10 sharks that I would like to see when diving

I like sharks. Partly because of their rarity - I did 50 dives before ever spotting a shark - but also because they are magnificent creatures. I've not felt any fear yet (although that's likely to be because I've not seen any really dangerous sharks) when I've encountered them underwater, more of a "Wow!" feeling. It's a real shame that sharks are being hunted into extinction to supply the East Asian market for shark's fin soup - something which is is purely vanity, as shark's fin has no taste, and probably the same nutritional value as other cartilage. I've given up eating shark's fin, and I tell others not to eat it either. The soup tastes the same without the fin, although perhaps it's cheaper, and thus doesn't have the same cachet. Don't eat sharks.

1. Wobbegongs.

Wobbegongs, also known as carpet sharks, are a family (Orectolobidae) of 8 species known so far. They live in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, with a number of species commonly found around Australia. They obviously look very different from your archetypal shark, with a flattened body, broad head, and barbels around the mouth. The largest species is the spotted wobbegong, which grows up to 3.2m long. There are records of divers being bitten without provocation - wobbegongs are thought to have poor vision and are thus likely to mistake a diver for a threat.

2. Basking sharks.

Basking sharks, from the family Cetorhinidae, are found in temperate oceans, and are between 6 to 10m long (image from Elasmodiver). They are filter feeders, and quite often make the news here in the UK by visiting the coast of Cornwall. As one can see from the image, they are very impressive when they open their mouths to filter plankton through those gill frills. Older records state that there used to be schools of tens, even hundreds of basking sharks, but overfishing has reduced school sizes to a few tens at most. What a shame.

3. Ragged tooth sharks.

Ragged tooth sharks, also known as sand tiger sharks (or not - my shark taxonomy is a bit hazy), are part of a family called Odontaspididae. They have quite a wide distribution, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, and from the Indian Ocean to the North Pacific around Japan. As can be seen from the image, they get their name from the rows of teeth that jut out from their jaw. But they're not too long though - between 2-3m.

4. Thresher sharks.

Thresher sharks, easily recognisable by the long upper tail fin (caudal), are members of a family called Alopiidae. There are 3 species, ranging from 3-5m long (image from malapascua-diving.com). These sharks use that long caudal fin to stun schools of fish when they hunt. According to my guide to sharks and rays, there is a report of a thresher shark that slapped a loon sitting on the surface! They're also commonly thought to be the swiftest shark around, and are distributed in the North Pacific.

5. Whale sharks.

Whale sharks are a single species in the family Rhincodontidae. They are found in both the Pacific and the Atlantic, and are many a diver's dream to see. They're certainly on my list. Whale sharks are plankton feeders, although contrary to popular wisdom they do eat baitfish. They are the largest species of shark (very impressive image from aasharks.com), and probably the best to swim with, since they wouldn't eat the snorkeller or diver. One day...

6. Hammerheads.

Right, I've seen hammerheads (one of them anyway), but the best possible sighting here has to be a large school. These sharks are fairly common sightings in schools throughout the Pacific, and are one of the species hunted heavily for its fins. There are 9 known species from the family Sphyrnidae, ranging from just under a metre to 6m long. Their most interesting feature is of course the hammer-shaped head, which enables them to eat rays off the sea floor. They are also known to reproduce by parthenogenesis (image and detail from Retrospectacle, a great blog which I recommend reading).

7. Goblin sharks.

Goblin sharks are weird, interesting and rare. They are the only species in the family Mitsukurinidae, and as the name implies, the holotype was found near Japan. It's pink, and has a fleshy protrusion just above the mouth. They are deep water sharks, found in both the Pacific and the Atlantic, off the coast of the US as well as in Australia and Japan. They are usually about 2-3m long. The chances of seeing this while diving are very slim - there have been some encounters near Cairns, but that's it as far as I know.

8. Nurse sharks.

These sharks are relatively common - found in most coastal subtropical waters (including off Tioman Island, but not in the Red Sea apparently). There are 3 species in the family Ginglymostomatidae. They are quite friendly and will often come right up to divers to investigate them. They have 2 distinctive barbels in front of their mouths. Still not seen any yet.

9. Angel sharks.

These are very interesting - they look like a cross between wobbegongs and some type of ray, but belong to the shark family (image from prdiving.com). Like rays, they have flattened bodies and large pectoral fins, although unlike rays they clearly have caudal and dorsal fins too. There are 16 species in the family Squatinidae, and are endangered due to (what else?) overfishing. Found in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, especially off the coastal United States.

