My trip report: Thailand & Myanmar I balked at the idea of going on this trip at first. It wasn't going to be logistically simple: Tulsa to Dallas to LAX to Hong Kong to Bangkok to Phuket...and then a 5-hour bus ride to Ranong where we'd catch our boat and sail into the country of Myanmar (formerly Burma) which would require a Burmese visitor visa, and who knows what else. It also wouldn't be cheap. For this kind of money I could pick one of many locations around the world. There were the good sides, of course. The seven days on the liveaboard would be shared with only nine divers, selected such that their experience level wouldn't limit us when we chose dive sites. This would be important given the intended itinerary through the Mergui Archipelago and the Burma Banks, an itinerary that was the real selling point of the trip. Mergui Archipelago is group of islands north of the popular Similan Islands and within the country of Myanmar. It boasts of hundreds of uninhabited islands scattered along the coast in the Andaman Sea. This area was largely unexplored except by local fishermen, and seldom if ever dived until the mid-1990s when Burmese authorities gave permission to let some Thai liveaboard dive boats visit the area. In the southwest part of the archipelago lies the Burma Banks. This was the first area in Myanmar that was dived by tourists and is the most well known. We ended up not going there on this trip. My travel to Thailand started Friday evening with a flight from Tulsa to LAX. I departed LAX at midnight on a flight to Hong Kong and then to Bangkok where I arrived at 10:45AM Sunday Morning. A short hop from Bangkok down to Phuket ended that section of my journey and by Sunday evening I was having dinner and drinks with John other members of our group. We unanimously agreed to let John (a 15-year resident of Phuket) order for us and we weren't sorry. The food was outstanding. The local beer, Singha, is a fairly strong and rich beer compared to other Asian-made beers. Most of the farongs (westerners) ordered Heineken which is available most places, but I preferred the local stuff. It seemed perfect with the spice and endlessly flavorful local foods. The starting point for many men's troubles. Phuket is a tourism oriented island on the south west coast of Thailand. I stayed in the town of Patong which is probably the most popular tourist stop on Phuket. It has a nice, if a little crowded, beach and plenty of hotels & resorts in most every budget range. It is also the center for nightlife on Phuket. Thailand is famous the world over for "entertainment for men" and this place didn't disprove that reputation. During the day it's just a nice beach by a small town with souvenir ships, restarants, and such but at sunset the bars open their doors and the girls arrive. Let me just say Dorthy, you'd best stay in Kansas. I should point out that while the nightlife of Patong gets a lot of talk, this doesn't represent all of Phuket. There are many other locations on the island that are more family friendy and in fact, I saw many families in Patong. I'm pretty sure however, that the the ever-puritan Cleaver family from Idaho should probably find another beach. Monday morning four of us were picked up in a local version of a taxi which is more or less a pickup with a covered bed and benches to sit on. We headed down to Karon beach to meet up with Marina Divers for a two-tank trip to local sites. This was a choice dive boat. We were way less than capacity so there was lots of room. The boat had a nice indoor area with nice posh seating and a table in the center with fruit, water, coffee, tea and pastries for the duration of the trip. There was a nice sun deck upstairs with more posh seating. The diving on this trip was my first in Indo-Pacific waters so nearly everything was new. There were plenty of lionfish, bannerfish, and angels. The soft coral was beautiful but not too plentiful. This was a good precursor to the Burma trip to come. Once in Ranong, we met the others and proceeded to the Thai Emmigration office where we officially left the country. The next stop was the boat where we would go through the process of getting through the Myanmar immigration. Overall the process was fairly efficient and we had time to go into the little port town and buy some Myanmar Rum (for about $1 a pint) and try some food being sold on the street...ok, only Ivan and I tried the food and we agreed that it wasn't worth crossing the Pacific for. Big Americans are sort of a spectacle here and some of our crowd fit the bill. It seemed to amuse the youngsters. The MV Faah Yai is nice and has decent rooms, some with two twin beds, some with one twin one double bed. It's no Aggressor but all rooms are A/C and have private baths/showers. There was no evidence of fresh water limitations. The food was all Thai, all excellent (I love Thai food), and plentiful. There was unlimited chilled drinking water, softdrinks, fruit, nuts, etc available all the time. I ate mango, pineapple and cashews all day every day. We did a minimum of 4 dives a day including the night dive and often got 5 in. The dive master, Alain, had a small case of Jekyl and Hyde. He gave the most thourough dive briefings I've ever had but bordered on worthless when leading dives. The diving in Myanmar ranged from exceptional to "only" really good. I never came up from a dive wishing I had stayed on the boat but there were a few dives that had pretty poor visibility, maybe 10 feet, and one dive where we missed the submerged pinnacle and ended up fighting the current on a relatively boring dive site. Also, many dives came with currents that were quite strong and we were forced to stay on one side of an island or pinnacle for shelter. Other than the current itself, this isn't a problem since the sea life is so dense here you can enjoy a whole dive in a 100 square foot area. Our way back out of Myanmar and into Thailand was uneventful and we found ourselves back at the hotel in Ranong where we had all assembled before the trip. After a few beers and many good-byes, those of us bound for Phuket packed into the van and headed south. Without question, the trip had been a resounding success. << Back to stories