I'm just messing around. Well, about the waiting by the computer, finger sore from repeatedly jamming on the left mouse key, eyeballs bleeding from the lack of blinking thing. I'm 100% serious about my BIG WEEKEND! Let me begin:
On Wednesday morning Duncan, our British photographer roommate, invited us to swim with whale sharks. Turns out that a metric bunch (ie, 10) were found swimming around Honda Bay. Apparently this is a big number for whale sharks, so Duncan urged us to go along for the experience. We agreed. Then I remembered I can barely swim. So I promptly canceled.
Duncan said it was probably for the best because there were too many people already, and the more people the worser. But, he wouldn't let me crap out so easy, so he reassured me that I didn't need to be a strong swimmer to enjoy myself. If all else failed I could cling to the side of the boat and have a blast. ".......fuck it", I proclaimed. And so a plan was born.
We rented the necessary gear and met the boat at Baywalk bright and early 6:00 a.m. Friday morning. Duncan wound up on a different boat somewhere or other and never actually ended up going out with us. We were early so we sat in the boat and waited for the others to arrive. Five other passengers soon arrived: Four Germans and an American. We later found out that only two of the German's were traveling together, but they all were staying at the same Pension house, and all arrived at approximately the same time, independently of each other. I have no logical reason to find this strange....but I find this strange. Anyway, we set sail and began the long trek to Honda Bay. Maybe 40 minutes into our journey the boat operator points to some churning, bubbling water, and shouts "Tuna Feeesh! Tuna Feeesh!" I had to smile. It was pretty cool though. Tuna were splashing around near the surface of the water, some jumping into the air, I assume to escape the nearby whale shark. I tried to get a picture with a tuna feeesh jumping in midair, but ended up just getting bubbly water. Shouting and pointing became a theme of the journey, so much so that Andrew and I devised our own set of criteria that the ideal whale shark ecotourim operator should possess. More on this soon.
About an hour and a half later we arrived to a bigger, bubblier batch of tuna feeesh at which point the boat tour operator ran the length of the boat shouting , "WHALE SHARK! WHALE SHARK! You can sweeem!" We were all unprepared for this declaration, so we missed getting in the water the first time. The second time the boat operator shouted "WHALE SHARK!" we were all ready. The three German men jumped into the water like the boat was sinking. Andrew and Jessica, the American, followed. I was last in, fearing that I'd sink like a stone. I didn't sink, but I quickly realized that my swimming ability was even poorer than I remembered. I decided to cling for dear life to the floats on the side of the boat and let the whale sharks come to me. Everyone was swimming around the boat, heads in the water looking at what I sure were beautiful majestic creatures. I didn't even see a damn tuna. Andrew tells a funny story of being directly in front of the creature as it swam towards him. Whale sharks can be over 10m in length, so I can only imagine the crazy experience this must have been. Here is a picture of a whale shark for reference.
Christ!The way he tells the tale, that diver was him. I would have been terrified, but (un)fortunately for me all I was getting a good look at was the boat's paint job. Oh, and blue. I saw lots and lots of blue.
We continued putting around for the next hour or so, stopping whenever we saw thrashing tuna
and heard "WHALE SHARK!" I guess this is a good time to explain the proper procedure, as determined by Andrew and I, for pointing out a whale shark:
1. Jump at least 2 feet into the air.
2. Land with your feet spread at least 2 feet apart in a sumo stance.
3.Point at the area potentially containing a whale shark. The point can either be a thrusting stab motion (ie, like a fencer) or an overhand tomahawk-like swoop motion.
4. Scream "WHALE SHARK!!!" like a maniac. Pepper with "You can sweeem" as appropriate.
I'm only making fun because I love. Overall it was a great day, even though I never got to see a whale shark underwater. I did get to see one later as it surfaced. The back and the fin surfaced right in front of the boat. It was very cool. Oh, I almost forgot. At one point, the boat operator nearly clipped the whale shark and two of the German dudes. I'm sure that isn't very eco-friendly, but what do i know?
Later we ate a vegetarian meal on the boat and dropped two of the German dude's off at a local beach. The boat operator drove the boat right up to the beach, so that the German's could get out in about a foot of water. If I had my time back I would've taken a picture of this one child playing in the water. He gave the quintessential "What...the...fuck?" face I have ever , and will ever, see. It was priceless. Actually i did get one picture of the German's getting off the boat, but the child is running off-camera to the left. Shitty. All in all, the perfect end to a great day.
Ok, this entry is pretty big, so I'll post Part II in a separate entry.
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1 comment:
haha i'm so proud of you for getting in the water!
hopefully ther'll be some pictures of this BIG WEEKEND soon :)
ps. the german time thing... morgan lived there for a bit and one of the things she found crazy was how big they are on being on time. it's like a major thing there to be very prompt.
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