Day 2, Similan Islands Log

Gearing up to jump in!

Day Two on the Similan Diving Safaris liveaboard trip was as fantastic and jam-packed as day one. Here's where we dove:

Dive #1: Deep 6
Between Dive 1-2: Beach time! at Donald Duck Bay

Dive #2: Elephant Head Rock
Dive #2: Turtle Rock
Dive #4: Koh Bon night dive

At Donald Duck Bay, I decided to go snorkeling during the beach time. It was quite fantastic! I saw a huge school of large fish: they were teal blue on the nose and tail, royal blue on the belly, and orange striped on top. Some were the same species but a dark brown color... I think they might have been parrotfish, but I'm not sure. They swam in a big group of about 50, each fish was at least 1.5' long. Quite an amazing thing to be so close to such large fish.

I snorkeled near these rocks at Donald Duck Bay -
see the large rock and the resemblance to a duck bill?

There were also a number of other fish in the area, and without my scuba gear, which makes a lot of noise from the breathing apparatus, I could get much closer without scaring them. I saw bright bink parrotfish, a number of schools of silver fish that blended perfectly with the white sand and light-colored water, and numerous tiny crabs above the waterline that were terrified of me.

Devlin swam from the boat to the beach while snorkeling, so we swam/snorkeled back to the boat together. On the way, we passed over some dead coral patches. I don't know if it was caused by bleaching or by the 2004 tsunami, but as another diver describes these zones: "it looks like a bomb went off." The whole area was a huge circle of flattened and broken bits of brown-beige coral.

Around lunch time, one of the Thai girls spotted...Dolphins!  A large pod of at least 60-70 Southeast Asian bottlenose dolphins were moving past us. The captain sounded the airhorn, and we all went running to the bow of the ship to watch them. The captain circled the ship around to follow them, and they would swim along the front bow, occasionally leaping a bit at the surface. They were fantastically beautiful, and the glimpses we saw were so fleeting before they danced away from us again.

We learned from Ivan that there are other dolphin species near the Similans as well that they see, such as a spinner dolphins and other smaller species.

Other amazing moments of the day:

Divers waiting for the boat to come pick them up

On dive #1, at Deep 6, there were a number of "swim-through channels" - these were gaps/openings between the rocks that we swam through, kind of like mini tunnels! We swam through about 5-6 of them on the dive. During one, we saw Kate's group swim through, and then we passed through... Devlin and I were last, and as I turned to look around, I saw a turtle swimming quickly back to the swim-through to move away from us. It was a wonderful moment.

The variety of fish we saw throughout the day was staggering, and the list below reflects the beginnings of my attempts to understand the types. Did you ever know how many types of fish species there are? It's incredible. I spent a long while poring over the fish guides, coral guides, and other species books on the boat.

A Triggerfish - so big and neat to watch!

Sea Life Log:

Fish:
As on Day 1, saw many of these species: Blue Ringed Angelfish, Regal Angelfish, Powder Blue Surgeonfish, Moorish Idols, Lined Surgeonfish, lots of plain puffers and boxfish)
Butterflyfish: Long Nose, and others - hard to identify, they're all varieties of orange, white & black
*Picasso Triggerfish; Indian Triggerfish
Trumpetfish (dive #1, riding next to a large fish to hunt prey)
*Parrotfish: Bullethead, Yellow-tail, Black-veined
*Devil Scorpionfish (one on dive #3, sandy with red blotches, but it looked like a rock until it moved. We didn't know at the time, but it's quite poisonous! in the lionfish family)

A Parrotfish - they nibble the coral with their big beaky mouth

Snorkeling on Donald Duck beach: parrotfish swarm, brown and many with teal face, teal tail, dark royal blue belly, orange striped top (don't know species). Silver fish. Many puffers. Triggerfish and lots of little guys. So close to some pink parrotfish! Rocks above water had many little crab, very afraid of me. :-)
Tail-blotch lizardfish (many on the sand flats in various areas)
Robust fusilier (large schools on the coral reefs)
*Oriental Sweetlips (1 at a time, hiding under things)
Damselfish (family Nemo is in): Western clownfish (a couple groups), Eastern clownfish, Common humbug (or something like it, black with white stripes), 3-spot dascyllus

Long-nose unicornfish

*Speckled wrasse (dive #3, maybe this, it was very spotted)
* Adult rock-mover wrasse, looks like lionfish but mini size
* Long-nose unicornfish (one pair, way high up, dive #1)

Eels:
Giant Moray (4 on dive #1, 4 on dive #3 - two were in the same cave, one was free-swimming at the end of the dive!, 1 on night dive)

Sea Slugs & Related, & Shell-types:
*Pineapple Sea Cucumber (many - about 2-3' long)
Carnelian Cowrie shell (dive #2)
Crown of Thorns Starfish (dive #3)
Burrowing giant clam: a couple on dive #3
Ramose murex shells: many on night dive

