Tide Pool Tidings

It was the Saturday that Jackie was coming home from her week long trip.

I had already grown used to the solitude of living alone. I had my routine and it didn’t feel lonely, though a fishing pole I could have taken down to Rawai pier would have been clutch.

I cleaned the house: made her bed, swept all the rooms, cleaned the kitchen, scrubbed the bathroom (which gets disgusting fast), and swept the leaves out of our driveway.

To combat the occasional funky smells that sneak into the house from time to time I had been planning on picking up some incense. After a quick trip to a flower shop, which is really a place for buying things to “make merit,” such as candles, incense sticks, flowers, and fireworks I had my incense sticks, but no where to burn them without creating a mess.

I struck on the idea of filling one of the giant clam shells that I had been collecting with sand and sticking the incense sticks in the sand – it was something that I had seen on the online when I had been trying to figure out what to do with the shells ages ago. The shell, freshly filled with beach sand, now sits on a small shelf above the door to the bedroom. The shell had looked odd and out of place by itself, so I went ahead and used some of my favorite shells Jackie and I had found so far and made a little sea-shell shrine.

With the house in order and ready for Jackie’s arrival I went out to explore Yai Nui. Yai Nui is a small beach flanked by bare bedrock that slopes into the ocean. Dividing the beach is a tiny rock outcropping jutting out in to the ocean. Just off shore, within swimming distance is a small island – I think Jackie and I will make the swim out too it sooner or later.

(Awesome fishing lure I found . . . Now only if I had the money for a fishing pole)

(My very first starfish, despite having 56 dives under my belt)

With a camera in hand I explored the rocky slops surrounding the beach. I found a fishing lure that brought me back to my childhood, when I would walk the red clay lake front of the Fairfax beach peninsula searching for lost fishing gear. The lure I found is actually probably worth between 200-500 baht! It was quite a find. Also during my explorations I found my first starfish. It seems ridiculous to me that after 56 dives I’ve not seen one single legitimate starfish and here two feet offshore and three feet underwater was my fist starfish sighting. (Jackie on the other hand has seen all sorts of enormous star fish!)

The whole time I spent out exploring new areas I kept thinking about how much fun it would be to get to show the place to Jackie. I think I’m just set on getting to share things with people, it makes the whole experience more worthwhile.

(Crabs in general are camera-shy, but I was able to get a couple pictures before this one jumped)

Jackie and I returned to Yai Nui the next day! We failed the swim to the island, (I have been dealing with an ear infection and had to do a sidestroke to keep my bad ear out of the water) because something was stinging us. It wasn’t jelly fish, but whatever was sting or biting us wouldn’t let up so we turned around. We’ll give it a shot another time.

(Jackie holds up our find before releasing it back into the "wild.")

We did see both of our first blue starfish! It was a spectacular day at the tide pools and beach of Yai Nui for us!

Today's Tide Pool

With the Vegetarian Festival and Visa runs consuming most of Jackie's and my time we've not had as much time to explore the tide pools. Jackie however has turned the kitchen table into a arts and crafts zone with tons of the shells that we have picked up getting several layers of clear nail-polish in order to protect them and help them maintain their colors. Here are the latest pictures from our tide pools:

(We were unsure if this was a sea snake or a white eel)

 (Didn't have it in me to force this awesome looking clam from it's home and slay it in hopes of it having a pearl, though it's probably a lot more likely to have one then where I have been looking)

 A bit of beautiful living coral. The tips of this type of coral comes in a variety of colors. So far we've seen green, yellow, white, and my favorite lavender. 

Dead horseshoe crab. Did you know that they collect horseshoe crabs, harvest their blood, and release them back into the wild? And all of this is done for the sake of medicine?

http://www.horseshoecrab.org/med/med.html

Home is When the Tide is Out (Jackie)

Barefoot, I walked onto the coral studded sand the ocean had left behind in its nightly rush to escape the mountains and realized that I had found my home.

Every evening I walk into the tide pools the ocean leaves behind and search for pretty shells and unique creatures to examine, poke, and play with. Every night I crouch in the mostly dead coral and listen to the pops and cracks of creatures coming up for air, crabs clacking pinchers on rocks, and the general scuttling around that’s associated with marine life in the pools. I watch the sun set in spectacular ways from a 360 view, ankle deep in water, hearing the waves break in the distance. I turn slowly in corals and watch as golds and oranges and pinks radiate from the sun and shine over the dark mountains. I rotate a step further and am awestruck by the rippling orange and purple clouds silhouetting the gigantic marble Buddha statute that watches peacefully from the mountain top. Another few degrees and the sky is electric pink and baby blue as if some mischievous child had stuck cotton candy in the sky while no one was looking. Further still and the sky over the ocean begins to darken into deep shades of blue and purple. As the sun sets musical chants from the nearby mosque call people to worship and I stand lulled by the music in the endless expanse of sand and coral, feeling as if I am the only person in the world. Listening to the waves and distant music I gaze at the enormous Buddha and know suddenly that there is nowhere in the world I’d rather be. Nowhere where I feel as peaceful, content, and genuinely at home than in the ever changing yet invariably stunning tide pools.

