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We take a weekend in Barcelona.
We've heard many people like to go there and thought it seemed like a fun trip, have a good time, relax and look around :) You can tell it's a little bigger city. We quickly learned that the mentality is a little more ”I dont care”. If I thought I understood the meaning of the word mañana, I had to do a big revaluation this trip. We stayed in a hotel that had a small room but was very nice. The breakfast was in a small dining room, and we got the feeling that they did not want to offer too much breakfast, and seranon they were very careful with. You had to ask for a piece! The first night we were looking for a restaurant where we could eat some tapas. After many restaurants and after reading many menus we realized that we did not find tapas in the way we wanted, it was more or less impossible to find something like that. . But we finally chose a restaurant that was in a small alley, a bit like a tunnel, with a lot of small restaurants. It was nice, but the staff forgot about us all the time, so everything took a very long time. Usually when we rent a room at hotels, we make sure to have a fridge. At this hotel there was one, but more like a bar containing refreshments and snacks. We are not really interested in the expensive content but want to be able to buy some own yogurt, water, etc. and took out lots of stuff and put in our own things and then before returning home to Sweden we put back the hotel's own products. Excellent ;) We had some things on the trip that were a bit surprising and that we had some fun at the moment and afterward because it was so extremely strange. The first time we would go shopping some food to the fridge, there were 30 minutes left until the supermarket would close. We walked into the store and were taking what we're supposed to have. When we get to the wall coolers, the guy who works there comes and in front of us, he pulls the shutters down in front of the fridge. No more shopping, he should go home. We probably looked pretty snoopy. The next event was an evening when we had booked a package with buffet and flamenco show. It was a rainy evening, and we were very excited about eating well and watching the show. The place we booked would have 3 sittings and 3 shows. We had booked the 2nd sitting and the 2nd show respectively. The waiter showed us our table space, and we went over to the buffet, there were many things that it is empty of and several bowls that it is running out of. When we tried a second time to get some food, we realize it's not filling up. We went to one of the staff and asked if they should fill up soon? He asked what I want to have? But it is hard to know when you do not know what they had from the beginning. Time is also running out when the show is about to begin. We are told by another tourist that the last sitting has been cancelled, and now they are not cooking any more food. We had to choose to shrug our shoulders and go and watch flamenco, which in itself was nice. Now it started to feel a bit like the Swedish Stig Helmer movie :) But it didn't end… One evening we went to the city to watch a fountain show. It was a nice evening and the show was with colors, music and various water formations. Afterwards, we took a walk to look around the city. We found a place not too far from the fountain with an elevator that went high up, so you could take a look at the view. We thought it was a great thing, and there was a woman with a small table next to the elevator door that you had to pay to get to go up to the top. Furthermore, we paid and went up, it was a really nice view. It turned out to be bigger than we thought and there were several restaurants. We walked around and then there was an escalator you could use to go down, and suddenly we are inside a big shopping mal. Now we start giggling and realize how brutally ripped off we have been in a very creative way ;) The food in Barcelona is hardly worth mentioning, it was boring and tasteless, we finally found a Vietnamese restaurant that had good food and which we could order in a lot of hors d'oeuvres at. The staff were very friendly and helpful. I loved the trip because it was nice to have time off, and it was together with the person who means everything to me and who I have crazy fun with, but the probability that we go back to Barcelona is not so great!
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Octopus, where octo is Greek for eight.
