Travel Progress - Thailand and Diving

Since the last update you've read a lot about Russia which we hope you enjoyed.  We sure enjoyed sitting on the beach, in tropical weather, recapping our winter adventures.  We have a few more posts on Mongolia coming soon to round off the journey.

So what have we been up to in Thailand?  Well, unlike our normal travels, not much.  We passed our advanced open water diving certification and then sat on the beach and went diving nearly every day this month.  In that time we've nearly hit the 50 dive mark thanks to quite a few dives off the island of Koh Tao and a live aboard dive cruise to the Similan Islands where we racked up 14 dives in 4 days.  The highlight being Richelieu Rock which we now understand why it's so highly rated.  It was amazing!

With the month coming to a close we figured it was time for another change.  This time to India.  We will hit the ground tomorrow afternoon in the city of Kochi, in the very southern state of Kerala.

During the last month we've been off the grid some.  However, we haven't lost track of time for to long and having been keeping up with March Madness.  We are just going to have to find a way to watch the game.  It'll be on Sunday in the early morning hours India time.

Diving has really struck a chord with us, so I'll leave you with 2 of our newly found favorite fish.  Below you'll find a Spotted Box Fish and the psychedelic juvenile Emperor Angle Fish (more amazing because they are the stunning black, white and blue as juveniles before they become this).  We only saw one of the latter and it was a great moment!  I had been going on to the dive master that I wanted to see one of these for 3 days and he just wasn't hopeful. Then just after our initial decent at Richelieu, he looked at me making a rocking baby sign with his hands, followed by making a circle with his finger over his head.  I looked at him in disbelief. Had I had translated that right - baby, angel fish?  Nah, I thought before swimming down to take a look.  A big burst of air flew out of my regulator followed by throwing my arms straight up over my head.  There it was happily swimming around a rock near the bottom. It was just spectacular!

That's all from here. Feel free to pass along any India tips and suggestions.  Happy Travels!