I THOUGHT I WAS DONE WITH FINALS FOREVER!!

Today was the first day if finals for the kids at KKJ. First day of finals for me means grading papers, submitting final grades, bagging up final exams, and then rotating back and forth between ‘invigilating’ final exams which can only be described as a fabulous means of torture, and doing whatever I want as long as I stay near campus. Invigilating consists of spending between 1-2.5 hrs watching kids sit in chairs and scribble frantically while we stand and stare at them. We are forbidden to do absolutely anything else. No phones, no books, no doodling paper, nothing. I felt terrible for the kids who had to take a 2.5hr math exam until I had to WATCH them take it. I’d much rather struggle through math problems than watch people do math problems any day, though I never thought I’d ever be in a situation where I'd admit i'd rather do math!  Anyway, since the time is pretty evenly divided I have lots of hours to do whatever I want so I’ve decided to dedicate the time to learning new things. Today I learned how to draw. I had no internet so I drew the only thing I found a pic of and listened to the only CD I have on my computer-Foo Fighters (I usually get all my music via grooveshark-internet based). Here is what I drew. I’m actually quite proud of it!

 I should also mention that the only writing utensil I had was a blue ink pen which makes shading really arduous for a non artsy person like me!!

Today's Tide Pool 9/10/11

 (Jackie fearlessly heading our search for sea creatures and hidden treasures)

It's the weekend, so even with the change in the time of the tide Jackie and I were able to make it out and explore. With the  tide all the way out we were able to see more of the tide plane than we have in the past. The water closer to shore was almost uncomfortably warm and devoid of most animals, though we did see a couple crabs and a few small shrimp like creatures. Further out, the water was still so shallow that the strong wind was making the surface too chopping to see. It was a little depressing at first, because we had been looking forward to getting out into the tide pool all week. Giving up and heading back, we decided to swing towards the north a little first. The denser concentration of rocks and deep tide pools north of us saved the waters surface from the wind and opened up the doors of exploration. We saw more spotted eels and were able to nab a few pictures of some new sea creatures. Jackie has started to collect lots of different pieces of shells and broken coral for a dozen or more unnamed projects and I'm thrilled to be helping out.

Thick thunder clouds began to roll in over the mountains. They rushed at us, moving so fast as they were I thought they might actually miss there target like a Boeing B-52 does from time to time. W had just found what appeared to by the mouth of a giant clam shell, maybe two feet long. It's distinctive rippling lips were just above the surface of the sand. Hesitantly I started digging at it. There really wasn't anything else it could be. The rain started to come down lightly at first, but sheets of it were visible over the island. Frantically I started to dig and pull at the shell, but it wouldn't budge or come free of whatever substrate it was attached to. Then the rain came in hard and sideways. Tiny bee bee drops of rain pelted us. Jackie had started to walk back with the camera wrapped in a shirt across her chest, counting her steps so we could relocate the shell. I stayed with the shell until her lone figure pressed into the wind and rain was enough to make me feel guilty and I ran after her. The rain had cleared by the time we had hit the shore, but Jackie was wet and cold, so we decided to come back for the shell another day. I can't imagine finding it will be easy, but we'll try our best.

 (Not really sure what these are yet, but we've nick named them "black dongs.")

(On of the coolest shells we'v found yet, but our little hermit crab friend, Fredrick, was to cool to evict so we played with him for awhile and then let him be.)

(Watch Fredrick the hermit crab roll himself back over and find a place to park his shell.)

Our New Segment: Today's Tide Pool

Did I say Mudflats? (Jackie)

In an earlier post I said something like "at low tide the beach becomes 300 yards of mudflats studded with rocks."  In actuality these 'mudflats' are 300 yards of tide pool studded with coral encrusted rocks.  It is an incredible place and has instantly become one of my favorite spots in the world - and its practically in my front yard! The tide is always out when Isaac and I get home from school so we have started to take nightly excursions to explore!

           Today Jackie and I spent another beautiful evening walking through our "front yard's" tide pools. I think I originally studied underwater archaeologist because I liked finding things, turns out that's not really what it's all about. So now I can just be a bum and find things in tide pools, maybe we'll start eating some of them! We brought the camera this time so we could share some of our finds. We'll try to keep everyone up to date!

          A couple more pictures just to give you the setting:

(Do you see Big Buddha?)

 (Jackie is traditionally the poker of critters in our expeditions, but I was having a go at this sea cucumber)

 (OCTOPUS!)

 (This one I decided to take home. Thought maybe she could pay off of the rent)

(Another shot of the spotted eel)

(We brought this one home too! Originally we were going to evict the hermit crab inside, but it turns out the shell is still being used by its first owner! So we're going to get him some saltwater and keep him as a pet. His name is Mr. Trout)