The octopus belongs to one of my favorite animals. I always thought they were cool, but before I started diving and saw my first octopus, I had not thought so much about them more than that they were very clever and looked cool. When I first got in touch face to face, I became really curious about this strange creature. I really felt how it studied me as much as I studied it. In those cases we were not too many divers, it was even easier to get a communication. If you were really lucky, they even wanted to touch us. An intoxicating feeling! I was curious about the octopus's intelligence. I watched videos where octopuses were mischievous with divers, and they could even get annoyed at stupid divers who were teasing them and could rip off the diver's googles and the regulator get yanked out of their mouths. I thought one story was hilarious. It was from an aquarium at a zoo where they had two large aquariums. In one there were fishes and in the other lived an octopus. When the staff arrived in the morning one fish was missing and the next day one more fish was missing and so on. The staff did not understand why the fishes were missing and decided to put up some cameras. The next day, another fish was missing, and they watched with excitement the night's recording. It turned out that the octopus nicely removed the disc over its aquarium. Slipped out and made his way away to the fish aquarium, removed the disc and fished out a nice tasty fish. Pulled the disc slid back to the aquarium, and softly get back to his tank and had a nice night meal. So hilarious :) I learned that the only hard thing on an octopus is the beak it has on the underside of the body. The rest of the body is soft and adaptable, the octopus can get through any hole only the beak can fit. When the octopus is born, they are extremely tiny, fit on a finger. Unfortunately, they do not live so long, usually 1–3 years. The sad thing is that the female take care of her eggs until they hatch without going outside her nest and don't eat anything. After 8 weeks, when her job is done and her children are going to fend for themselves, she dies. I think the eggs look like bunches of grapes hanging in the nest ceiling. The octopus has three hearts two that pump blood to the gills and one that pumps to the rest of the body. Unlike the human blood who is red, the octopus has blue. It's because the blood contains the copper-rich protein hemocyanin. The octopus has incredibly good vision and has memories of things that have happened, recognize sensibility and can use tools. This makes it easy for them to learn mazes and different problem solutions. The suction cups on the arms can feel chemical changes , they can smell and taste with their arms. When I looked at National Geographic, I learned that the octopus's ink is toxic and can be deadly even to the octopus itself. The ink is of mucus substance and melanin which is the dark pigment you can find in our eye color, hair and skin. Melanity forms the amino acid tyrosine. It impairs the sight, taste and smell of a predator and can even suffocate the predator that wants to eat the octopus. If the octopus does not have time to remove from its own ink, it can also suffocate. There are many different types of octopus species, and they are all in different ways good at camouflaging themselves. Change the color and shape of the body to blend in with the surroundings. Some are adept at impersonating other animals to look dangerous. The octopus is an amazing creature that makes you happy to see, experience and deserves all the respect :) The sea star is a strange creature.
They belong to the group of echinoderms divided into 5 groups which are sea star, snake stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and sea lilies. There are about 2000 species and most common are the sea star with 5 arms but have species that can have up to 20 arms. Their propagation process is varied in nature and a little special. Most are single-sex, but there are also same-sex, i.e. hermaphrodites. They have genitals on each leg and the single-sex syringe spraying sperm or eggs, if the eggs are not fertilized, they can sometimes undergo so-called Virgin birth. There are also species that can split into 2 and let new arms grow out where it is missing, even if it takes some time. It has eyes at the end of each arm. The sea star eat meat and scavengers and is not as harmless as you might think. The tips of the arms have taste and olfactory organs, and each arm has little of its own life. If an arm smells a good smell, it becomes dominant and the rest of the sea star may kindly come along, they have two stomachs that they can turn inside out, for example, if they pry up a clam, they turn one of their stomach into the clam, spray out stomach fluid that dissolves the prey and begins to eat. The sea star's mouth sits on the underside and on the opposite side they release their feces. On the underside of the sea star sits thousands of small legs with suction cups. It is really strong and meanders about, for example, a clam and breaks it up. With all the small legs, it looks like it's floating forward when it moves in any direction. A Sea star is very sensitive to touch, light and temperature changes. They have no brain but have a very complicated nerve system and an intricate water vessel system for transport, breathing and movement. It is believed that the sea star can be 35 years old, but since you can not age determine on the size, you do not know completely. The size of the sea star is determined by food, quantity and quality. The sea star is the vacuum cleaner of the sea and keeps the bottom clean from, among other things, like dead animals, and are hugely important to the ecosystem. After months of checking the weather every day and waiting for snow on the slopes of Romme, Borlänge, we decide in the evening that tomorrow we go.