Sea Urchins:
Black diadema sea urchin: zillions, especially on night dive - many very small ones, maybe 1-1.25" diameter, tucked into little rock pockets
Large black ones, purple tinge to main body, red-speckled feeding mouth (looked a bit like "Sauron's eye" to me) on night dive
One white one with olive green bits on night dive

Other Creatures:

Hawksbill Turtle

*Hawksbill Turtle (dive #1, escaped through the first pass-through cave); (dive #3, swimming away at the beginning of the dive, followed it for quite a while)
Kuhl's Stingray (dive #1)
Big Red Octopus (small one on dive #1)
*Jellyfish (on dive #1, tons that looked like clear translucent band-aids with a green eye)

Coral:
Staghorn Corals: Robust staghorn, Fine table corals (many),
Tube Coral (dark green, all over)
Soft coral: Hemprich's soft coral, Leafy soft coral (amethyst and red colors)
Some species identified: Mushroom leather coral (lots),
Fan Corals: Gorgonian (many many), Medium fan corals
Whip corals: beige and dark green

Day 1, Similan Islands Log

The "kids" listening to Ivan's briefing

Our first day with Similan Diving Safaris, with the crew of the M/V Dolphin Queen crew, started with a bang: a loud "ka-kaaw!" followed by "Wake up, time!" outside our door announced the early-rising call of our first day of diving. It was 6 am, and our first dive was at 7:15 am. Ivan led the briefing for the dive on Annita's Reef. A no current dive (meaning we wouldn't be pushed around by the ocean) - a good spot for everyone's intro dive off the boat.

Attentive listeners to the briefing

The experienced divers went first: our group, led by Mayumi, and Kate's group. Our gear was separated onto two sides of the boat: our group was on the right, Kate's on the left - this kept things from getting too chaotic, as it was a pretty tight spot with 10 divers trying to get on gear. The back platform was about 2' above the surface of the water (on a calm day), and had ladders for us to climb back on.
 

Here was the process: we each had a station where our tank was always placed, held steady by a bungee cord around the top. We would pull on our wetsuit and boots, then turn on tanks, then check air and dive computers. Next, we would remove the bungee cord around the top of the tank, sometimes with help from the three Thai "boat boys": Puh (pron. pooh), Chen, and Eee.

The right side of the boat, my tank is second from the left.

After tightening the straps on our BCDs, we would walk down onto the back platform, where one of the Thai guys (I can't call them boys), would strap on our fins. Then we'd wait for the airhorn blast from the captain signaling the "Ok!" to jump in.

With one leg outstretched, we would take a "giant stride" off the back and into the water, holding our regulator and mask in place.

And thus the dive would begin! The general schedule for the day was:

6-6:10 am: Wake-up Call; maybe eat a little something (banana and water), and listen to the morning dive briefing
7:15 am: Dive #1 (the first two days, our group and Kate's group went first, which meant we really were down and getting ready by 7 am)
9 am: Back on the boat, gear put away and tank off; then upstairs for breakfast. Western style breakfast, which meant our choice of fried eggs, scrambled eggs, or omelette; sausage and ham; and pancakes/french toast. We would order the breakfast the night before on a clip board, as the Thai cooks would get up by 4:30 am to start the prep.

11 am: Dive #2, briefings 20 min. before
12:30 pm: Thai style lunch, buffet style, and always fantastic
3 pm: Dive #3
6 pm: Thai style dinner
7:15 pm: Dive #4, sunset or  night dive
8:30 pm to 9:30 pm: Bedtime

And rinse and repeat the next two days. Day #4 would have only 2 dives in the morning before we began our return to Khao Lak. A grand total of 14 dives in 3.5 days!

The rest of the dive team were: Sofie, leading two brand new divers; Ivan, leading two younger Thai kids on their first certification dives, as well as the daughter of Similan Diving Safari's owner, Joe; and photographer Tom, who took pictures of all the divers and fish throughout the trip.

Dive site locations!

The Thai crew also included: Captain Ik (pron. "eek"), and head cook Ya, and prep cook Ling. The Thai crew worked like crazy all day; someone always seemed to be washing dishes or chopping food. The boat boys/guys did a great number of tasks all day: they took our fins from us at the end of the dives so we could climb back up the ladders, and then they would be filling the tanks for our next dive; then washing dishes; or manning the motor boat to take us to local beaches.

They did get some down time too: among the guests, we had five Thai teenagers, and they and the boat guys would play around with the kayak, or diving off the boat, or hanging out in the Captain's quarters playing loud American pop music. (I still have one or two of those songs stuck in my head! Fun addictive music.)

