Diving Phuket [Joshua Burke]

Before we are going to leave Phuket, we had to get Jacob certified for diving. Otherwise he would miss out when we are going to dive in Myanmar, and that would suck. He went with Padi to do his open water (beginner level), and did good on his test and the pool practices. When it was time to actually go into the ocean we all went diving together. 

Having fun 

I have been certified since 2011 and I went with SSI to do my open water. Before I left for this amazing trip though, I was able to get my specialty diver level too. Jacob is super lucky to do his open water in nice water with good visibility, here in Phuket. I had to do mine in freezing water, with little to no visibility back at home. 

James was sick on the first day so Mom and him had to stay home. So dad, Jacob and I went diving. We met up with his instructor, Nina, down at Chalong (about a two hour drive) and headed off. This is the first time that I have gone diving off a dive boat with lots of other people.  

Ready to go!

 Rachayi 

The first dive we did was off of a beautiful island called Rachayi. It took about an hour to get there by the dive boat. I was starving on the way there so I had some breakfast before going in the water. Jacob had to do some surface skills that he couldn't do in the pool, so dad and I went to go check out some coral beds while we were waiting for him to be done. Not a whole lot of animals and coral there but it was still fun. After doing our surface interval for about an hour, we went back into the water again for our second dive of the day. I saw a really cool stonefish that blended into the rock and lots more. 

Having some breakfast.

Descending 

A cool stonefish. 

Kohbidanok 

The next day James was feeling better so everybody went diving for the day. We went on a different dive boat for these dives. We were doing three dives that day and the first dive that we were going to do was off an island called kohbidanok. There was so much to see, so while Jacob was doing more skills, the rest of us went to take a good look around. I spotted a cool moray eel that was poking out of its home in the rock side. There was also a neat sea wall that had tons of life on it.

Going around 

The moray eel

Turtle Rock 

Our next dive was at a place the divers call turtle rock. As the name suggests, there are many sightings of turtles there and I was itching to find one. So after we finished our surface interval for about an hour we jumped back not the water. Surprisingly we found a turtle right away. It was amazing to swim beside a turtle that was super close to you. After the turtle had swam away we went to go look at other animas before heading back onto the dive boat for some lunch. 

Turtle Rock 

Our sea turtle friend

Kohdocmai 

It was late in the evening before we got to our last dive stop for the day, kohdocmai. Kohdocmai is a small island that is known for its drift dives. I didn't realize how fast the current was until we got past a bend. The current so strong that you could not swim against it, but that is ok because the dive boat would pick you up at the other end. As we were going along we spotted a opening in the sea wall. It ended up to be a fantastic underwater cave that went in a reasonable way. There was no cool animals inside but it was awesome to explore the cave. 

Kohdocmai Island 

Being carried by the current  

Thank you for reading this post

Hope you enjoyed it!!

Joshua 

   

Learning to Dive [Jacob Burke]

At first I didn’t want to dive. But after a few days thinking, I decided to try it out. I started the Padi open water diver course by reading the book that Padi provided me with. After I read it, I finished the test with a 98% score.

The day after I finished the test, I did the confined dive in my pool. In the dive I practiced many skills with my instructor, Nina.

Lunch time

Doing Some Skills

The next day, I went to do open water dive one. I woke up very early in the morning so I would not miss my arrival at Chalong. I was diving off of a live dive boat. The dive boat had two levels. On the bottom was the dry room, and on the top there was a sitting area. The dive boat set off at 8:30 and to Rachayi for two 50-minute dives. On the first dive, I did a few skills for ten minutes, and then dove for fun. On the dive, I saw a peacock shrimp, a lot of puffer fish and moreish idols. A bearded scorpion fish made a short visit too. The visibility was great, 20 m, so I really enjoyed the dive. When I surfaced and came back in the dive boat I got out of my gear and hurried to get lunch.