Winter has not really been as usual, so I had given up the idea that it will be any skiing. Now it has finally been a few nights in Borlänge with sub-zero temperatures and Romme alpin has had time to get on some snow, and after they managed to keep 21 slopes running in the early warm ski season with a lot of grass stains and swampy dirty snow, it finally looks like it is white on the webcams and the grass is no longer visible. They have even been able to open slopes, so now 28/33 slopes are running since a couple of days. It is probably the last opportunity to go for us this season as there are only 5 weekends left after this as Romme is open. But you never know! After hearing an ex number of times a day for an ex numbers of month that Stefan wants to ski, maybe my ears will have a quiet time finally ;) It was a close call that we got away when one wheel layer on the car became very noisy just before departure the day before. Friday afternoon and I did a long shot and called my best workshop that I entrusted my cars to for many years. I asked if the possibility existed to change the wheel bearing and the counter question became, when do you want? I responded with both banter and seriousness, Now! Furthermore, I heard how almost the person on the other end went after his breath and wonder what time it was. The answer was, I'm leaving now to get the spare part! In 1 1/2 hours, I then had a newly fixed car. I would highly recommend a high-quality workshop with fantastic service for those who do not have any good today. Mekonomen auto repair shop Syd/Autoservice Huddinge. Get up early in the morning and pack us out in the car and so off. 3-hour drive if it's without stops, but we choose to stop at Mc Donalds in Hedemora and borrow the toilet before the last stop. On site in Romme we hurry to the rental to rent equipment for the young people. The sun is shining, good snow on the slopes, and it is between -6 °C – 1 °C, can not be better ski weather. We went skiing for about 2 hours and then took a cozy break in the ski lodge with some cola and some sweets. Then we'll take a couple more hours on the slopes. The snow on the slopes during the week has become fantastic, and we could vary between blue, red and black slopes. The first hours were best because then it was just right amount with people, then there were more people than us who thirsted for skiing, and it became more crowded on the slopes. Then we were quite happy and started to head home again with a little snack in the car. I didn't really think there would be any skiing this year, so feel really happy and satisfied, as well as the rest of the family. Time again for Puerto Rico and nice diving.
We've booked into Montesol via Tui. The apartment was quite okay except for the beds which were very uncomfortable, and you got pain in the body and woke up countless times during the night to find new sleeping positions. Otherwise, the apartment had everything that we need with kitchen alcove, balcony (this time on the first floor), bathroom m shower, safety box and living room and the apartment was clean. This trip will only be at the diving boat which in itself is convenient even though we love the beach dives here at Grancan as well. For those of us who like to see octopuses, beach dives can be an advantage. It is always so cozy when we get to the hotel, we install ourselves, switch to more summary, take a walk down to the center and eat a good dinner. We decide this time to eat at a restaurant called La Bolero which we pass every night we are here and have our evening walk. It turns out to be a stroke of luck. They have super nice service, it's fresh and they have Angus meat. For me that being hyper fussy when it comes to meat can only say it was tender, no shred of fat streak. SOOO Good! Now I can possibly be a bit monotonous when I like something, so this trip had many evenings at La Bolera with Angus meat. Good thing it's not only angus meat they serve, so my husband could try different things ;p Then the diving days start and we get picked up in the morning and go to the boat located in Pasito Blanco. Good to see Wouter and the gang again. We get ourselves a little funny and unexpected surprise first dive. When we go down, a jellyfish comes swimming, and it's a bit exciting because it's not so common. The tentacles are certainly up to 1.5 meters long. Trying to take a little card and continue down. Lovely dive, and on the way up we realize that now it is no longer just one jellyfish ... It's... Hundreds... Now the brain activity is on, I can promise. At a depth of 5–6 meters, we're going to do our safety stop for 3 minutes. The problem is that the jellyfishes are at 7–0 meters. Right now, I'm glad I'm wearing a full suit. Because it's a little cold in the water, I also wear headbands and have a hood hanging at the back of my neck that I pull on. Now only the face is exposed. But it's crazy to see all the super-long tentacles everywhere, and the jellyfishes seem to be drawing to us. I don't know if it's our body heat or if it's the exhalation they're reacting to. It will be a few long minutes to look around and fend off both the jellyfishes and their tentacles that lie as long bands behind. One second we get some room around us for the next moment almost non. We'll get up to the surface and breathe out that we've made it without getting burned. One of our poor instructors who belongs to those who never freeze has dived in a shorty had to go straight up and did get burned. Wouter also got a little burn when he pulled up