10. Megamouth sharks.

This one is even more rare than the goblin shark! It's been seen a few dozen times since being discovered in 1976, with only a single encounter by a diver (off California, I believe). It looks quite fearsome, about 5m long and huge mouth, but is actually a plankton feeder. One species is known from the order Megachasmidae. Its usual habitat is deep water, in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, with about 10 specimens off Japan, according to Wikipedia.


And lastly, one shark that I definitely would NOT like to see when diving. I don't think I'm even ever going to go cage diving. Call me chicken, but I'm quite happy viewing these from the safety of the sofa, thank you.

11. Great white sharks.

One of 5 species from the order Lamnidae. The others are quite impressive as well (the order includes the porbeagle). Great whites are universally considered the most dangerous shark, and are found off rocky coasts and kelp forests (and rarely near coral reefs), where they hunt seals. They are responsible for quite a few attacks on humans off the coast of Australia. Apparently they spawn and mate somewhere off Malta, where I dived in 2005...


There are 3 other species of sharks deemed dangerous to humans - the tiger shark, the bull shark and the oceanic white-tip shark. The latter is difficult to distinguish from the reef white-tip shark, which doesn't really attack humans and is common around coral reefs. Got to be careful if I ever see one. All three are members of the family Carcharhinidae.

Malaysian share capital ownership

Something interesting in the Economist this week - in an article about Malaysian Indians and the political unrest caused by Hindraf, there was a chart that showed share capital ownership per head, split by race (see image from Economist.com).

As you can see, Chinese people own RM34,000 of share capital per head - I'm guessing this to be market value - while Malays (Bumiputra in the article, but that's not really a distinction) own RM7,000 and Indians RM3,000 respectively. These are rough numbers. Assuming the numbers represent market value, I can draw the following conclusions:

• According to Wikipedia, the stock market capitalisation of Malaysia was US$350bn in October 2007, or RM1,330bn using the same exchange rate as in the graphic.
• Assume that the Chinese make up 30% of Malaysia's population (27.5m), Malays 62% and Indians 8%.
  
• If one assumes that all shares owned by Malaysians are Malaysian, this means that Malaysians own RM407bn, or 31% of Malaysia's stock market.

So who owns the rest? Aren't Bumiputras supposed to own a substantial stake in public listed companies?

OK, so maybe it's par value of stock - in which case, the Bursa Malaysia market cap is only 3 times the nominal value of stock in issue! This seems unlikely.

I have problems believing that Malaysians own substantial amounts of share capital outside Malaysia, as the government prefers to keep local capital local... after all, it's better to finance one's own growth from one's own capital. However, I'm forced to come to the conclusion that Malaysians do own substantial amounts of share capital outside Malaysia. This in turn implies that the risk-return tradeoff is much better elsewhere.

Which of course, is exactly the case. I've believed this for years - and it looks like my fellow Malaysians agree.

How busy is my gym?

I use a gym in the City of London, near where I work. The locker rooms have floor to ceiling lockers, in 2 banks, one above the other. I tend to use the lower bank. When I'm changing after my workout and shower (and hence need to have the locker open for the longest time), very often the chap who has the locker directly above mine, on the upper bank, turns up as well, usually after having showered too. As there's only just enough space for one person, one of us has to wait. This tends to annoy me a lot. This leads me to ask - just how busy is my gym anyway? The odds that the bloke with the locker above mine turns up to use his at the exact time I want to use mine must be quite small, unless there's a huge number of people using the gym...

Anyway, here's the first question - how many people are at my gym?

• Assume that of the 250 or so lockers in the men's locker room, anyone who turns up is equally likely to use any one of the lockers.
  
• Someone turns up at my locker, competing for space, about 70% of the time.
• Then the number of lockers in use at the men's locker room at any one time (when I tend to go) is 0.7*250 = 175.
• Add in another 175 women, then at any one time there are 350 people at my gym.

That's not all - how many people come in and out of the locker room?

• Say that the peak period is 2 hours at lunch time.
• Then say the average workout takes 45 minutes.
• Then over 2 hours there are 175*3 = 525 men coming in and out of the men's locker room
  
• Then at any one time there are 4.375 people coming into the men's locker room.

