DIVE Archives | TRAVELS WITH TAM

Into Burma: You have to love immigration!

March 11, 2014 By Tam Warner 2 Comments

Continuation of my dive trip to Thailand and Myanmar (Burma!)

We woke to the sight of Burma/Myanmar outside our windows. We have been here for HOURS. Immigration took forever, and then we had to stop and pick up a Burmese crew member. As Mexico requires the hiring of Mexican Boat Captains, Burma requires that Burmese also work the boat.

While sitting in my cabin, nursing my sore throat and encroaching sinus, I am watching the scene from my cabin. (My cabin is quite nice, larger than most, with a separate sink, toilet and shower, which is an unexpected treat). A young Buddhist monk, ( a boy, either a monk in training or a little boy dressed as one collecting food from the passengers on our boat) has been outside of my cabin door speaking to me, and I would love to give him food, but I simply do not have any in my room. I did buy a coca cola for 20 baht (about 75 cents) but it’s warm so I’ll just give it to the boat. It is very difficult to say no, but I managed to do so this time. They were selling food, and since I am fearful of taking food from strangers, I passed. Oops, got to go, I’m being called to the upper deck!

I just came back down to my cabin: I was summoned to the food deck so the Myanmar officials could look at every one of us. The Head Dude looked at every woman on the boat as though they were not the same person…but wearing full makeup on a boat is not too standard. We all took down our hair to show them, yes, it is me! Four officials, drinking beer, eating, laughing…so reminiscent of Africa where they hold you just because they can. Steve, our boss man, is quite the handsome devil, and he looked like he was trying hard not to go up in smoke. The officials want a copy of this, a copy of that, blah blah blah let’s stay for hours and hours. Ah, off they go! Relief, now we can head to the Mergui Archipelago for some diving.

Part of "Team Spain" — Part of “Team Spain”

The passengers/divers are an amazingly diverse group, more so than I even expected. We have Mexico, Spain, England, Germany, Austria, Finland (yes, Finnish identical twins, Mikka and Tommy, two of the nicest, sweetest guys you could meet), and Italy. Oh, and one other from the USA, myself and Chris from San Francisco, who is married to a Thai and is here frequently. The dive masters are British, American via growing up in China, and German. The woman from Austria, Karin, looks so much like my cousin, Kathy, I cannot believe it. It is amazing. She is even built the same, with the same blonde hair and blue eyes. I will have to sneak some photos of her and show Kathy. Everyone seems very, very nice. Half of the boat is from Spain, I think. A large group together.

Chris, the other American passenger just gave me some Sudafed…bless him! I am almost out of Airbourne and Emer-gen-C. Nap time! I will be sure to be back in touch as we head north into Burmese waters.

Day 3: Still fighting a sore throat and congestion….I had to give in today and start antibiotics. I just hope they work. I did the first two dives, but skipped 3 and 4 today. Too tired, not feeling well. I have come to realize how exhausted I truly am…all of these months of worrying and taking care of Randy have taken a steeper toll than I knew. I am surprisingly emotional, and miss Randy more than I can say. He should be with me on this trip…we should be diving together. I still cannot believe what has happened to him. He is the most unlikely person ever to become ill. I am worried a bit since I cannot reach anyone…Myanmar (everyone calls it Burma) is so remote, and there is no signal of any kind to be found. I hope everything is good with Randy.

I am very much looking forward to vacationing with my daughter, Alexandra. She arrives on the 9^th of March. We are going to hang out in Phuket, go to Phang Nga (Pang Nah) to see the islands that look like the floating mountains of Pandora (from AVATAR), then off to Bangkok. We plan to visit shrines and temples, and an elephant sanctuary.

Oh, I saw my first sea snake today! Holy shit, it was long! Very pretty, and everyone crowded around to take photos (I admit I kept a distance). There is no anti-venom for these snakes, it is fortunate that they are shy and not aggressive.

I hate the BCD that I rented…it totally sucks. I’m trying a new one tomorrow, with a weight belt (L).

CHECK OUT SOME OF MY DIVE PHOTOS FROM BURMA!

Back in Thailand

March 9, 2014 By Tam Warner 4 Comments

Tachai Pinnacles, “Grandfather” Pinnacles.

I have returned from my 8 days on the MV Deep Andaman Queen, a dive boat live aboard in the Andaman Sea. We went from Khao Lak to the Mergui Archipelago for scuba diving, and now, back in Thailand. My daughter flew in yesterday, and we are enjoying a lazy day at the Amari Beach Resort in Patong Beach on the island of Phuket. I will publish the blogs of my trip daily!