the rope the anchor is attached to :). The second dive had to be in a bay where the current that the jellyfishes follow does not go. It is very rare to have these jellyfishes in Gran Canaria and the first time we see them. It continues a bit like that rest of the dive days. The first dive we get down and when we start to get up they start coming. So we hurry to get in the first dive every day and tried before jellyfish meeting. And the second dive had to be out of the stream, which is fine. This period, Angelsharks are in the area, and we were lucky enough to see them. When we dive, it is obvious with the safety mindset, there are some things you do in some order and things you do not do because it can be dangerous. When we talked to a diver on one of our previous Thai trips he told us that one of his friends investigates diving accidents and on all the investigations he did there was nothing wrong with the equipment, it was due to the human factor. And I believe it is.. On our trips we get to meet many divers with different experiences, nationalities which is great fun. Some are incredibly talented, and you can learn something new, and it is usually a very nice atmosphere. It's extra fun when you meet these nice divers again. Sometimes you meet divers that we've seen divers do things which is not so good, it has usually not been a problem and have not been dangerous that time. Once in Thailand, we were down for 4 minutes, and suddenly we see a guy drop his weight belt at 15 meters and go up to the surface at full speed. It turned out that he forgot to change the tank between the first and second dives, and off course there wasn't much air left in the tank and it ran out. It's a good thing this time it wasn't deeper. For me, it's unthinkable not to have had time to look at my manometer about 10 times before I'm down to see that the amount of the air is correct. Last dive day this trip we experience a couple from Poland who were something out of the ordinary we met. During the briefing before the first dive, the man begins to laugh and tell that his air has run out during a previous dive, and he had to swim straight to the surface. But he laughed a little bit more and said everything went well and nothing happened. This is not something that impresses a normal diver, but rather becomes a little thoughtful. We go down, and we're in two different dive groups. The couple have got their own instructor as they have not dived with "Lets go diving" before. Stefan and I start freezing after 30 minutes and tell our guide that we were back to the boat and get to the surface. Our guide asks if we can take the Polish woman with us because her less of air quantity. It was okay and we started to show her the way back to the boat. Then something incredibly strange happens. Because it’s a little bit current, we are going up through the line, take our 3-minute stop at 6 meters and then go up to surface. This is also told at the briefing before everyone's gone into the water. We'll take the rope and ask the woman to do the same. But she starts to swim up to the surface like a rocket. If we hadn't had the regulator in our mouths, we'd probably have looked pretty snoopy. We hear a banging and could see our instructor come at full speed towards the rope while he slams into his tank to try to get the woman to stop, but she is already up. Good thing we've just been approximately 15 meters, but things can still happen. When we come up, it turns out that nothing special has happened and made that reaction necessary. Her partner also turned out to have made his dive outside the manual. Firstly, he quickly consumed air and when the manometer showed it was time to swim back to the boat, he rejected the guide and swam away from him. The guide tried to get him up several times, but he waved away the guide and then the air was exhausted, and even he made a direct ascent. The crew wasn't happy when everyone came up. They tried to talk to the couple, who were not at all interested in talking further or taking any advice. Dive 2 everyone hoped the couple had come to their senses, but exactly the same procedure that had occurred the dive before was being repeated. Then you get a little thoughtful if the couple really had an education? No more dives on this boat anyway. Last dive day and last dive for this time, we started freezing quite early and chose to turn around before the others. When we arrived at the line, we found a little friend. A delightful Cuttlefish :) We just had to stay in the sand and look at her as she looked at us. The little Cuttlefish swam forward poked a little on my hand, swimming backwards and came back and poke again while we studied each other. It is so intoxicating to be so close to another creature who take contact with you on your own. Being able to look deep into your eyes and almost into the soul. We lay like that for several minutes until she seemed to get tired of us. Then she swam forward, bumped her wider tentacles into the sand, so it sprinkled up sand on my hand and backed off. That's when we realized it was time to go :) We were lucky enough to see a moray be at the dentist and have his sharp teeth cleaned. It is very cool with the symbiosis many animals live in. During this trip, Puerto Rico had a major opening of the new center. Fountain games with colors and various water spectacles. Happy with the week, we go home and start planning for the next trip :) It’s time to go on a nice trip with the family again :) We booked a hotel well in advance as it is a bit more