The problem is, only about 2 people come in per minute at the busiest times, and there are perhaps 150 people at most (including ladies) in the gym at any one time!

I guess I'm just unlucky, or maybe I use really popular lockers.

Monkey Shoulder (Come Mr Tallyman tally me banana)

I know that many serious (snobbish?) whisky freaks shun Monkey Shoulder, as it's marketed as a cocktail whisky rather than something to be nosed and sipped. That's a little bit unfair - the cocktails might well taste good. Whether or not one prefers the whisky neat or with mixers is purely personal choice. Having said that, I do prefer this one neat - I'm not so sure that adding mixers improves the flavours. Monkey Shoulder is fine as it is. The marketing is pretty impressive though - there is a nifty website with suggested cocktails, a slogan ("Not the original whisky. More original than that."), the distribution is exclusively via certain chic bars and retailers only, and the target market is obviously the casual cachet-loving drinker who prefers Grey Goose martinis to a Brora 30 yo.

Anyway, Monkey Shoulder is a pretty interesting whisky, in provenance if not so much in taste. There's no grain whisky involved; it is a vatting of 3 single malts - Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie. These are 3 Speyside distilleries owned by William Grant & Sons in Dufftown, Scotland. Balvenie and Glenfiddich are brands which WG & S want to support, and hence are bottled as single malts. Kininvie was set up to provide whisky for blends, and is not bottled as a single malt. WG & S apparently do not allow any casks of Kininvie to be sold without adulterating them with a little Glenfiddich or Balvenie, ensuring that the whisky cannot legally be bottled as a single malt. Nevertheless there are a couple of rare independent bottlings out there that have been sold as 99% Kininvie 1% something else - i.e. whatever you can taste would be the Kininvie. Outside of these rare bottles, Monkey Shoulder would be the only way to taste Kininvie.

My trusty tasting notebook says:

Monkey Shoulder (William Grant & Sons)
Vatted malt - Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Kininvie
Amber gold
40% ABV

Nose: Oak and sherry. Pear beer, plum brandy, oranges and cinnamon. Buttery notes underneath.
Mouthfeel: Medium body. Watery around the edges.
Taste: Tangy at the edges. Slightly salty. Coconut, raspberries, heather honey, bananas. Citrus notes.
Finish: Long. Lemons and oranges. Turns iodine and medicinal at the end.

I'm fairly sure the plum brandy and red fruit flavours are the Kininvie - there's the Glenfiddich pear and malt, the Balvenie orange and cinnamon, and somehow some bananas, which are likely to also come from the Glenfiddich. I think this whisky should go nicely with some fruit, just to reinforce the esters, and that's what I shall try to pair it with.

1. Mandarin oranges.

Given the season (Chinese New Year is on the 7th of February this year), mandarin oranges seemed appropriate. I don't have any Chinese ones available, but these European grown ones taste good and seem worth trying. Sweet and tangy juice, essence of orange and tangerine. They bring out rose and coconut flavours in the Monkey Shoulder. The coconut I've tasted before - seems to be a characteristic of Speysides when paired with sweet fruits - but the rose is extremely interesting. Very unusual in my experience.

2. Bananas.

Well, Monkey Shoulder already has banana in it, but there must be some flavour profiles that are hiding underneath. I used regular Sainsbury bananas - Del Monte, probably. No specialist Malaysian bananas available unfortunately. Everyone knows what a regular banana tastes like, so I'm not going to describe it.

Anyway, the Monkey Shoulder tastes - surprisingly - of salt caramel. Think salted popcorn with toffee on top. Some smoke too, which is a little surprising, since 2 of the 3 component whiskies don't really have that smokey profile when tasted on their own. Could the smoke be the Kininvie? The banana doesn't taste half bad either, with the whisky enhancing all the esters in the fruit.

3. Lychees.

I wasn't planning to use lychees, but the Pretty Lady was keen on some the other day and we couldn't find any. So when I saw some in the supermarket I decided to get them for her, and maybe blog about them as well. They're not as sweet as the kind one gets in Asia - they probably keep all the nice ones for themselves - but they're a lot better than the semi-bitter ones the supermarkets used to carry a few years ago.

The floral fragrance pretty much kills any fruitiness the whiskey has unfortunately. Something spirity and malty emerges, making the whisky taste a lot stronger than it actually is. Surprisingly little smoke. Cardboard and wet stones emerge after a while, and the finish is now quite spicy.