Fish

Beautiful, clear, water

Starfish

More Fish

Josh and I on the dive boat

After I was full, I got ready to dive and jumped into the bay a bit further away from the bay before. We were on the same island as the first dive. On the dive, I saw a few batfish under a cliff overhanging, and a giant moray eel. The batfish were at a cleaning station and had cleaner wrass feeding away at all the parasites. Another thing I did was a CEASER, all the way up to the surface

A giant clam

Sea Urchin

The next day, Saturday, I got up at the same time and headed to Chalong. This trip the whole family went together. When we arrived, we met my dive instructor and went onto the dive boat we were traveling in. The dive boat was mostly the same as the one we went on the day before, but it was a bit bigger. Today we were going to Phi Phi. Phi Phi is a well known for its diving.

Hawksbill Turtle

The first dive we did at Phi Phi Island was at Turtle rock. Turtle rock is known for its turtles. While we were diving we got to see a one. It was a hawksbill.

The next dive was at Kohdokmai. At Kohdokmai, there are two caves, one was to deep for me to go, but the other one I could. Before I entered it I saw a few shrimp, and other animals using my dive instructor’s flash light. The cave was pretty cool. It had no coral in it and it was dark. Unfortunately, we did not see any cool thing in it.

I am now a certified open water diver, and I can't wait till I can dive in Burma.

Thanks for reading, Jacob







 More Pictures from my adventures underwater:

A sea cucumber

Stone Fish

A school of fish

Crown of thorns

Dive Skills`

Ahoy Captain James!

Moray eel

Can you see the Scorpion fish?

Another Moray eel

Turtle Rock

Clown Fish

Diving with my brother

Mom enjoying the sunny day

My dive instructor, Nina, and I

Kohdokmai

Ending the dive

The Phuket Vegetarian Festival [Jacob Burke]

Here in Phuket, there is a vegetarian festival every year. It is celebrated all over the area and is held for 9 days. The closest area where the festival is held to us, is at the Chinese temple down the street from our house. I shall now explain to you what happened on the first day of the festival.

At the beginning of the festival we saw people pasting gold flakes onto a pole at the center of the temple. After that, other people came out of the temple shaking like crazy with foam coming out of their mouths. They were also whipping themselves, razoring their tongues and more painful stuff. They believed that they were in a trance and that there were spirits inside them shielding them from the pain. After the people walked around the area, the giant pole was risen to call the 9 gods down. There was 9 candles hung on the pole too.

The next day I went to the temple at night and listened to the name calling event. While we were there, we got some Thai food near the temple. Since it was the vegetarian festival, Thai people only sold vegetarian food. It was still very good. When we were full we went to a shop which sold fireworks, and I got to launch fireworks for the first time in my life! The ones I launched were the small bee fireworks, which would jet up in the sky.

On Monday, we went back to the temple at 8:00 to see the fire walking. When we arrived we went past the temple and into the center of the festival. There was a large sand mound there. On the sand mound there was the fiery coals. Every once in awhile people would mix the coals with a long wooden pole. After a while of waiting, the possessed people came out and danced around the area. Then, they came to the area I was at and prayed to the model gods next to me. After all of them did that, they would run through the hot coals.

After watching the fire walking for some time, we went down to our house and launched some fireworks. One of my favorite ones was the Mini Mountain. That one blew a whole bunch sparks out of its roof, like a volcano, up into the sky.

At the last part of the festival I went to go see the releasing of the spirits. There were two places where this part was being held were Sampanhin beach and Nai Yang beach. We decided to go to Nai Yang because it was less crowded. When we arrived we went to The Boss Bar and ordered one huge fish and many large shrimp fresh from the sea. They disappeared very quickly. After that, my brothers and I launched a few fireworks. We thought that the ceremony would happen at 8:00 but the locals said it would happen at 1:00, way too late. Fortunately they also told us that a  parade would be coming in a little bit. While we were waiting, we launched off a lot of our fireworks. I even got to launch a Roman Candle.

When the parade came, we set off a string of firecrackers. The parade was a little disappointing though, for it was just a few cars.