Here's where we dove on Day 1:
Dive #1: Annita's Reef
Dive #2: Stonehenge

That's me, pretending to be Indiana Jones

Dive #3: West of Eden
Dive #4: Night dive, around Island 4

We also got to visit a beautiful beach between Dive #1 and #2, and a big group of us decided to walk up to the viewpoint on the island. It was quite a trek, and all the divers except me were barefoot and mostly wearing swimsuits. There were a lot of mosquitoes, too!! It became an Indian Jones-like endeavor at the end, complete with rickety-looking ladders over a small crevasse, ropes to pull us up slippery wet slopes, and at least four very steep and sketchy ladders. The view was pretty good, too - but the climb was really the adventure!

Sea Life Log: 

Fish:
One giant solo Tuna
Coral Rock Cod (many)
Humpback Unicornfish (2)
Moorish Idol (lots)
Picasso Triggerfish (3-ish)
Western Clownfish (2 groups)
Singapore shrimp goby (many)
Parrotfish, a bunch of different types, all cool colors (see Day 2)
Wrasses: Yellow Moon, Adult Napoleon (big!), others
and many, many, many others

Eels:
Giant Moray Eel (2)
Spot-face Moray (night dive)

Lionfish:
Pacific Lionfish (4)
Spotfin? lionfish (dark and silvery banded, on night dive)

Puffer & related fish:
Seal Faced Puffer (lots)
Giant Pufferfish (1)
Spotted Boxfish (1)

Surgeonfish:
Horseshoe surgeonfish
Powderblue surgeonfish (sometimes a pair would circle around each other and spiral up for a while, like a little dance)

Sea Slugs:
Ocellated Wart slug (1)
Pineapple Sea Cucumber (1, so big!)
Marbled Sea Cucumber (many big ones)

Shrimp & Crustaceans:
Coral Banded Cleaner Shrimp (tons, on night dive - you see their pink eyes glow)
Painted Spiny Lobster (1 that was wedged under a rock, with long white antennae)
Harlequin Shrimp (night dive)
Peacock Mantis Shrimp (night dive)
Durban Dancing Shrimp (night dive)
Magnificent Partner Shrimp (night dive)

Other Creatures:
Green Turtle (Devlin saw it before it swam away, on dive 3)
Blue Sea Star (1 on night dive)
Black Diadema Sea Urchin (many on night dive)
Christmas Tree Worm (tons)
One unidentified big red crab (on night dive)
Octopus (one white-ish one, Dev saw at end of night dive)

Corals:
Gorgorian Fan Coral (lots)
Long Arm Feather Star
Orange Straight Sea Whip
Hard Coral (lots)
Magnificent Anemones
Compact Coral
Octocoral
Maze Coral
Fine Table Coral
and many, many others

Similan Diving Safaris - Liveaboard!

Walker's Inn, the orange building, in Khao Lak

Six days ago we arrived in Khao Lak, a small beach town in Thailand that is the starting point for many liveaboard trips to the famous Similan Islands. The Similans are a chain of nine islands that form a National Marine Reserve area. To the north is another famous chain, the Surin Islands.

We'd negotiated a cheap-er taxi ride (200 baht, instead of 300-400, or $6 instead of $8-10) after walking a little ways from Phuket Airport. Compared to our visits to Cambodia, and somewhat to Vietnam, the local taxis, minibuses, and other point a to point b transports are a rip-off scam. Many drivers will pretend that there are no government buses that run to other towns, such as Khao Lak, and will try to convince you that it is best to go with them instead (often for 5-6 times more the cost). A minibus from the airport would have cost us about 600 baht per person, or $18; the government bus was 200 baht total ($6!).

Dive locations in the Similan Islands

After that, the bus ride was pretty uneventful. We almost jumped off too early, when we thought our GPS said we were further along - but thankfully, we stayed on until the actual town. (Sometimes you need to be sure your equipment is functioning properly.) :)

Khao Lak sits at the edge of a National Park, the Khao Lak / Lam Ru National Park. Imagine this: two to three-story guest houses off the Main Road (e.g. Hwy 402), and above that, masses of jungle and trees climbing steep hills. The air was moist and damp, and we had frequent rain showers when we arrived, adding more mist and cooling things off somewhat. In between, the sun would break through, and suddenly it was swelteringly hot. And this is a pretty cool time compared to the hot season, from February through April.

We bunked up at Walker's Inn, a very cheap but pleasant guest house right off the main road. It's a big orange three-story building, and we had a nice squeaky but comfy king-size bed with a private shower/toilet. The room was 500 baht/night total, or about $12. It's sometimes hard to find beds that aren't rock-solid hard - we always ask to see the room, and the softness of the bed is a big deciding factor. The other main factor is good wifi signals in the room.

Similan Diving Safaris main office in Khao Lak

Walker's also had pretty good and inexpensive Thai food, served in the bottom floor restaurant. Other foreigners at the restaurant told us they often went to Walker's for meals as they had one of the best wifi spots in town.