time-pressed to get the days together when the hole family are going. We enjoyed the hotel we were at the last time with the children, and our wish was to be there again. But according to Ving, they would not be in charge of that hotel this year, so we simply had to choose and take a chance on another. But a few weeks before departure we looked at Ving's website and to our delight, the hotel had appeared as an alternative. We called, and they shifted our hotel choice to Servatur Puerto Azul. JIPPII!!! This trip will be a little extra exciting too as the girls decided to make the last 2 steps of training for OW divers certificate, and it will be together with Wouter and his diving center "Lets go Diving". At the hotel, we got the same room as last but mirrored, which I like. All package in to our room, change and up to the pool area. We have time for some simple toast, drinks and bath before the evening dinner buffet later on. And some ice cream and our evening walk, of course! Then there will be a big focus on diving in Amadores. Doesn't matter how much you've done it, it's always such a craving and desire to dive more, and it becomes even more fun than the young people like it, and me and Stefan can get the opportunity to show and share everything amazing under the surface. This trip will be a little extra exciting as the girls have decided to make the last 2 steps of training to be OW divers, and it will be together with Wouter and his diving center "Lets go Diving". The girls start with a nice dive, and then it becomes coarse and the younger man in the family had some nice fun dive in the meantime and discovers lots of delicious animals. We are never disappointed in Amadores as we always get to see one or more octopuses. 3 nice days in this beautiful bay. All three young people are really good now to dive, and it just gets more fun every time we dive. Afternoons after the diving there will be relaxing in the pool, drinks (mostly soft drinks and water), ice cream, buffet lunch, dinner buffet and sunset walks. In the evenings after the walk there are performances at the bar. Magic, Mikael jackson, rock rings, etc. What got a little extra and very cool this time was that during the Mikael Jackson show, a young guy showed up next to the stage and danced incredibly well. So the man who performed on stage invited him up, and it was an excellent performance, the audience screamed. Then it was time for a little more deep dive in the course, and it will be from boat, which in itself is also the first time for the girls. In depth, if they should take off and on googles and some other exercises that would be done on this day. It is good to be able to fix your equipment even when it’s wavy, which becomes a training moment in itself for our girls. Even now we mixed course with pleasure dive :) The girls finished the course, JIPPI!!! They are of course relieved and happy and I would be lying if I said I am not extremely relieved and happy :p Now they can call themselves Open Water divers :) This time, the trip actually felt way too short. Normally it is sad that the trip is over, but it’s still nice to come home to our own beds, now the trip felt far too short. It has been so calm, harmonious and fun in every way. You can see that it is not children you go with anymore, but young people who are self-motivated. Thanks for a great holiday :) For us a bit of everyday skiers who only have time a few times every winter with skiing and who live within a reasonable distance to Borlänge, I can highly recommend Romme Alpin.
Even if the diving is at the top of the course, sub-zero temperatures with beautiful snow and sun where you whizz down the slopes are a wonderful feeling and that we long for when winter comes. Sometimes we choose to take in the nearby hotel Galaxen which is located more centrally in Borlänge, and sometimes we choose to luxuriate in it and stay at the lodge of Romme Alpin Thursday to Sunday. When we stay at Galaxen we usually do not stay that long, maybe 1 to 2 nights and we usually go down to Borlänge center and eat at an Asian restaurant in the evening called Coco Thai. A little strange restaurant where everyone who works looks very depressed. But they make very good food! If we stay at the lodge, we usually eat the lodge Buffet in the evenings, with slightly different themes every night. It is very good room at the lodge with drying cabinets and spaces for the equipment you want in the room. Then you have a cupboard down on the first floor with direct exit to the slopes where you can store your skis or snowboard. There is a big selection of slopes. Everything from small beginner slopes where there is a small conveyor belt you can as a tiny kid start to ride up a number of meters and then be able to slide down a few meters and start over. Then the variations rise up to more difficult slopes. As I said, a good place that is close to Stockholm when you have a little less time to take time off. What can be minus is that if you booked a room and someone in the family would get sick, so you can not go, there is no cancellation insurance. So don't get sick! Sometimes when we stay at the lodge and want a slightly different evening, we book ourselves on a trip up to the top cabin and their fondue evening. A nice and a bit exciting trip in the evening up the ski slopes in a bandwagon to Toppstugan's restaurant. It is not something you do too often as it is quite expensive, and the service can be very varied. One room has a buffet where you can pick up a lot of accessories ranging