Back from Phuket

The view

The Room

Gimme some more!

Water Fall'n

Are we having fun yet?

Headed Down

The elusive Tiger Tail Seahorse

Inside the "King Cruiser"

The rare "Ghost" pipefish

Up with a smill

The South Siam

I forgot to tell you - we found Will and Penny Robinson (for those that remember :-)

                                       Howdy Doody,

Now that was a well-needed amazing get away!  So far, Phuket has made it into our top three favorite dive locations in the world.  After over 30 years of Scuba, Missie finally got to see her first elusive sea horse – in fact two.  On top of that, we saw sea snakes, an extremely rare “Ghost” pipefish, a 6 foot (at least) octopus, and just about every known reef fish.

Missie also finally got to ride her first elephant (now I keep saying Missie got to, because these are things on her bucket list – they were also my first times).  It was a short ride, but it was enough to know that you don’t want to travel cross-country on an elephant.  There is a great deal of debate about the treatment of elephants in Thailand, but we felt like the boy was treating the elephant well and seem to have a real connection with him.  The second half of that day was on a short river rafting trip – a little different than most.  With it being the driest season, the Thais had come up with a fun way to keep the rapids flowing.  They built a large reservoir and let the water back up all day – then at 2 pm, all the rafting companies load up their dry docked rafts in the center of the stream bed and let it go.  After opening four different gates, all the guides run to catch their boats and the bumper boats begin.  Banging and splashing all the way down the river until we get to a wide spot and again come to a stop.  As the water catches up and fills the stream to a point where we get to take off again – it was great fun.  I think I had more fun than most!  There were about 14 boats and we only went 5 km, but we had some good laughs.

The rest of the week consisted of a tour boat to Phi Phi Island (pronounced Pee Pee Island – should have been pronounced Poo Poo Island), laying on the beach, snorkeling, drinking way too much beer, and of course eating pork with every meal.  Our hotel was a very nice bungalow way (I mean way) up on the hill above Kata Beach.  I think it was 35 or 40 flights of stairs to get there (we were so tired we lost count each time), but the view was beautiful. 

To explain the Poo Poo Island jab:  Phi Phi Island is the island portrayed in the movie “The Beach” and is now one of those places everyone has to visit.  It looked like a boat parking lot with at least 1000 people on the 200 meter long beach – all standing around posing for pictures and hoping to look like Leonardo DiCaprio.  I don’t think I have ever seen a beach under such open destruction.  But it was a nice boat ride and lunch J.

So we are back to the grind and I am once again sick.  Coming back to this dust seems to be an overload for my sinuses (I’ll give an up date on the construction next week). Every time I come back I get sick for a few days and then my body adjusts until the next time – so it goes.  Any suggestions for Spring Break?  We definitely will be going somewhere – leaning towards Europe again since flights are shorter and cheaper.

Lesson of the Week: There is always someplace new and better – but that doesn’t make it the best place to be.

Love to all,

Doug and Missie

More Dust

 

Turn up the volume for full effect!

Hi,

Well the dust storm quit for a couple days, but has now returned in a different form.  Our compound has empty lots on all four sides and construction has now started on two sides.  We are gently greeted each morning with the screeching of metal on metal tracks of the earth moving equipment, the pleasant humming of diesel engines under full throttle, and the soothing vibrations of the jackhammers breaking through the limestone.  The wind has died down a little, so the dust is able to simply float over the wall and settle like a snow blanket in the compound.  We were happy to find out that the project will last through our stay here in Al-Khor.

On a happier note, we purchased our tickets home on June 29^th.  I know you will all be surprised to know it is the day after our last day of school.  Some people here actually questioned why we weren’t staying a few days to get things in order – my reply is that I have had things in order for the past six months and still don’t know why I’m still here.