After our first lunch at Walker's (pad thai and tom kha soup - both pretty good), we headed into town to talk to the scuba shops about a liveaboard trip. We talked to three shops: Khao Lak Explorers, Khao Lak Scuba Adventures, and Similan Diving Safaris (in that order). We skipped Wicked Diving entirely, although they were top-rated in my guide book - their prices started at almost $1,000 - more than other shops.

The M/V Dolphin Queen, one of Similan Diving Safari's 2 liveaboard boats

We decided on Similan Diving Safaris because of a number of criteria:

1) Experience: they are the oldest shop in Khao Lak, 18 years old

2) They owned their own boat and ran the whole operation. Many other shops (both 

Khao Lak Explorers and KL Scuba Adventures, and many others) are basically "booking agents" - they don't own the boat you go out on, or manage the crew operating it. You book a bunk, and maybe get a dive guide from the shop. It's a bit nebulous. You can tell because the ships all have the same names: Manta Queen 1, 2, 3, and 7.

By contrast, Similan Diving Safaris (SDF), owns two boats: the Dolphin Queen and Similan Explorer. They pay their Thai crews well and have excellent dive master guides. They generally try to have smaller groups per guide - usually 4 divers per guide. Other shops put 5 divers per guide typically.

Boarding the Dolphin Queen! No the wreck is not it ;)

3) A Good Deal: when we talked to SDF, the owner of the shop happened to be there. Joe (coincidentally, the same name as our friend Joe in Japan!), told us all about the boat we'd be on, and then offered us a sweet deal: if we got on the next day's trip, a 4 day 4 night trip, he would give us the last Private Double bed for the same price as the general bunk bed cabins. We also got a discount for having our own gear (except tanks & weight).

4) Guest feedback: As we were leaving to think things over, the guests from the first season's boat trip returned to the shop. We got some great feedback from a lady named Lynn from Colorado. They'd had a great time with SDF and recommended them highly.

There she is, the Dolphin Queen

After considering Devlin's work schedule and the above criteria, we went with SDF on their next day's trip: a 4-day, 4-night trip to the Similans on the M/V Dolphin Queen. The next day at 11 am, we dropped off our scuba gear to be loaded on the boat. At 3:30 pm, we were loaded onto minibuses and headed to a main port about 10 minutes from Khao Lak. The boat sailed all the rest of the evening and part of the night to reach the Similans.

More in the next post about our first day of diving, and what we saw!

Our double bed room on the Dolphin Queen - cozy!

The main eating and hang-out space on the ship

Arrived in Phuket & Contrasts

A guard statue at Bangkok Airport

Thailand! It's 9:30 a.m. in Nai Yang town, and I'm sitting outside our little room at the Airport Bed & Breakfast, breathing in the moist air in the 80-ishF heat. I think it's about the same temperature as last night when we flew in from Bangkok at 9 pm last night. When we left the air conditioned sanctum of the airport, my glasses fogged up immediately in the humidity.

It's not unpleasant, breathing in this moist, rich air. At our little B&B right now, we're a ways out from the main area, and the area is filled with trees and lush greenery. It's a bit like breathing in the air in a cool-ish greenhouse, and the scents of the plants are lovely. Japan doesn't have enough greenery for me.

Last night after landing at Phuket International Airport, we strapped on our bags and started walking the 2 km (it was about a 20 minute walk) to the B&B. It is always a shock when you transition between countries, especially two countries as different as Japan and Thailand.

A giant statue at Bangkok Airport

Japan is an impeccable country - rarely do you find any uneven sidewalks, dog turds, unlit areas, or lack of pedestrian crossing areas. By contrast, the minute we left the Phuket airport, we were traversing around large holes in the sidewalk (or even crevasses), smoggy traffic, and lounging taxi drivers. Our walk to the B&B took us down increasingly dark roads, until we were wishing we knew where our headlamps were buried in our bags.

It's different. Not bad, just different.

It was also a pleasant difference from Japan to be surrounded by foreigners. The minute we entered Bangkok airport, we were no longer a minority. Foreigners of every type and description filled the teeming airport. There were even some very interesting groups of women and men from a middle eastern country - I have no idea which one. The men were all dressed in a traditional trouser and tunic garb, and the women were head-to-toe in black burkhas. Very mysterious.

The door to our little bungalow room at Airport B&B

I think the number of identifiable foreigners (including ourselves) that we saw while in Japan would be under 15. We had a great time in Japan, but after a while, I get tired of standing out. It is also very strange to be here in Thailand and to use English to get around as well - my Japanese improved immensely during the past two weeks.

Today we will catch the bus up to Khao Lak, a beach town further north, and the jumping off point for many liveaboard diving trips to the Similan Islands. I am so excited to have our first Thai meal today! Spicy food, here we come.