To the Andaman Queen

I was picked up at my hotel right on time, 17:00 (5:00PM), always a plus! I was the last guest to be picked up, and Craig, one of the dive masters, was ecstatic that I had brought my 1” X 1” passport type photos. It was in the directions, so I just did it. Apparently the usual passport photo is 2” X 2”, so most everyone brought those instead. A piece of luck for me! We all know that Tam is apt to screw ups, but when it comes to travel documents, I am pretty organized (yes, I KNOW I lost my passport in Nairobi…but it was stolen, I’m almost sure.) We spent hours finding a photo shop (Kodak), getting photos taken and printed. That was just our minibus, no one on the other bus had the right photos either. Then one of the guys in our bus lost his new photos at a bathroom stop, so he had to go get new ones taken. At last, the MV Deep Andaman Queen.

She is large and roomy, very comfortable, though not luxurious. The staff and crew are exceptional, or as the Head Dive Master Steve would say, brilliant. They are very professional and friendly, especially the dive masters. After only 3 dives I can say that they are brilliant. My dive master is Jurgen, from Germany, an electrical engineer turned dive master in the Andaman Sea.

I have decided to suck it up and buy a BCD to travel with. Buoyancy Compensator Device. Once again I have rented one, and once again I have had problems with it. On the 3^rd dive yesterday, at a gorgeous dive site called Richelieu Rock, the jacket over inflated and I nearly ran out of air fighting to stay down. Jurgen was wonderful, and helped me get back on the boat. I skipped the 4^th dive, which was a night dive on the Rock, but I was completely exhausted. I haven’t gotten my own BCD to travel with because I have so much trouble with the weight of the bags…camera equipment and dive gear and computers, etc….every joint hurts from lugging it around. But, how much heavier is a BCD? I have to do it.

I have had 3 dives, and so far, Richelieu Rock has been the best, even though I had to come up early. It is absolutely magnificent with colorful tree and soft coral and anemones everywhere. Serpent Sea Stars dot the landscape, with the occasional cushion sea star and pin cushion sea star. I am charmed by the Skunk Anemone Fish, they are not as bright and colorful as “Nemo”, but I find them much prettier. I also love the feather stars which make their way around the Indian Ocean. They have numerous arms, and as the name states, look like groups of feathers. They are so intricate. The sea cucumbers here are enormous! The Knobby Banded Sea fans are spectacular. The BCD issue got away from me, I know, because of all of the new and interesting sea life I was looking at. Today, we will only do two dives, as we had to stop and do immigration through Burma/Myanmar, where we are right now. On these dives, I will not take a camera, but concentrate solely on the dive and my new equipment, especially the BCD! I am also fighting a cold, or sinus, condition…so I don’t feel 100%. More later!

CHECK OUT MORE PHOTOS HERE! I WILL CONTINUE TO UPDATE.

Comedy of Errors in Exuma

January 7, 2014 By Tam Warner 2 Comments

Well, I must say this trip has gotten off to an interesting start! Here I am, in the Great Exumas, Bahamas, and as far as diving goes, it has been a true fiasco.

I bought new gear for this trip, a new dive computer and transmitter, new regulator and an alternate breather so I don’t have to wear an Octopus (an extra mouthpiece for breathing). My alternate air source has a breathing piece attached to my inflater hose, doing away with the bothersome Octopus. So…it came time to dive yesterday, and of course, none of it worked except my regulator. The computer would not pair, the transmitter would not even turn on! The alternate breathing/inflater hose leaked from the get go. The boat we were on basically doesn’t carry much in the way of extra gear, so guess who didn’t get to dive? Yep. Me! THAT is a first. I did try, and while trying to get my inflater hose to work, my brand new snorkel came off my mask so it is probably in the Turks and Caicos by now (it was rough out there). My cousin did dive, and the visibility was lousy so she lost the dive master and had to come up. It was rough enough out there that we were both a bit seasick, too!

Today, I tried it again, with a rental BCD, rental gauge, a new snorkel, and of course, the transmitter would still not turn on. At least I was able to dive. One certainly cannot judge a place on two dives, but the dives were pretty marginal. Of course, I am spoiled by diving Cozumel so very often…it is crystal clear with LOTS of marine creatures (not the case here, so far). Cozumel often has 100+ feet of visibility. I would say it was about 50 today, not bad at all. Yesterday my cousin said it was around 30 or less. I anticipated two nice dives…and then…my camera housing malfunctioned. The buttons were sticking, the camera had to be turned off in order to stop it taking photos, or it would get stuck in the wrong mode. Really, what can you do but laugh? Talk about Murphy’s Law! Best to get any issues with equipment out of the way before diving Thailand and Myanmar in March, though!

Exuma is a lovely island though…beautiful water color! And, on the bright side, I drove on the left side of the road without killing us. I also have a golf cart I can zoom around in, which is fun, especially since the views from the golf course are terrific. We are staying in a villa, gorgeous place, but the problem? They are running out of food at the restaurant! Really?You have no fish to eat, here in the Bahamas? Pretty amazing. Oh, and no pizza, and no buns. The pickings get slimmer every day. Time to go in search of other dining experiences! I may have to ask friends to send food, ha ha.

Tomorrow I plan to tour the grounds again in the morning (an excuse to tool around in the golf cart, on the left side of the paths) and take some photos, perhaps snorkel a bit, and tomorrow afternoon we are diving my first blue hole! So, I’m going to see if I can fix my camera housing, and then to bed. Ciao! And keep warm!

