Under The Sea (Ko Phi Phi, TH)

Multiple requests for an update bring you the latest. Thanks for your enthusiasm, fanclub... I'm in paradise. This particular slice of it is a bit polluted with significant tsunami damage and a mild Cancun-esque crowd, but it's gorgeous nonetheless. If you're familiar with bad Leonard DiCaprio movies, they shot "The Beach" here (jesus, that's the second time that movie is mentioned on this dumb blog - how embarassing). The beaches are white and the water is blue. Huge rock cliffs rise out of the sea. Mentally ill freeclimbers apparently scale them for fun. The cool kids however, go diving. I did my Advanced Open Water certification course this week just to keep things interesting. My instructor was German and a total fruitcake which seems to be a trend with me - I always get the freakshows. It was actually quite an impressive feat this time. On an island populated almost entirely by attractive young English speaking male divemasters, mixed in with a few Thais, I managed to get the one non-attractive, non-young, and non-English speaking weirdo. Leave it to Dara. Anyway, dude knew nothing about the dive sites and I wanted to kick him in the face by the end of today. But it didn't matter because my week as Ariel was fucking great. I did my first wreck dive which was completely awesome and my first night dive which was amazing even though we never found the intended bungalow swept out by the tsunami and instead saw mostly plain old sand, a pair of glasses, and an old tire. In and about the colorful coral, on various dives I saw nemos aka clownfish and lionfish and huge barracuda and giant sea cucumbers and a nudibranch and puffer fish and box fish and moorish idols and butterfly fish and a leopard shark and today... manta rays! The mantas were approximately 12 feet across. I don't know what to compare them to because they were so big and so close, it was unbelievable. We watched one for almost an hour while it fed, just circling and swooping right over our heads. A once in a lifetime, my friend, once in a lifetime. Tomorrow I head to Ton Sai or Rai Ley, I haven't decided, and in approximately 4 days I meet one Cat Wolmar, Jumbo and sometime Seattle resident, who like all smart girls just quit her job and is going to travel, on Ko Panang. Horray!