Airport B&B

The entry area at Airport B&B

Veranda of Airport B&B

Diving on Yonaguni Island

In between typhoons, we did manage to have one great day of diving on Yonaguni Island! The rest of the days, the blustery wind made the surface conditions too rough to go diving. But the day after we arrived, it was a good day to dive. We were staying at Yonaguni Dive Service (YDS), which has a nice guest house attached to the dive shop. Makes it very convenient!

We were up at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast in the dining area. Besides Devlin, myself, and Joe, there were also four other visiting divers from other parts of Japan staying at the YDS. We were also accompanied by three other dive staff of YDS.

By 8:45 a.m., we were all dressed for Dive #1 in our wetsuits and our gear had been loaded onto the YDS boat in the main harbor. We clambered aboard, and everyone grabbed a tank and started prepping gear. Once all the gear was prepped and ready, off we went out of the harbor and to the first dive site. Our dive master, Ookii-san (oh-key-sahn), told us that it was too rough seas to dive at the Yonaguni "Ruins" site, so we were going to a calmer coral reef that had less currents.

And it was a pretty calm dive. At the start I had some trouble with my BCD (buoyancy control device) at first, after that got straightened out the dive was quite nice. Joe had some trouble with his BCD too, but we still saw a lot of fish and went through a neat cave passage-way between reefs. There were so many fish it was hard to focus on any one in particular - in all directions there were just so many.

Getting back in the boat was exciting - we would all surface together, and then at Ookii-san's signal, we would swim to the boat. It had a huge ladder, three-people wide, and we would scramble in as fast as we could with flippers on. Due to Yonaguni's fast currents, this is the best way to get on the dive boat - otherwise, the boat would drift away from the divers, and if we took our fins off before getting on, they could be easily lost by the fast water.

We returned to YDS for lunch. Dive #2 was at 1 p.m., and we were on the lookout for schools of barracuda. It was a drift dive in a faster current spot, so we didn't have to do much swimming - the current smoothly pulled us along. At Ookii-san's signal, we would all sink to the ground and hold on to rocks to watch for barracuda. We didn't see any that dive, but Devlin saw a big eel, and we saw oodles of fish. 

It was really cool to look around and see all the other divers, with their streams of bubbles floating up. It's an incredibly different world to be in. Our underwater world was comprised of the hills and valleys of the coral reefs, and hanging above them, seemingly weightless, were the countless schools of tropical fish.

At 3:30 p.m., it was time for Dive #3. We went back to the same spot as Dive #2 in attempt to see barracuda again. We didn't have any luck there, but we did see some other great things: a big purple & orange parrotfish that was industriously moving sand & coral around (maybe to lay eggs?); the ghostly image of some really really large fish far away... Ookii-san said they were unicorn fish. Devlin could see the horns but I couldn't see quite that far. And we were visited by one larger and very curious silver fish, that moseyed through our group of divers and then leisurely swam away.

After three dives, we were all absolutely exhausted. We were all falling asleep at dinner at 6pm!

Joe plans to return to Yonaguni another year, when it isn't typhoon season. To see the Yonaguni ruins, the water needs to be quite calm. And, we are told that schools of hammerhead sharks come through between January to March to mate, so that is also a very good time to visit the island!

Joe arrived back in Ishigaki

Joe has finally made it off of Yonaguni Island and has returned to Ishigaki! All flights yesterday were cancelled, and so he could get a flight at last tonight at 6 pm. On Tuesday we will all return to Fukuoka, and then to Oita. Hopefully, Typhoon Vongfong won't cause any flight delays for us on Tuesday... we'll find out.

Looks like Typhoon Vongfong has slowed down a lot, but for a while it looked like it was going to be a whammy of a storm when it hit Okinawa. It was the strongest storm on earthfor 2014 until just a day or so ago, and now it's slowing down. Category 5 hurricane winds, the strongest hurricane level, with wind speeds of 180+ mph.

We've been watching it with great interest here, of course, as the winds have been felt here in Ishigaki too. Even though we're a long ways west and south of the Okinawa islands, which bore the brunt of the storm, we're still getting some pretty blustery winds as well.

We hope that the Typhoon won't cause too much damage - mainly flooding or land slides - to mainland Japan.

Safe from Typhoon Vongfong

We interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast...

So, there's a typhoon coming. I'm sure you already know that, but it's been quite exciting here. We missed the previous one, Typhoon Phanfone, because it passed farther to the east of the Okinawa islands and mainly impacted mainland Japan.

It's 6 p.m. now, and we're waiting at Yonaguni Airport on stand-by to see if one of us gets off the island. Our original plan was to take the ferry back to Ishigaki, which leaves on Saturday. However, the ferry is the most likely transport to be canceled due to bad weather. The flights can continue much longer before they're interrupted by the weather.

