Last weekend I learnt how to scuba dive. In Pattaya.
For those who have never been, Pattaya is not a beach resort. There are beaches, and lovely islands here, but it is not Phuket, or Phi Phi. Leonardo di Caprio was never there with his shirt off, running from Asian drug lords or wrestling sharks.
There is some reef around the islands near Pattaya, but when you've grown up with the Great Barrier Reef in your backyard, it's hard to call it reef at all.
In fact, before I left on the first morning, I was chatting to one of the hotel staff about learning to dive. He asked me where I was from, and when I told him Australia, he was dumbfounded that I had come to Pattaya to scuba dive. It would have been like him turning up to the food court at the Logan Hyperdome to learn how to cook Thai food.
But even so, the experience of scuba was spectacular. As someone who has only ever snorkelled before, being free to breathe underwater and explore so much more was exhilarating.
The visibility and range of sea life on the second day was worse than the first - you could only see about 4 metres in front of you. The reef was damaged and half-eaten by urchins, where it hadn't been used for target practice by the Thai and US navies.
Even so, there was a story to be read at the sea floor about what had caused the destruction, the refuse it left behind, and the resilience of the sea creatures who survived regardless. Broken bottles and pieces of rubbish, now home to barnacles and small critters. The skeletons of coral. Unexploded shells, half-buried in sand. A discarded shirt (which I resisted the urge to pick up and bring home) nibbled at by fish. And overhead, the sound of a dozen speedboats and dive boats coming and going at once.
Like the people living in this beautiful land, the sea creatures of Thailand are survivors.
D.
No comments:
Post a Comment