4. Plums.

I used Ruby Nels, which weren't quite ripe. No matter - the whisky imparts a magic marker character to the fruit. The plum now tastes a lot riper than it actually is. Also, cardboard is in evidence, with a lot more smoke now. Maybe plums have more esters than lychees. Bitter - much more bitter than with any of the other 3 fruits. Not a favourite.


I think the banana wins it, with all the pleasant estery banana flavours in the whisky enhanced by the fruit. Rather appropriately, one should enjoy Monkey Shoulder with a monkey's favourite fruit! Somebody turn that into a slogan.

Lazarus distilleries

The history of whisky is one of boom and bust, just like many other commodities. Often a boom contains the seeds of its own bust - it's the usual story, where attractive returns lead to more entrants, more entrants lead to overcapacity, overcapacity leads to overproduction, overproduction leads to falling prices, and falling prices lead to a bust. Often, the bust is exacerbated by some sort of exogenous shock - a world recession, say, or a change in tastes towards some other spirit.

The whisky world is widely agreed to currently be in a boom cycle, where more entrants are appearing, attracted by the returns due to a sharp increase in people drinking single malts (in previous cycles, people preferred blends). Whether this may lead to overcapacity or not is uncertain - there is now an exogenous shock on the demand side. The integration of China and India into the global economy now means that there are up to 2 billion people who could, in the next decade, afford to drink whisky. Some are already there - Macallan recently teamed up with Lalique to offer a limited edition of 55 year old single malt in a crystal decanter (retail price several thousand euros), and there was apparently a great deal of interest from India.

A more welcome effect of increasing capacity is the reopening of old, closed or mothballed distilleries. This not only increases the amount of spirit available for blends, it also opens up possibilities for single malts - not only of the closed distilleries, but an expansion in supply of existing single malts from distilleries that mostly produce for blends.

Last year saw the good news that Tamnavulin, mothballed by Whyte and Mackay since 1995, would reopen, after W&M changed ownership. The new owner, Vijay Mallya, an Indian tycoon, announced that W&M would reopen Tamnavulin, mainly in order to provide whisky for their blends. However, some investment would be made into the Tamnavulin brand, resulting in (hopefully), some official single malts. And maybe some independent bottlings. Production apparently recommenced in late 2007, and will speed up in 2008 according to the very informative Whisky Pages.

The first week of 2008 brought the news that Glenglassaugh, mothballed since 1986, is likely to be sold to a Latvian-Russian consortium, who presumably want to start up the distillery again, not just sell off existing stocks. Here's hoping to that - although, as of today, there is still no news about whether or not the deal is done. M&A transactions can certainly drag on, and the longer they drag on, the more likely they collapse...

A couple of weeks later, I happened to read some unconfirmed gossip on Whiskyfun - that Braeval (also known as Braes of Glenlivet), one of several mothballed distilleries owned by Pernod Ricard under the Chivas Regal brand, is likely to be reactivated this year, after a refit. Braeval last distilled in 2002. I suppose Whiskyfun's proprietor, Serge Valentin, must have heard it offline, as I couldn't find any news of this on the 'net.

The same piece of gossip asserted that Pernod Ricard will reopen Imperial distillery (mothballed since 1998) after it does Braeval - maybe they will be doing the same to their other mothballed distilleries? One can only hope. For now, there is no information on Imperial, other than what Serge posted.

There are 2 other mothballed distilleries that could be reopened, if the owners (Pernod Ricard) decided it would be worth doing so (of course, money is involved, since it's likely that the mothballed distilleries require investment into equipment, marketing, etc etc). I haven't been able to find much information on whether or not they will be brought back to life eventually. They are Caperdonich (mothballed 2002) and Glen Keith (mothballed in 2000). The gossip on Braeval and Imperial suggest that they could certainly be reopened, so there is some hope for now.

If only Diageo would reopen Rosebank...

La Bouchee

London is home to 190,000 Frenchmen, according to Bloomberg News, all defying President Nicolas Sarkozy's injunction to go home and help him hunt down economic growth. Why should they? The French community in London as achieved critical mass - there are French newspapers, French bakers and French restaurants, although not perhaps French schools. Apparently the state-run Lycee in London only has space for half the children of school age, and the French Ministry of Education will not expand it. Obviously a lever to apply pressure on the Anglo-French community to return to France.