We decided to get off the island yesterday evening, as we saw the news of the typhoon worsening. There weren't 3 seats available all together, so we booked seats for a Saturday flight. However, today we couldn't go diving as the surface conditions made it impossible (or very, very rough and a really tough re-entry on the boat). So, after seeing the wild ponies on the island, here we are at the airport, waiting to see if one of us can get out.
------------------------------
Flash forward to 10 p.m. There were two seats available on the airport, so Joe elected Devlin and I to fly out. Our plane ride was just fine - smooth most of the way and a little bumpy on landing. The planes through the islands are a type called DHC-8, which Joe says are a very reliable and sturdy plane. They have a propeller jet engine on each side, and a maximum of 39 people + flight attendant (we counted tonight).

We caught the #4 bus in to Ishigaki port from the airport (the #4 and #10 lines go there), which is about a half hour ride. Then to Yaima Biyori, the inexpensive pension guest house we stayed at before we left for Yonaguni. After a wonderful meal at Daimyo, a local restaurant our guest house recommended, we are ready to crash to sleep. Joe should be able to catch a stand-by seat tomorrow, either the 9:45 flight or 12 pm flight, and then we'll all be a-ok and safe from the typhoon's wrath!

Ferry to Yonaguni Island

Yesterday, we caught the 10 a.m. ferry to Yonaguni Island from Ishigaki Island. It's a 4 hour trip in good weather, over open waters for at least half the ride so we were expecting larger waves and a somewhat bumpy ride. We were riding the last bit of windy weather from Typhoon Phanfone, but it looked like it wouldn't be too rough a trip that day.

The skies were bright blue as we pulled out of Ishigaki port. The ferry is quite an impressive one, in really tip-top condition. There are 4 flat areas - tatami mat-esque spaces - inside the ship where you can lie down with a blanket and sleep. There were only about 20 passengers maximum, but there were people conked out in all of the flat areas. There were cabin areas  with bunk beds too, but I think those cost more. And of course, there were drink machines inside.

I stayed outside for the entire trip for the most part, avoiding any seasickness. Devlin found it better inside. We were all a little groggy as the futons we'd slept on the night before were about half an inch thick...

We passed by the last island before we hit open water for the rest of the trip to Yonaguni, and then the real waves started. The swell of them was amazing - the ship would rock up and to the side, and then plunge down and bash up into the incoming wave. Boosh! the crash of the waves was amazing to watch (and really loud). The ocean was an incredible deep blue cerulean, and behind the ship the chop was frothy white and teal.

But the best part of all was discovered when I went up on the very top deck of the ship. The main control cabins of the ship was at the far end, and the middle was a huge expanse of bright blue pavement. I went to the rail to look over and watch the waves, and that's when I saw them. Small flying fish were zipping out of the waves made by the ship and gliding off into deeper waters! And then the fishing birds came - brown necked sleek birds with bright white underbellies and white pointed beaks.

The birds would zip through the sky, making sweeping passes along the ferry, eyeing the water with intensity. They could seem to see the fish before they left the water, making sudden headlong dives to chase the fish over the very surface of water. It was fantastic to watch. At first there were only 5 birds, and then the flock steadily grew until there were 20+ birds in the air, all wheeling and diving. It was bird against fish, and sometimes the birds won, and sometimes the fish.

I watched the show for hours - the birds kept it up the entire time we were at sea, only dwindling in numbers by the time we reached Yonaguni. The best acrobatic show I've seen in some time, AND I didn't get seasick! Hurray! :)

Snorkeling on Ishigaki!

Yesterday, Joe rented a car for us so that we could drive up to Kabira town on Ishigaki Island to go scuba diving. Thank goodness he speaks Japanese and knows the system! I don't think they would have let Devlin and I rent one... We were given a cute powder-blue Cube to drive, loaded it up, and off we went. 

The entire island of Ishigaki is quite small - you can drive its circumference in about 2 hours, non-stop. And, the speed limit is set in most places to 40-50 km/hour, or about 25-30 mph - so if you sped up some, it'd be about 1-1.5 hours. ;) 

We drove up to Kabira from Ishigaki town, about a 20 minute drive. We found a dive shop and asked them about diving that day. Unfortunately, due to the passing of Typhoon Phanfone, diving was impossible that day. The wind was still whipping around the island, which made it impossible and unsafe to get a dive boat out. The dive owner lady told us that this weather was quite normal for autumn in the islands here, and that another typhoon was due to arrive on Oct. 15 (one day before we are due to fly back to Okinawa, and then to Fukuoka). Hmm, we foresee flight delays...

The beach where we went snorkeling! So many shells

So, after some boo-hooing, we drove further up the coast until we found a random beach access road. As we pulled in, we saw a Japanese couple changing out of wetsuits. Joe jumped out to ask them about snorkeling here, and they said it was great. We ran to see the beach....so gorgeous! Creamy sand and lots and lots of turquoise water, under a warm sun with the warm wind. 

