We have the chance to have a big pick up, loan by George. It is big enough to receive our motors, and all equipment (which is a lot).

We drive from Pattaya to Phuket, and we think we can arrive in the evening; big mistake, it is longer than expected, and Mathieu is too tired to continue, we stop at around 3 in the morning, and sleep in the car. Pattaya to Bangkok to Phuket, around 12/14 hours, we strongly advise you to take the bus, they are very comfortable, cheap, and you travell by night, so you can rest.

We finally arrive in Phuket Island, and we go straight to one of the most famous beaches; Patong.

We find a very nice resort, owned by Claude de Crissey, an ex hang gliding instructor, who welcomes us. The Royal Phawadee Village is a perfect location to settle a bit in Patong beach. It is friendly, very nice looking, and you can really have a good rest. Budget is more than acceptable for people who wants to have the best comfort.

No time to loose, our main goal, for now in Phuket, is to learn scuba diving! To visit the island better, we’ll come back later, during the contest. Just arrived, and we book a 3 days full lessons of scuba diving at Sea World diving center. René Christoffersen, our instructor begins our courses, by a lot of theory, and by practical courses in a special framed pool for divers. We use the Padi system, which looks like the most known by far for recreationnal diving. Did you know that sound goes 4 times faster underwater than in the air? Emilia, not afraid, adapts very quickly to all exercises; while i really have to make efforts… To tell the truth, i’ve always been scared by water, and have no idea about how i will react in this new universe… But it looks like i do not so bad

Day after, first dive in open water! very exciting! Our diving area is Racha Yai island, south of Phuket Island. We take a boat, full of advanced divers, and have a 1 hour ride to reach the location. We start from the pier of Chalong (south east of Phuket, certainly the biggest pier for your activities, scuba diving, snorkeling, island hopping)

We pass close to beautifull islands, we fell in paradise. The boat stops in a small nice creek, and René invites us to wear equipment after a last briefing. We jump in the Adaman sea, it is sooooo warm! about 30 degrees! We begin the descent, and reach about 12 meters. And then appears to us, luckiest personns in the world at this precise moment, a new universe. How could we tell you? There are no words! Colourfull, silent, and full of different noises in the same time, it is just like a royal garden! We can see lots of corals, of different sizes, shapes, and colours. Some of them are green, some are red.

We see many different kinds of fishes, but we cannot recognize them, we are students! There are so many things to see, that we dont know where we have to turn the head! We can see Murrays, a bit scarry at the beginning, we see a baby ray, a stone fish, a scorpion fish, and so many others! Hundreds or thousands in fact! We also see Nemo, we didnt realised the film was done here…

After 45 minutes of this first dive, we reach surface, and have a break for the second dive. A bit more relaxed, we enjoy a lot this one too!

Time to come back to Patong, but we will not party tonight, we are too exhausted, and another dive awaits us the day after.

During the next day, we come back to Racha Yai Island, and explore underwater the other side of the island. Here also, it is totally unreal, and we begin to feel better skills, and to manage security better. Thanks to René, for his good teaching and his awsome pictures, and to Sea World for the logistic.

Despite the windy and turbulent conditions of theese days, we decide to try to fly the morning after; the take off will be close to Phuket city (east of the island), and we naturally book an Hotel here. We’ll wake up early the day after, we want to take off at the sunrise, to have the biggest margins to the wind, and to the turbulence.

Blogger: Mathieu & Emilia