Phuket 22 October

Another holiday period roles to a close, it's been fabulous.
Mandy came to visit from Australia, we took a live aboard diving and sailing trip to Koh Ha, Hin Muang and Hin Daeng. We saw lots of beautiful corals and colourful fish, cute little yellow box fish, they are such a bright shade of yellow, A Khul sting ray nearly scared me to death (a crikey moment) when he suddenly rose out of the sand right in front of me. The night dive was amazing! Not usually a fan of these things it was really cool from the hairy white tarantula like crabs to the shimmering phosphorescence (like swimming amongst the stars on a black moonless night) it rocked! We did some unusual cavern and long swim through dives, the dive leader lost his false teeth and the recovery dive was in near perfect 35 meter visibility, unfortunately we did not recover said choppers I think there is a parrot fish out there pretending to be a shark and scaring all his mates.
I discovered I am a crap sailor, I need bigger boats that rock less to be comfortable. We met some great people and a wonderful time was had by all.

Mandy and I stayed on Koh Phi Phi with a fantastic view out over the bay, we discovered the joys of cocktail hour and the tasteful glasses they tend to come in on the island.

We finally made it back to Phuket in time to enjoy(?) the last few days of the vegetarian festival, man it's intense. In the morning it starts with the devotees all going to the temple and getting pierced, they then shove things through the facial piercings, lotus flowers, pineapples, the barrel of an AK47, but most commonly knives, great big long knives. There is then a parade through the streets. The guys with the knives are joined by men carrying biers upon which are statues of the nine gods, when these pass by onlookers throw firecrackers to ward off evil spirits and cleanse themselves. Also in the parade are posses of young men carrying axes, at each intersection they circle and whack themselves on the back with said axes, while walking they alternately hit themselves in the forehead with the ax or cut their tongues on the blade, it's just too gruesome to watch. And this goes on every morning from 7am till 11am for a week. Every evening there are also activities, fire walking, climbing sword ladders etc. The last evening people go crazy with firecrackers, the sound is deafening (we had ear plugs) the smoke is almost impenetrable and it goes on till about 3am, boy are we all cleansed and free of evil spirits for at least a year, amazing! I will endeavour to post some photos.
Back to school next week N.J.