Burma, 2007 – Not the freest country in the world…
It had been a long time since I went to Thailand; in fact the last time was before the tsunami and I decided it was time to go back and catch up with old friends and rekindle the thai relationships. So to that effect I decided to join my friend PJ Widestrand who is now cruise director on the Mermaid I.
At the same time it was the opportunity to catch up with good friends Suky and Robert who have made the jump to Phuket from cold and grey Sweden and are now in the real estate business out there.
I had the good fortune, pleasure and honour of meeting on this cruise Takako Uno and Stephen Wong, two fantastic photographers published all over the world including National Geographic. In addition to being very talented photographers, they are genuinely nice and kind people and were treat to be around! (Hope your colds have gone now and you are enjoying the tigers :))
The cruise went very well, the Mermaid is a very decent boat, and the crew worked very very hard to ensure all passengers were happy and well taken care of in all situations. Viz in Burma was not fantastatic, but it seems that that is to be expected, in fact a whale shark swam behind PJ and I but we never saw it as we had our noses stuck in the wall looking for nudis. Our buddy did not have a noise making thingy so he never could let us now what was happening. Oh well next time …
The mantas were dancing in Koh Bon, we saw Ornate Ghost Pipefish all over the place, I have never seen so many pairs of Harlequin Shrimp (we must have seen them on 5 days)! The currents at Koh Tachai are as interesting as ever and Richelieu Rock as always lives up to its reputation. It is truly an amazing site even if there no pelagics swimming by.
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