History of the Vegetarian Festival

The Vegetarian festival started when a group of people came into the town and got sick. To get better, they started a vegetarian diet to honor the two gods Kiew Ong Tai Teh and Yok Ong Sone Teh. Mysteriously, they became well again. The local townsfolk were fascinated by this and asked how it was done. They were told about the festival and started doing it from the first night of the ninth lunar month to the ninth evening. Later, a person familiar with the festival volunteered to return to Kansai, China. There, he invited the sacred Hiao Ho-le or Hiao lan (incense smoke) and Lian Tui (name plaques) to stay in Kathu. He also brought the holy writing used in ceremonies. The afternoon before the festival begins, a great pole at each temple is raised, called the Go Teng pole. This pole is put up so that the gods can descend.

At midnight candles are put on the pole to signalize the opening of the fest. Ma Song, or entranced horses, are devotees whom the gods enter during the fest. They manifest supernatural powers and perform self-tortures in order to shift evil from individuals onto themselves, and to bring the community good luck. Ma Song fall into two categories: those who, having had an intimation of impending doom, want to extend their lives; and people specially chosen by the gods for their moral qualities.*

Throughout the festival fireworks and drums are sounded, especially during ceremonies. It is held that the louder they are the better, because the noise drives away evil spirits.*

A Ma Song running through the fire

A Ma Song coming out of his trance

Dragons

Some Ma Song

A dragon bowl

Family Photo

The Chinese temple

Bee Firework

*Exerts taken from phuketvegetarian.com

The Vegetarian Festival [Joshua Burke]

My mom heard of a festival called the vegetarian festival that was happening at a shrine down the street. We had to go see what it was all about. My mom looked up a schedule of what was going to happen in the next week or so, and we saw that the pole raising was tonight.  

The shrine 

We arrived early though, about half an hour before the pole raising actually started. So we went to go look at some nearby stands. Over near the food we saw some ruins behind the various stalls and stands, so we went to take a look. It ended up being a bunch of ruined buildings and here is what I found out about them. 

The various stalls and stands

Me on the remains 

The buildings belonged to governor Praya Jerm of Thalang. He moved Phuket's main town from Thalang to the Katu district where there were many tin mines. He got very wealthy from these mines, but when his Chinese workers rebelled he moved back to Thalang and built a fortress to protect himself. 

The passage way into the court building.

The court building.

The waiting hall.

This the the remains of the fortress. The hole in the back was for storing ammunition.

When it was time for the pole raising we headed over to the temple. There was a lot of people there, more then I have ever seen at the temple, and everyone was wearing white. I learned out why they were. There are ten rules of body cleansing to acquire supernatural powers during the festival. 

Abstain from eating meat products. 

Abstain from stealing 

Abstain from telling lies

Abstain from alcoholic drinks

Abstain from adultery

Abstain from gambling 

Abstain from wearing jewelry and wearing leather goods 

Abstain from mourning

Wearing white is preferable

Use dishes and utensils solely for the festival

Being raised 

There are people at the shrine who have undergone special rituals and believed that spirits are in them. These people were chanting around the pole as it was being raised and were scaring away demons. When raised, the pole allows the gods to come down from the heavens to earth.    

A couple nights later we went to the next big event down by the shrine. Tonight the believers are going to walk on fiery fire. I was super excited! It was not just some campfire, it was a mound of coals about 6 meters (18 feet) long. I learned that they walk on fire to gain purity and to overcome evil influence. It is also believed that only those that are not burned are truly cleansed.

On the last night of the festival we went to the south end of the island at Nai Yang Beach to see the farewell ritual that sends the gods back to heaven. Our schedule for the festival said that it would happen at 10 p.m., but it did not happen until midnight. While we waited at a nearby restaurant we set off the fireworks that we had bought a couple days before. The fireworks here are crazy cheap. We bought tons of fireworks here for the same price as a couple back in America. We had tons of fun setting them off. When the procession finally came by we were all completely exhausted and it was only a few cars and trucks. We headed home after they went by. 

The farewell ritual probably happened around 2 in the morning and here is how it goes. The believers cross a certain bridge that is supposed to cleanse them from the wrong actions that they have done over the year. After crossing a monk will stamp a red stamp of the nine emperors god's seal or the imperial seal on their back to complete the cleansing.  

Hope you have enjoyed this post! 

Thanks for reading 

Joshua