Phuket, Scuba Diving in Burma, AKA Myanmar

To be underwater is almost like a second home to me now. If I'm not in the water, I'm dreaming about it. I just finished a 9-day liveaboard leaving from just north of Phuket and going into Burma, or Myanmar as it's been named since 1997. The diving in the Andaman Sea is spectacular. There's aren't enough adjectives to describe it. Each dive site had its own unique character, just as do the islands in the Galapagos. We never knew what to expect, but knew we'd be excited about it. Even after 30 some dives, we saw new marine life on the last dive--Leopard eels, I guess to go along with the leapard shark we'd seen on an earlier dive.

There were six guests on the trip, for a boat that can handle 12. I got a private cabin as a result. There were several people from the UK, two from Sweden, one from Amsterdam, two from Italy, and divemasters from Spain. A nice mix, with me as the only American. I guess Americans don't get this way compared to Europeans. I buddied up with a woman from Sweden who took all kinds of pictures, so since I didn't bring my camera, I hope to get some from her so I can post how magnificent the underwater world is here.

Crossing the border is an elongated affair. The Thai take a long time to go through the paperwork to let you leave, then the Myanmar agents hold your passports for as long as you're in the country. We didn't need them as I didn't step foot on land until awaiting to get my passport back. Then I had to think about it because it would have been interesting to have a Myanmar stamp with never setting foot on land. But I decided to step onto land to see how people live here after reading about Shan refugees. The book reflected what I saw. Major poverty. Not many smiling faces. I felt like I was back in Cambodia.

The feeling in Thailand is much different, though again it took forever to get through customs. We didn't have any more dives for the day, but did want to get to our dive sites for the remaining two days of our trip. The schedule continued as before. Up early, by 6:30 for a before breakfast dive, another around 11am, then one in the afternoon and either a sunset or night dive. So many things to see, so many new fish to meet, and I love every minute of it. Eating, diving, sleeping, eating, diving, sleeping, diving, etc. What a life. I'm glad I found this sport. I plan to do it until I'm 90 if not longer.

More after my next 6 days of diving in the Similian and Surin Islands.