A warning poster of how to go snorkeling, what not to step on, and creatures to avoid (these include sea urchins and Portuguese Man O' War jellyfish)

Joe posing in his wetsuit - off we go snorkeling!

We geared up! This was Devlin and my first time using some of our new gear that we'd bought for the trip. For Pacific Northwest diving, you really need a dry suit (e.g. no water gets in), thick boots, thick gloves, etc. For Okinawa and the rest of the areas we'll be going, you need really thin stuff. We chose to wear just our Lycra suits (a thin jumpsuit that helps to get wetsuits on easier, and also great UV protection), as well as our lightweight hoods, boots, and gloves. Coral can scrape you up pretty bad, and there were also jellyfish and sea urchins around. 

It was fantastic. Tons of sea life, every where we looked. There were bazillions of these little electric-blue fish and lots of other colorful stripey ones. Big, little, tiny - all there. The coral wasn't incredibly colorful, but most of the time we were in about 3 feet of water, maximum. It was low tide when we went out, so a couple of times we had to swim (or walk) across really shallow spots that were less than a foot deep. Pretty hard to swim in, especially with coral right underneath you!

The bright blue fish we saw, and we saw many stripey colorful ones too (picture taken at Ishigaki airport)

We eventually swam over to a gorgeous cove further up the beach. It looked like something from an advertising poster: the blue sky, green tropical jungle, beach, and teal water. The water was deeper there, and as the tide came in, we saw different fish. Larger fish were in this spot of course, in bigger groups, and then on my way back, I saw zillions of little silver fish zipping along in large schools.

We even saw a clownfish family in an anemone! Hello, Nemo. :)  There were three of them - large, medium, and small - mama, papa, and baby. ;)

The surf picked up as the tide came in, so eventually we called it quits. I spent some time collecting shells and coral; the whole beach was basically a shell/coral beach, with lots of fun chunks of coral and shells.

All in all, a fantastic day. Today, we are catching the 10 a.m. ferry to Yonaguni Island, an even smaller island and literally about the farthest point in Japan you can go. Hopefully the weather will permit us to dive! More later, and as the islanders here say, "Ja mata" or "See you later."

With his big eyes, this fish always looked really scared of us...

Another example of the colorful fish we saw :)

Saga of the Missing Bag

I'm impressed. Japan wins the only A++ rating in missing bag customer service. Our missing bag was returned to us this morning in Fukuoka Airport, after a separation period of only 36 hours.

Here's the story of our missing bag, and why Japan gets this great rating:

Wednesday, October 2:

Seattle, where it all started. When our plane bound for Honolulu had mechanical troubles, we were delayed and missed our connecting flight to Osaka (see previous post). As a result, we were re-routed from Alaskan Airlines to a Delta flight bound for Incheon, South Korea, and then to Osaka.

The Alaskan Airlines personnel assured us that they would transfer our 2 bags to the Delta flight. After all, on a completely packed flight to Honolulu, we were the only 2 passengers who were transferring through to another destination.

The AA people said not to mention our bag transfer to the Delta people - they said the more chatter about the bags, the more likely they wouldn't make it to Osaka. Hmm...

Thursday, October 3 (Wednesday in Pacific time):
12 hours later we arrived in Incheon, South Korea, a "day" later after crossing the International Dateline. We conked out for a 1.5 hour catnap when we arrived. We had slept a bit on the plane, but you never get much sleep when you're basically upright and have your neck crooked at funny angles while your arm falls asleep supporting it... We had tried to get the Delta people to upgrade us to First class (there were two empty seats, and the plane wasn't very full), but unless we ponied up $1,000-$2,000 each, they weren't going for it. (First class = airplane monopolistic conspiracy.)

The Incheon South Korea Air personnel had no idea what had happened to our bags. It looked like both were in Seattle still. They told us to check with the Osaka staff once we arrived.

By 9pm, we arrived in Osaka, Japan. After clearing immigration, we headed to baggage claim. After waiting a couple minutes....hurray! Devlin's big backpack had made it safely through.

10 minutes later... our second bag was definitely not there. It was our green Rick Steves' Europe travel backpack, which had our two buoyancy control devices and scuba diving booties, hoods, and gloves.

I procured help from a passing Korean Air attendant, and she shephered us over to an unlabeled desk. A very helpful attendant-lady named Chonan (soon to be our very best friend), took it from there. With the help of two other attendants and much picture-taking, they got all our details: the phone number for our hotel in Osaka (the APA Hotel, or Always Pleasant Amenity Hotel), our friend Joe's number, our Google Voice phone number, email, our boarding passes, and copies of our itinerary for the next day's flight down to Fukuoka.

Chonan told us they would contact us at our hotel and they would figure out how to get our bags to us in Fukuoka, or if necessary, down to Ishigaki island in the Okinawa island chain, our final scuba diving destination. We made it through customs after filing extra paperwork, and then zombie-walked to the train to our hotel.