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Back to San Benedicto and MANTAS!!!!

November 19, 2013 By Tam Warner 1 Comment

Our last dive day in the Revillagigedos, spent on San Benedicto. It was Manta madness….mantas for all. They stayed and stayed…even snorkeling with us on the surface when our air ran out! This has to be a pictorial blog. Enjoy!

My friend, Chris, filmed this manta beautifully!

Click to Tweet.

Love Mantas? Get INVOLVED! Donate to Marine Megafauna Foundation, or adopt a Manta, and help conserve our precious ocean and its creatures.

More Roca and Socorro

November 13, 2013 By Tam Warner 2 Comments

Well, we all voted to stay another day at Roca simply because there were so many sightings! The dives were great, but getting to know the other divers was also wonderful, we particularly bonded with a young German couple, Chris and Dani. They are both surgeons in Frankfurt, Germany. Chris is a trauma surgeon, and Dani an abdominal surgeon. Now Dani is so tiny, she must be 5/2″ at the very most, and she is very, very slim. I asked her at dinner one night if she had to stand on a stool to do surgery, and giggling, she admitted that she did. They are a great couple, and super divers and photographers. We thoroughly enjoyed their company.

The dives weren’t as exciting as the day before, but that is relative, you know? Any time you are seeing sharks and and all kinds of fish, it is a great dive spot! But there wasn’t much to photograph really, so we decided to pull anchor and head to Socorro Island.

By the next morning Socorro Island, the largest of the islands of the Revillagigadoes Islands, was in sight. The islands aren’t inhabitable, though on Socorro a couple of national park rangers have a building or two there to keep an eye on things. It is a rocky outcropping on a blue, blue sea. We were all excited to jump in and see what was below. We were NOT disappointed! This will make a better pictoral blog, there were so many awesome animals to hang out with. I will say one thing: another couple we enjoyed, Diana and Shannon, had great cameras! Shannon used a GOPRO with two strobe lights, and Diana shot some incredible photos on this trip. I’m not quite up to her standard, but I did my best! I also remind you, some of the coolest things you’ll see underwater are not the biggest! Check out even more photos: http://tamtravels.wpengine.com/cozumel-dive-log/revillagigedos-islands/

Roca Partida

November 8, 2013 By Tam Warner 2 Comments

<a href=”http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/11136489/?claim=9rugdff7e3e”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>Roca Partida is part of the Revillagedoes Islands, and is an absolutely amazing dive spot. It is just a rocky little place inhabited with birds. At least, that is what it is on top. Underneath the waves is a lively and diverse ecosystem, teeming with fish and marine life of all kinds.

Roca is amazing. You can see in the photo one of the pangas dropping divers off. The currents are fairly strong here, and the pay off is big adventure. What is here? Oh….dolphins, mantas, sharks …incredible!

The dolphins were so fascinating. They came right up to you, and checked you out. It made me nervous that they wouldn’t like me! Their eyes clearly show their intelligence… is it equal to ours? I wonder. They love showing off, and I think they enjoy the flash of the strobes because they have a game they play. They actually “play dead” and sink 50 feet or so, then dash right back up in front of you for a picture, then they do it again! Clearly this is a game they very much enjoy. If you’ve seen dolphins at Sea World or some other aquarium (these animals should not be held captive in my opinion) you have seen them smooth and beautiful. In the wild, they are scarred and scratched up from life in the ocean, but they are still beautiful.

There were platoons of sharks, mostly White or Silver Tip Sharks. Before I went in, I was a little nervous about diving where there were so many sharks, but once I was down I was thrilled and excited to be among them. They so obviously had no interest in us other than just looking once in a while, but most of the time they didn’t even do that. They have a very busy schedule, you know, and cannot be bothered with visitors!

The sharks were awesome, but the main attraction here? MANTA RAYS. At Roca we saw many Mantas, and they are all breathtaking, just a completely thrilling sight. The highlight of Roca though, was the Black Pacific Manta. The top of the animal is completely black, and looks like velvet. They don’t hesitate to come to you…to look at you with their strange blinking vertical eyes, and to enjoy the air bubbles from the tanks of the divers. Manta Rays have the largest brain of any fish, and you can see that the eye is not a doll’s eye, but an intelligent eye. There is nothing quite like the thrill of being eye to eye with a Manta!

As I said, the current can be strong at Roca, and I did get swept away once. I ended up being swept behind the rock, then out into the “blue”. I was accompanied by a Black Manta, and the wonder of spending that time with this incredible, huge creature was so overwhelming I was not afraid of the current. The Manta stayed with me until I was in the panga, and then stayed around the panga. Of course I had to put on my mask and snorkel and go back into the water with it. The beauty of those spectacular wings flying effortlessly through the water is indescribable. We ended up staying two wonderful days at Roca Partida. None of the divers wanted to leave! Click to Tweet!

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