Occasionally Interesting, often not

In Dec 2004, I went on a liveaboard cruise to the Similans, off the coast of western Thailand. You may immediately be thinking about the tidal wave, and in fact, I left Phuket 36 hrs before the event. Didn't bring a camera, so no pictures... I booked a last minute berth on the Rhapsody though Siam Dive 'n Sail , who were very helpful and quickly responded to emails. I was also somewhat interested in the Le Mahe, since it was quite a bit cheaper, and was told there was a space available. Then I was told that I would have to share with a female, and they'd have to write to her to get her ok. Then they told me that actually, sharing would involve sharing the bed! They didn't think that she'd be agreeable to that... So I ended up on the Rhapsody, which was actually my first choice because it had fewer passengers (8 vs the 12 of Le Mahe), and as it turned out, I still shared a cabin with a woman, but it was a bunk-bed cabin. I arrived in Phuket in the early afternoon and...

I'm going to try and consolidate trip reports that are on a different site to here, so following are a few posts of trips gone by. First up, a scuba diving trip to the Similans, in Thailand.

Having a gps unit is useful on this hike ... the permit comes with a set of photos showing what you see from 6 waypoints, and serve well to direct you, but coming back is another story. Part of the way, there's a definite landmark, but the route to the 1st saddle is not that clear at all, and in fact, going by feel, we went off course and had to correct with the gps. Not helping much, if you were going by feel was a cairn that was in the wrong place! (i.e. we were on track to the proper point, and could see cairns marking that point, but there was a cairn way to our right). Anyway, except for this caveat, it was an uneventful trek back to the car. The reverse stream crossing was easier, though still a bit anxiety provoking. We were originally planning to go back to Las Vegas via Zion National Park the next day, but because of all the mud on the car (caked inside the wheelwells), we decided that because time would be tight, and it wouldn't be a great idea to take the car back wi...

This past weekend (1st weekend in March), went to hike the famous Wave in Arizona, by way of Las Vegas. It was a very interesting trip, and the formation must be seen in person, if you can get a permit. For myself, I actually didn't know about the Wave until I read an article about it in the latimes.com travel section. They mentioned that one can apply for the permit lottery online, 4 months in advance. So I applied for some dates, and got March 1. The drive from Vegas to Kanab, UT, which is the closest accomodations, is quite an interesting drive. The drive to Kanab was done at night though, so we only saw the magnificent scenery on the return trip. For instance, where I15 goes through the Virgin River Gorge, and the red bluffs on the way from Hurricane to Kanab (and the peeks of Zion on the horizon). There isn't too much to say about Kanab, except that it serves as a decent base for travelling in the area. We stayed at the Quail Park Lodge, which from the outside is a very no...

It's been a while ... funny, but blogging hasn't been a very high priority; or perhaps that I haven't got into the habit of it yet. Well, no time like the present to start again, but I'm thinking that this blog is going to be more episodic than stream of conciousness. For instance, the next post.