We finally made it to the dock where all the boats departed for their destinations. Each boat carried about 30 divers and some boats even had their own compressors. Tanks lined the edges of the boat and scrambled divers looked for their gear. Everyone got geared up at the same time and lined up in an orderly queue. Ready, set, dive! One-by-one the divers jumped off the boat and looked for their buddies. As soon as we found our group, we huddled together and began our descent.
We dove a total of six times in two days with Phuket Dive Tours. The water was some of the clearest I have ever seen. Lyle and I saw plenty of underwater creatures like the Peacock Mantis Shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus), Pustulose Nudibranchs, Clown Fish (Amphiprioninae), Blacktip Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus), Zebra Moray Eel (Gymnomuraena zebra), Honeycomb Moray Eel (Gymnothorax favagineus), (MY FIRST INDIAN OCEAN SEA SNAKE!) The Banded Sea Krait (Laticauda colubrina), the Ornate Ghost Pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus), and the list goes on and on. All the pictures and footage was taken using my large SpivoStick which was graciously donated by Spivo for my trip and research. This GoPro/camera extender allows for a total 180° spin which helps in video editing and filming! If you would like to purchase the SpivoStick or anything made by Spivo, follow the link: http://www.spivo.com?rfsn=487131.d78397. We visited a site that quickly became one of my favorites called Anemone Reef. This site is COVERED in well... anemones, but in such a way that it looks like underwater grasslands. The Anemone's tentacles were flowing with the current, almost dancing and it was completely mesmerizing. The areas we dove in quickly became my favorite spots. The amount of divers that go through these sites was almost unbelievable, which goes to show how amazing and popular these areas are! I encourage more people to see what our oceans look like, but to also learn to how safely dive without injuring yourself or any other living creatures. The last day we decided to visit Freedom Beach, which was a terrifying moped ride away (why was it terrifying?). We arrived at the entrance and walked our way down to the sand. People who know me, know that my first stop is the tide pools. These tide pools were hiding juvenile fishes of all different shapes and colors. As I jumped from rock to rock, I noticed something jumping in the water. At first, I thought they were crabs but after closer inspection, I noticed they were fish! They looked like some type of Blenny that jumped on rocks and skipped on water. I was lucky enough to sneak some footage of them while they ate and jumped. After we got back to our hostel, we still had extra time on the rented mopeds. So Lyle and I decided to take it around one last time. We drove all the way around the back of Patong and its main street. This was our Phuket good-bye, and I enjoyed every beeping-moment.
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