breeze in place of air-con), I arrived partway around the island and entered what soon emerged to be a monstrously large shopping centre. The kind you can (and I did) get lost inside.
The centre I entered was connected by a bridge to another building on the opposite side of a busy road. Those who know me may know that shopping centres are not where I’d choose to spend my time, surrounded by shops I don’t wish to go in, feeling a loss of orientation and a lack of fresh air make it an unenjoyable experience for me. So by the time I emerged a few hours later, I felt drained. I’d succeeded with the SIM cards and had bought some dried mango as emergency sustenance to get me back to the hotel. I’d originally planned to visit one of a selection of places that sold vegan food in the Old Town of Phuket, but discovered that was an hour’s walk from my current location and had run out of steam to explore further. I then managed to get on the wrong bus, half-napping along the way in blissful ignorance until the last other passenger on board asked me where I was going as he jumped off for his stop, and told me the bus wouldn’t be going in my direction. Thankful I’d set up my Grab app (an Uber-like service) to pay by card the day before, I ordered a taxi scooter to take me to my final destination. By the time I met back up with Miki, I felt a little worse for wear and was trying not to feel sorry for myself. My feelings soon dissipated as I realised he was as exhausted as I was – he had barely had time for a break during his pool training and had caught a little too much sun in the open-air pool. Luckily, his instructor had recommended a Pad Thai shop that could provide vegan options and deliciously large portions!
The following day was our first day in the big blue. Miki’s first time, and my first time in almost seven years. After so long away it took me a little time to get reacquainted with breathing underwater. Once under I relax, but there is a momentary panic in my mind as we begin to lower under the water, where some part of my subconscious survival instinct wonders what the heck is going on!
During the first couple of dives, I was rediscovering my ability to become neutrally buoyant (the ability to float without movement, and without rising or sinking) and watched delighted, as Miki experienced it for the first time. I’ve read that the weightless feeling of scuba diving is the closest we can get on Earth to the feeling spacemen experience.
We were lucky with great visibility and though some of the coral reefs we moved past had died, due mostly to pollution or coral bleaching, others were thriving. Floating underwater amongst some of the world’s most beautiful and fascinating creatures is something that blows my mind every time I dive. Pufferfish, boxfish, turtles, and cuttlefish, are a few of the more recognisable marine life I loved encountering. I don’t recall having seen the squid-like cuttlefish previously and was almost mesmerised by the wavering fin that runs around their bodies, as they move through the water with the same fluidity as a hovercraft.
We had a second dive day later in the week – the day Miki achieved his first dive certification! Once again we were lucky to have good visibility and an abundance of marine creatures to see. On a couple of dives, we saw an uncountable number of small silver fish – referred to as juveniles, they could be a range of different species, but it is too soon to tell at their young age. It was a sight I’d never seen before, and the sheer number of them circling reefs was incredible. Not just one group, or one reef, but this was happening along a stretch of reefs as we moved along a rock wall.
Being lucky enough to see marine life move in their natural habitats, watching the ecosystem at work as larger fish hunt smaller, or the symbiotic relationship of one creature living atop another, is something that I don’t, and hopefully will never, take for granted.
Most scuba dives I have been on involve an early start and a day on a boat to access and move between different sites. That was the case with our dives in Phuket and it meant that in between dives we had the opportunity to soak up the surroundings out at sea. With gentle ripples across the water and a scattering of islands along the horizon, there was plenty to enjoy above the water, as well as below.
It took a couple of days to adjust to Phuket. We realised that starting the day slowly and exercising before going out didn’t work when that meant you emerged from your accommodation at 11 am or a little later – just in time for the scorching midday sun to turn you to a crisp within minutes. So we instead began to get up and head to the beach first thing, enjoy some gentle morning sun and a dip, and then head back to the accommodation for some exercise as the searing heat set in.
It wasn’t easy to find quality, reliably vegan food, so after finding a couple of favourite spots to eat at, we ended up becoming regulars. We visited often enough to receive a smile of recognition as we entered each day. A small but appreciated sign in a world where everyone is a stranger.
As we neared the end of our week in Phuket, we drew closer to our 3-week holiday. The first holiday we’d had this year, and honestly, the first truly carefree holiday we’d ever had together. To celebrate not needing internet for work, we were heading off to Koh Lanta, a smaller island a couple of hours boat ride away. We left Phuket on the day our holiday began and had an early start to make sure we reached the port in time.
We waited at the bus stop near our accommodation under telegraph wires that crackled away, like the patter of rain on a tin roof. We needed to catch one bus into the Old Town, and another out to the port. As we drew towards the port, we enjoyed watching the ticket conductor from the corner of our eye. She was sat at the back and would stick her arm out and waggle whenever the bus needed to turn, to indicate the driver’s intention to the traffic behind. This has always been one of my favourite quirks of Southeast Asia – knowing that indicator lights are an unnecessary extra on many vehicles where the hand waggle is accepted as the most reliable source of the driver’s intention.
As we headed into the port happiness and relaxation settled over us both. No more fixed schedules, no need for internet, and no responsibilities for the next three weeks – just the two of us, free to do whatever we wanted, whenever we pleased.
– Our dive instructor made a video of our dives! Click here to see us In the Big Blue –
