Diving Phi Phi Island

 My decision to dive on Phi Phi Island was pretty spontaneous. We arrived around noon and there weren't any afternoon trips set to go and we already had snorkeling plans for the morning so we'd miss those dives as well. That left a night dive, which I figured would be great for seeing a lot of creatures and getting some (hopefully) good pictures. I brought my mask and snorkel and underwater camera case for just an opportunity like this, so I figured I had nothing to lose. I suited up and headed out with the guy (Peter) to my left. Peter spoke English with a surprisingly American accent. He said grew up going to a British school but picked up the US slant from TV and movies.

Sunset over the harbor

 

This big rock was the start of our dive. We started by circling it, then heading down the attached underwater wall. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to see a whole lot. The diving on Guam is pretty good and I hadn't read a whole lot of great things about diving in Thailand, namely that the visibility isn't that great. So a couple minutes into our dive when we saw this big puffer sleeping, I was pretty happy already. It just got better from there. Turns out there was a TON of stuff to see, much of it like Guam, but also much of it bigger or just different.

 Soft coral/fan coral bouquet

These super spiny urchins were everywhere... which made for a somewhat scary dive considering the current was pushing us into the wall the whole 45 minutes!

Urchins in every color and schema... I've never seen so many different varieties

Shrimp!

These things were so neat...as you get closer, 

its arms stop swirling in the current and curl up into little spirals

The auto red eye remover does not work on crabs, FYI

I love this little hideaway fish!

Interesting choral scheme I drifted over

This furry thing was growing perpendicular out from the wall

The sea urchins really outdid themselves... spectacular! 

I love the star in the middle

 

So colorful! The whole 40-ft wall looked like this in some places.

A cleaner shrimp... they clean around your nails... much like the Fish Doctors :)

Snowy white puffy soft coral emerging about 2 ft. high from the sea floor

I keep looking at these pictures thinking, surely Nick took this one, right? 

 It was really amazing how much there was to see everywhere I looked. 

So much for thinking it wouldn't be that great!

The picture doesn't do this justice... this giant pink thing is like a 3-foot tall urn flipped on its side with an angel fish swimming inside of it... the fish turned to the side when I took the picture, which is just too bad. It was a unique combination of sea life.

Another sleeping fish... so hard to get fish pics from the side, so I had to take it!

This was a massive clam that was sticking out from the wall perpendicularly. Usually they grow up from the sea floor. Also, the head of this clam that stuck out of the wall was the size of a volleyball. It snapped shut as soon as the flash went off.

Beautiful red fan coral, home to some clingy shell creatures

Lion fish... we have these in Guam but my instructor was really excited to spot one for me so I had to humor him and take a picture :)

This was perhaps the find of the dive... a large cuddlefish! We hung out with it for about five minutes. It was about the size of a large pumpkin. They are so weird looking!

Another proud fish picture for me... this post is making me abundantly clear that I still know so few of the names of the stuff I look at under water... something to work on our last year here.

Where's Waldo? Let me rephrase... where's the star crab? It is exceptionally camouflaged, which is why these things are so hard to find. In all our dives I have only ever seen one other of these (a night dive on Guam). Hint: It is the star-shaped yellow & pink thing in the dead center of the picture. Believe it or not, that is a crab. About the size of your hand. A-mazing!

Sooo... if I had to pick a favorite 45-minutes of my trip, there's no contest, this was it. I wish Jen hadn't had sinus issues so she could come with me, but I'm so glad I took the plunge and went on my own. Also glad Nick talked me into taking the underwater camera case, even though it would take up precious space in my pack. So glad to have captured these shots. The underwater world continues to amaze me. Grateful for another adventure in the sea :)