We had been up for about 26 hours, minus about 4 hours of catnaps. Boy were we happy to see that hotel bed!

Friday, October 4 (Japan time):
9:30 a.m., Chonan called our hotel. Our bags were going to be on that day's Delta flight 721 to Incheon (the exact same flight we had taken a day earlier) and then would arrive in Osaka later that night. From there they would either forward them to Fukuoka or to Ishigaki, depending on arrival time. More details needed to be figured out, and Chonan said she would call us at 10:30.

10:33 a.m., 2nd call from Chonan. She was pretty sure they could get our bag to us by 9:20 a.m. in Fukuoka. However, if that didn't work out, they would send them on to Ishigaki. But, that might take a week to arrive, due to typhoon Phanfone (she couldn't tell us why the delivery service would take that long). We told her we could wait for the bag that long if needed, and that we would check our email/phone messages later that day in Fukuoka.

3 p.m., we arrived in Fukuoka and met our friends Joe and Eric at the arrivals gate. By 3:30 p.m., Chonan called Joe on his cell phone. Our bag would arrive by 10 a.m. the next day, and she gave us the details of where we should go to at the airport.

Saturday, October 5:
9 a.m., we took a taxi to the International Departures wing of the Fukuoka airport, and checked in at the information desk. They called the number Chonan had given us, and told us to wait. 15 minutes later, a Korean Air lady told us that our bag was arriving in half an hour, could we please wait.  Joe gave her his phone number so we could go find coffee. 30 minutes later, we were sitting near the information desk, waiting.

A new Korean Air lady came up to us (probably they knew it was us because a) we were the only foreigners and b) we were easy to spot - I was wearing a bright yellow shirt). She said our bag would be here in just a minute, please wait. She took my passport and disappeared into the Arrivals gate (beyond which, we knew, was the baggage claim).

5 minutes later... and out she came, pushing a trolley with our green duffel bag! She returned my passport, gave us the bag, and that was that. We had recovered our missing bag!
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So that is why Japan gets an A++ from us for missing bag customer service. 3 personal phone calls and 6-7 different attendants all involved (but mainly Chonan). I once lost a bag in Germany, and all I received was a consolation prize of so-so toiletries, and a phone number to call (and good luck with that). That was a United flight (rated F for their customer service). Hurray for Japan's policy of always giving the best service possible! =)

Arrived Safe in Japan

After a grueling 27 hour journey, we've arrived safely in Japan! I am typing this from the Osaka airport, as we wait to check in for our flight down to Fukuoka.

The 27 hours wasn't without some excitement... we made it up to Seattle on our 6 a.m. flight and enjoyed a couple lovely quiet hours in the United lounge, and then boarded our flight to Honolulu at 9:30. And there we sat, for 40 minutes, as the technicians tried to figure out why our plane was having problems...! In a very hot, completely packed, and gasoline-smelling plane.

As a result, our schedule was turned upside down. Originally, we were supposed to arrive in Honolulu with one hour to spare before our flight to Osaka. Due to the delay, we missed that flight.

So, the helpful Alaskan Airlines crew began working on re-routing us. It was quite exciting - we've never had to be re-routed due to plane trouble before. At first, they wanted to send us East, instead of West, on a 35-hour almost-circumnavigation of the globe... to Minneapolis, then Amsterdam, and then Japan!?! We politely told them that was nuts, and so we eventually were booked into a flight to Incheon, in South Korea, and then Osaka, arriving 2 hours after our original flight.

I think we know the Seattle Airport really well, as we visited just about every branch of it that day.

The Delta flight to Incheon was quite pleasant - really nice movie screens in each seat, good meals, and they even fed us ice cream. (Have you ever had ice cream on a flight before? I haven't.) And loads and loads of water, which was great.

The excitement began again when we arrived in Osaka, as we weren't sure that our 2 checked bags had made it through the kerfuffle safely. We had most of our essential items in our carry-on bags, but due to a lot of scuba gear, we still had to check 2 bags. Devlin's backpack made it to Osaka, fortunately, but not our green Rick Steves' bag with our buoyancy-control devices, hoods, booties, and gloves.

The Korean Air folks were very helpful in tracking things down, and they called us twice this morning at our Osaka hotel. It looks like we will get the bag in Fukuoka on the 5th, provided everything goes well along the way. If not, it will reach us within a week in Ishigaki, our final destination for our scuba trip. However, it might take a week to get to Ishigaki...due to Typhoon Phanfone.

In any case, we are pretty sure we can rent the missing gear in Ishigaki for diving there.

We were pretty much like zombies last night, but we're feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today. I'm starting to feel like I'm in "travel-mode" again, although my Italian still is getting mixed into my Japanese in my head. :P  Onwards, and we will update again soon! :)