from vegetables boiled or raw, potatoes in various forms such as gratin, boiled, wedged, etc. At table, you have a fondue casserole, and you get a bowl of fillet of beef with a certain amount per person. If you want more, you can buy for more. Then you can dip vegetables from the buffet room if you want. It also includes small bowls with a few different kinds of sauces. You buy drinks. So it won't be really cheap when you're done :p Then you easily book a time when you feel that it is approaching that you want to go home and the bandwagon comes, picks you up and drive down to the lodge again. At 9 the slopes open, and we start with buffet breakfast where we usually see through the window as the staff prepares to open the lifts. Then it's out in the slopes. We like to take breaks here and there and go into the lodge and have something to drink or stop on a hill on the other side of the mountain and have a sausage on an outdoor grill or a waffle in the waffle hut when it is not overcrowded in there. A lovely compensation in anticipation of the summer :) Time for sun and more diving, we have missed it so much:) We live in Puerto Rico again because we enjoy being able to get around as we please. It is close to most things if you do not find it hard to walk. We're staying at the Ocean Hill hotel, with breakfast. The breakfast was good with a large selection, and we could sit outside and eat. The room was also good, the only thing I miss on the apartments that we stayed at is a bit nicer lighting. It is very strong, white and bright would be nicer with warm light. We are going with "Lets Go Diving" again and have already planned our dive days :p A few nice days on the boat and nice company and a night dive in Amadores. The night before our night dive, we hurry down to our Italian restaurant "Al ponte" to get some good food. A little night dive in nice little Amadores. I love to dive there, so many small creatures looking at you and fishes lying asleep on the bottom, crabs eating, octopuses and cuttlefishes that have things going on, big snails, etc. Sea cucumbers are more active at night. They are crazy tall and more lively. The moment the light from the lamp comes on them, they pull themselves together, which must mean that they are very sensitive to light. A lot of different kinds of shrimps that only appear at night. When you swim above the rocks, you can see lots of shining eyes watching you. It is not always easy to get close, as they are very quick to hide. In the evenings we walk around and eat at our Italian restaurant "Al Ponte". We no longer eat desserts at "El capricho" as they lost the quality of the milkshake. The last times the smoothies started to be a little bit warm and when they served gingerbread on the pancake it was too much. We will find a new place. We end the last evening of this trip with good food and sunset walk. Thanks for this time :) We live at Servatur Puerto Azul. We go with Ving, and they have movies to buy on the flight which I think is great, and the service is very good. The trip is quick, and we just need to go directly to the bus that takes us to the hotel.
Our room is a bit worn but clean. Two rooms and living room so we all 5 can fit. The sun is shining, and we change and walk up to the pool area, take a swim and grab snacks and drink. We have all-inclusive, so it is possible to eat all the time if you would like. Our dive center "Let ́s go diving" is a bit too far away, so we email and check plans for tomorrow. It's buffet every night and some days they have a little special dessert table with chocolate fountain, fruit and sweets to dip. A freezer with ice cream is available all the time and ice cream can be found at the bar for the rest of the day along with a drink. At lunch you can either go in and have lunch buffet or eat bar buffet consisting of french fries, burgers, sausages and toast. Not the most healthy but still ;) Great diving for the children in Amadores and us too of course. Happy reunion with both Nina and Kevin this trip and our new friends Wouter and Nena from Let's go diving. Nina is amazing at being on a treasure hunt with the kids and finding a lot of exciting animals. Several nice dives with octopuses, fireworms etc. We ate at the hotel most days, but one evening we had to take a turn down to our Italian restaurant. A blessed mix of good :p In the evenings at the hotel, they have small performances in the bar. We only watched two nights, but it was nice. One evening it was an incredibly talented girl who had the art of spinning rock rings, and not only a few, but at one point she was covered in them. Another night we saw a man and woman do magic tricks. Really nice :) On one of our dives, we saw how skilled sea star are to turn right. Starfishes are a rather fascinating and strange animal. They have eyes and genitals on each arm. It has two stomachs that can be turned inside out. The arms have their own life, if one arm smell something nice, it becomes dominant and the others are kindly allowed to come along. Very exciting :) Last night, an extra decorated dessert table. Happy for this trip and dream about next :) We go back to Thailand and Khao Lak, and stay at hotel K10. I liked this hotel a lot. It was a little bit on the outside of the centrum road and felt really tropical and exotic. The buffet breakfast was great, and they had good omelettes you mixed by yourself and then went to a girl who cooked. The only bad was the bread table where birds flew around and ate at, so we skipped it. After installation at