Koh Chang

My time on Koh Chang passed off largely without any incident worth writing here. It was all too normal really. My main aim was to get some dives in and sit on the beach. Job done on both counts!

Apart from the beach & diving, I indulged an itch to get out on a moped again! I experienced (mostly I actually slept through) my first half-moon party. And I saw some monkeys!

Back to the diving. My location for the first few days on Chang was actually on the beach at The Siam Hut Resort, and my main view was the back of a concrete building. Tres lovely. This building was an office for Eco-Divers, and given my passion for conserving energy, I decided to have a chat with them about a couple of fun dives. 2700 Baht later, and I’m set for my first dives in nearly two years.

The first dive was bad! We had 3m visibility. There were rocks there somewhere and I guess some fish, but I’m damned if I could see them. That dive was kind of written off, and we look forward to dive number 2, which will be fine. Right?

The visibility was 50cm on the next dive. Maybe more, but couldn’t see a bloody thing. Our group got split up and had to re-surface to join up again. ON the way bad down I didn’t put air into my mask, and nearly popped my right eye. Then I got cramp and stood on a sea urchin.

The issue of visibility on these first two dives was, as best as I can see, entirely caused by one thing. That is the illegal drag trawling of the sea by fishing boats. These boats sail in tandem, with a massive net strung out between them. On my first dive, we were treated to a ring side view of a couple of these boats, and in the past they have come incredibly close to dives. Thailand have a law where these boats are not allowed to work within 3km of any land mass (100 metres may just be pushing that a little). The problem is that Thailand also has an interesting view on enforcing these rules. Koh Chang is a marine park, and has a dedicated coast-guard to protect it’s quality and status. It seems that a “donation” to the correct person may be enough to reduce the risk of the boats from being found by the police… The hope of many of the instructors is to get Greenpeace involved and to see a repeat of their actions to help save the marine life around the island.

My plan was always to try and get a couple of dives in on Christmas Day. It really is a most enjoyable way to spend the day. Sure beats sitting on the beach in the sun drinking cold beers :) In spite of the quality of the previous dives I was still willing to risk it. The visibility was apparently clearing too.

The first dive took us right back to the original dive site, Hin Lok Bat. And what a difference… You could see the coral and the fish for one thing, and I didn’t damage myself or run out of air. Result! The second dive made it all worth while on it’s own… The visibility was perhaps 25 metres, and we were treated to pipe fish, barracuda, clown fish, and one huge trigger fish; which thankfully stayed a long way from us. I also got to do 3 or 4 swim throughs, which was new for me. After I untangled both my regulator tube and tank from the rock, they were good fun too. Well worth it! One or two decompression-beers and a massive meal of seafood later, and my Christmas Day was done.

It’s a real shame to be away from your family at this period, but I just about managed managed to fill the void.