I finally got to go diving here in Qatar …and I must say, it was one the best dives I have ever been on.  I know it sounds like I am talking crazy, but it was a really good dive.  We left at 6 AM with the intent of three dives starting at the Marjan Wreck, 65 miles due east of Al-Khor.  Unfortunately, we lost half power on one of our engines about 60 miles out.  We limped on to the site, but knew we had a one-engine return cutting our speed to 14 knots (almost 5 hours).  So, we hopped in and made the best of a single dive.  It is a 300+ ft. freighter that went down in the 80s with a load of sulfur in bags.  It is believed that the load shifted causing it to capsize taking down the entire crew of more than 30.  The coral growth was very good with one of the largest assortments of fish I have ever seen in one area before.  The ship was broken up, creating multiple swim troughs and entry points into the hull.  At first sight of the ship, we saw a huge school of Great Barracuda (at least 30, between 3-5 feet) being followed by another large school of Yellow Jacks.  It just kept getting better! Scorpion Fish everywhere along with schools of tangs, parrots, and angles.  The visibility was between 15 to 25 feet, but much of it was like a night dive with several nocturnal species out roaming inside the darkness of the ship – crabs, cowries, and other crustaceans.  I have certainly been on better dives, but I still think this one ranked way up there on the scale.  Maybe it was my lack of expectation that was really surprising.  The water was cold – about 63° F, but my 3mm new wetsuit came through and kept me as warm as the other guys wearing 7mm suits  -- thanks again Patagonia.  So, I hope to find some other great dives before we leave.

Speaking of diving – Phuket here we come.  On the plane Thursday night – on the beach Friday afternoon!

 

Lesson of the Week: You can’t judge a body of water by its shore.

Love to all,

Doug and Missie

Ooops!

Hey,

We’re sitting here today in the middle of a three day (so far) dust storm.  Trying to get anywhere is difficult and I can only imagine the damage it is doing to the car (paint and engine).  Simply walking from the car to the store is hard on your lungs.  The “Qatar Masters” golf tournament is this weekend along with the “Tour of Qatar” cycling race for the next 6 days – just gotta feel sorry for those athletes.  I doubt the crowds they are expecting will be challenging the high wind warnings and low visibility.  With any luck, this is the blowing out of winter and in of summer L

While sitting here surfing on the web, I keep getting more and more popups for unauthorized websites in the growing censorship here in Qatar.  I thought I would show the popup since the portrayal of wrong doers is so funny.  I am now having to use a VPN to access most sites in the US – strangely enough, many of them are blocked on the US side to prevent copying.  The sites that are blocked here are any that use profanity (like the word damn), explicit pictures (like National Geographic), or anything that does not seem to fit into their idea of what is right.  It is not really a pattern, because it changes daily. 

Only 8 ½ workdays until we are on the plane again.  7 nights in Phuket with sun and diving mixed in.  We hope this refuels our engines again until April (spring break).  I have found a diving club here and should get in a boat dive next weekend if the wind dies down.  The water is still cold so I think Missie is going to wait until it warms up a little.  There are several wreck dives that should be fun to explore.  Our understanding is that there are many things to see, but the visibility is usually limited to less than 5 meters.  Sort of like diving in California or Mexico – man, we really got spoiled in Hawaii.  Either way – beats riding the couch and watching TV J

The head of the dive club has been here in Qatar for 15 years, working for most of the oil companies.  He is now a project manager for the largest to date fuel project ($20 billion) here in Qatar.  When I asked him how long is the natural gas going to last, he stated, “less than 40 years”.  Wow, that changes things.  He said that Qatar has been increasing production almost 35% per year.  The numbers he said was over a 100 billion cubic meters per year or 77 million metric tons per month.  He said the Qataris just keep talking like it is an endless well that they keep sticking more and more straws in.  China is gulping down every once they can buy and keep building more and more supertankers to haul it away.  For our students it is going to be a rude awakening when they are our age and the money tree dies. 

Lesson of the Week: Humans don’t really learn much from past generations.  Its just money!

Love to all,

Doug and Missie