the hotel, we take our usual trip down to the dive center and find out the pickup time for tomorrow. We dive with IQ dive again because we liked them last time. Then it's time to find the first evening meal. Green curry is a must :) We found a little stand where they made crêpes, and it turned out to be crazy good. Now it's crêpes every night. We dived at Turtle Rock, Three Trees, where we saw barracudas and moray. In the break between the 2 dives, it is the usual boat-cooked buffet lunch that is so amazingly good. It's nice that it's the same crews and several guides we've known since the first tour to Khao Lak. I like Thai food so much and we try to bring in some different dishes to try. However, I must always have a green curry as it is the favorite. On the other hand, the Thais have become cowards with the seasoning. Finally, there will be crepes with the banana and nutélla in the favorite stand. We dived at Snapper alley where we got to see some more vivid anemones, leaf fish and an unicorn fish. At Christmas point we saw a sea star variety we've never seen before. Boon Sung Wreck is a favorite wreck, and we make sure to catch it twice on the trip. It is so multiplant of animals there, so we constantly find something new. One dive we were lucky to get our own guide, and he showed us a lot of little things that we usually do not have time to see. Like various nudibranch, network pipe fish, hermit crayfish, white-eyed moray, etc. We went out by long tail boat both times, and it suits us well these days because we will be in port earlier, so we have time to look around a bit. At Sea shart (Wreck) we went with a long tail boat. It's very current and cloudy visibility. This was the heaviest and hardest dive I've ever made. It was current at the surface, when we jumped in and held the line along the side of the boat, the current wanted to pull us away from the line we should go down on. I paddle like crazy and knew that if I lose the line I would go away fast. When I got to the front, I would reach the next line that was a little too far away, and now I can promise that the breathing had to fight hard, and I was hyperventilating. At the moment it did not feel possible to have a regulator in my mouth and be able to go down and get some oxygen, it feels like breathing in a straw. I do know, however, that if I manage to stay calm and get down 2 meters, I will be able to slowly breathe normally again. Calm and easy we started to go down, and finally I could breathe normally again and the power from the current calmed down the further down we came. At premchai wreck, it was different and fun. In the middle of the dive it came a preening fish swimming. It had no one to hang on to and started to make attempts to hang itself on us divers. It looked so funny that I was laughing, and the water was flowing into my mask. I emptied my mask and kept laughing, emptied and laughing :) Then the little fish came and tried to hang on to my leg, and it was like coarse sandpaper with pressure, I tried firmly but politely poke it away. I hope it finds someone who appreciates his tenacity when we get up. We try a restaurant I unfortunately do not know the name of, but that looked a bit more luxurious on the outside. The food was perfectly okay, but no wow feeling. We tried to ask for stronger food but it seems that all restaurants have become afraid to spice up the food. We'll probably take the hole in the wall next time again. Koh Tachai and Koh Bon were also visited by us. At Koh Tachai it was current so it was rope down. A wonderful pretty big octopus was outside his nest, it's make my day :) Hot shrimp and green curry. We try to nag and ask for more spicy, but we have failed every dinner. I feel in this journey that the underwater environment has begun to recover slightly from the first time we were here. A little more living anemones and clownfishes, a little more color. We take a day off and take a trip with a hired guide one day to Phuket. He tries to stop at a lot of shopping places and malls, but that's not really for us. In the template it is about the same shops we got at home, then there are luxury stores with precious stones and expensive bags, etc. we run through and try to be polite and went out as quickly as we can. Phuket gets very low rating, boring, uninteresting, no coziness at all, not a place for us. Our guide wants to show us something and starts driving up on winding roads. The sad thing when you drive on different small roads is to see that there are still poor trekking elephants waiting for tourists. To me who knows how the wild animals were subjected to the torture method Phajaan (please googling for more information) only get sad, and I wish that the information to tourists was more elaborated on the airlines so that people do not pay for animal shows, trekking, zoos, etc. Animals are ALWAYS exposed to Phajaan. I will tell you in my own post later about this for interested. We're coming to a huge Budda. Some wild monkeys and different bowls in different shapes. There were also monks where you against a coin / gift will be blessed and got an bracelet around your wrist. Although it was very touristy, and it was possible to pay for all sorts of things there, but still it was a nice moment and quite pleasant to walk around there. Then we went home and ate a nice dinner and the usual for this trip crêpes with banana and Nutella. Thanks for an amazing experience week! |
BloggersCamilla Wennström Archives
January 2023
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