Barefoot for Days 

For the last four days I've been completely barefoot, not a shoe or flip flop in sight. My little toes loved it. I was living on a boat motoring through the nine Similan Islands as well as the islands of Koh Bon, Koh Tachi and the underwater playground of Richelieu Rock, all located in the Andaman Sea off of southern Thailand, 8.6525*N, 97.6408*E. 

The island chain and reef lie approximately three hours by boat off the western coast of Thailand and are protected national park lands. I got to scuba dive in their waters while wearing nothing but fins on my feet. There was no staring into a closet of clothes pondering what to wear or debating if my shirt too unacceptably wrinkly to be seen in public. Nope. It was a bathing suit and scuba fins. Easy peasy. The only thing I had to be concerned with was if I remembered to rub sunscreen in my belly button. No one wants a burned belly button and it's so easy to forget. 

World class diving ensued...

My dive guide told us we were at 30 meters depth, whatever that means, and I opened my eyes to a new world. Florescent yellow angel fish swimming this way and that, brilliant blue damsel fish darting uniformly by the hundreds, mustard yellow corral fans propping up different varieties of corrals looking perhaps like they were the inspiration for plush, velvety Christmas ribbon. Swelled, translucent lima bean lookin corals, tall gangly sparkler firecracker look-a-likes sticking out of the sand. Schools of barracuda staring sternly on, sea turtles gnawing on hard coral, clown fish hiding amongst anemone making you want to cuddle up and join them. Sea cucumbers lounging about and lion fish the hybrid of both bird and fish, feathery fins spread wide levitating below. Now imagine the antennae of a moth, like a fine toothed comb, formed into a curling plant, dyed jet black and given silver tipped fingers, suctioned to rock resembling a human brain. What in the world?! I was being constantly dumbstruck, with no possible explanation for the beautiful anomalies before my eyes.  

While underwater I empathized with the Little Mermaid singing of random thing-a-ma-bobbers, whozits and whatzits galore. Me, not knowing the real name of so many species of life, as if knowing the real name would or could possibly give meaning or understanding to the alternative universe in our seas. 

Wildlife traffic and the constant sound of fish chomping on corals, sucking them clean of algae and other nutrients, and then spitting them back out helping to create the fine sand of the sea floor. Scorpion fish blending in so perfectly with the rocks, wrasse, marbled sting rays, goby, parrotfish, puffers, porcupine fish and even white tipped shark, their beady black eyes shifting around hunting for their next prey. All so stunning to see underwater. Fish so blue they are purple opening their mouths so smaller fish can swim in and play dentist with every bit of confidence they won't get swallowed up like poor Pinocchio in the belly of the whale (Surprising and not surprising at all how many Disney references pop up when describing the oddities in the deep ocean blue). Trumpet fish with their long, narrow needle noses slicing through the water independently, no school to be had. Fat groupers posted in the abyss while underneath rock lay moray eels, black and white sea snakes, sea stars and giant clams.  

And then, out in the blue we spot them! Giant manta ray! Soaring, only floating and dipping through leagues of the sea with the greatest of ease. Massive wings propelling them forward as graceful as anything I've ever seen, inspiring a slow, fluid and peaceful feeling inside me. On one particular dive, we spotted four giant mantas dancing amongst the sea with us. Black and white beauties of the deep. I was lost in their presence and in their beings. Enraptured. The only sound the slow, constant suck of oxygen flowing from my tank and the rush of bubbles past my ears. These bubbles rising to the surface, back to 'real life' where they will disappear into the balmy air, no ability to tell the story of the incredible circus of life below them.