Goodbye Thailand

Hello!

We left Thailand yesterday and have arrived in the Philippines.

We had a lovely last few days of diving on the MV Bavaria with all our new German friends! LOL

The last two days of diving were at Koh Bon and Richelieu Rock.  These were the best diving of the Thailand trip AND Carsten and I did our 200th dive!

Here are some favorites:

A free-swimming eel (usually they are hiding in a rock)


a rare Nudibranch


This is a HUGE octopus!  S/He was sitting up on the rock when we swam by. Usually they head for a little rock hole to hide but this one stayed up moving around and changing his color/spots. Fascinating !


Cuttlefish


Scorpion Fish - these guys camouflage themselves among the coral reef.  Best policy is to touch nothing underwater but for sure not these guys because they are quite poisonous !


The little white thing in the picture here is a Ghost Pipefish - rare to see!


spiny lobster


Frogfish - based on how excited our dive guide got, this was a rare find!


Banded Seasnake


Richelieu Rock is considered a top-10 dive site due to the number of fish that hang out.

We have seen schools of fish other places but not fish this large - it was like a stampede of fish - some 2-3 feet.  They just flooded by us.

As they passed by it actually seemed to get dark - like they blocked the sunlight.  Wild!

The toughest part of diving is getting in the boat/dingy after the dive.  The equipment is heavy and the legs are weak after an hour of swimming.  Sometimes, instead of climbing in the dingy, if we were relatively close to the boat they would just drag us to the boat.  It was fun!  This is me on one such occasion!


The food has been good on all the boats but I must admit that I am very tired of rice and need a TACO in a bad way!  I actually asked Marieke for a picture of a taco if she went out - of course she came through for me! Pork Guisado Tacos! YUM!   It was sweet torture to see!

Meanwhile we have some unusual snacks on board ~

note the flavor - Hot Chilli Squid

and Nori Seaweed


y'all, I would kill for chips and queso at Torchy's. LOL

Tomorrow we will go on a little excursion here on Palawan - check out what there is to see.

More later!

Sheri & Carsten

P.S. Yes, I did eat the chips! They were ok.


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