All this makes for the increased availability of very high-quality French produce and services in London, primarily in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, where most Anglo-French live. In Old Brompton Road, near South Kensington tube station, there is a particularly good rustic French restaurant, La Bouchee, that serves up simple, well-executed French food at reasonable prices.

La Bouchee
56 Old Brompton Road
London SW7 3DY
020 7589 1929

La Bouchee serves rustic French food with no twists. What you see on the menu is what you get. In my 2 trips there so far, I've had a very tasty duck confit with swiss chard and black cabbage, as well as a forester's beef rib. The Pretty Lady had the duck confit the first time, and what she called a "so good" sea bass the second time. There are also starters like authentic soupe a'la oignon, good warm salads (something I find is hard to do well), and also classic French desserts such as oeuf a'la neige, a surprisingly good creme brulee, and a pear tarte tatin.

The restaurant is a little cramped, and looks very rustic for something in central London. It's not a place for an intimate tete a tete. Rather, it's a place to stuff yourself with good French food and good French wine, with maybe a cognac for afters. Conversation has to be loud by necessity, but if you are willing to chill and chat, it's not too difficult. Besides, the best part of a restaurant has to be the food. Company, ambience and service is nice, but secondary. If the food is good enough, anyone can take almost any inconvenience.

Scores:

24 Jan 2008: TFQ = 25, CS = 23, S = 15, AD = 5, VfM = 8. Total = 76 points.

What does this mean?

10 red wine grapes and how they taste

The Pretty Lady's mummy gave me an interesting book for Christmas, and one of the more interesting things in it is a list of wine grapes and the kinds of flavours they impart to the finished wine. Here are 10 of my favourite red wine grapes, extracted from the book. Maybe in the near future I'll do the white wines, but as I prefer red wine, here we go:

1. Malbec

This grape tends to surface among wines from Argentina, which means that it is a great pairing for steak, or any other type of grilled red meat. Blackberry, dried fruit, black plum.

2. Montepulciano

This grape is Italian, I believe Tuscan in origin. Usually very drinkable, and perfect with the tomato and garlic flavours of Italian cooking. Blackberry and cherry.

3. Shiraz / Syraz

This one is actually Iranian in origin, and the Australian version makes for great big intense sunshiney barbecue wines. At our wedding, the best wine by far was an Australian shiraz called The Lackey. Blackberry, black pepper, dark chocolate and smoke.

4. Merlot

Big, full flavoured wines these - the Australians and the Chileans make the best. Blackberry, dark chocolate.

5. Mourvedre

Rather unusual to find on its own - a lot of the time it goes into a blend. Blackberry, game and leather.

6. Tempranillo

Some interesting Spanish wines come out of these, notably most good Riojas. Strawberry and dark chocolate.

7. Pinot Noir

Capable of changing flavours dramatically depending on age. Raspberries and red fruits when young, meat drippings, farmyard (?) and truffle when older.

8. Nero d'Avola

Right, this wasn't in the book. But it is one of my favourite varieties, and probably the best red wine for spicy Asian food. This is Sicilian, and makes for a dark, almost black fruity wine - exactly what it says on the tin, albeit in Italian! Tannic oak, plums, pepper.

9. Grenache

Another ingredient in Riojas, but also popular in Australia. Another one of our wedding wines was a mix of Grenache, Mourvedre and Shiraz. Mixed berries, meat, black pepper.

10. Cabernet Sauvignon

The great Bordeaux wine grape (although other grapes are used as well). Very very round and full bodied, but with a depth of flavour the Merlot cannot match. Blackcurrant, cedar, mint and eucalyptus.


There are many many more. And even more white grapes! Funny, I find white wine more uniform and less exciting in taste than red wines, despite there being more grape varieties. Maybe it's terroir after all...

Simply the best

So far this year, equity markets all over the world have fallen, and by a lot. There are many reasons for this, but they mostly have to do with bad economic news - US unemployment is rising, global inflation is rising, major banks continue to write down assets, credit spreads have blown out etc etc. The FTSE 100 in the UK is down nearly 9% year to date - that's over 12 trading days! Same with the S&P 500, every other developed market index, and almost every emerging market index (according to my Bloomberg screen).

Except for two, and one doesn't count. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange index is up more than 3% year to date, but if you amalgamate the gain with the losses on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, then Mainland China's equity markets as a whole have lost ground. The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange is then the sole equity market in the world that has shown a gain year to date, with a gain of around 2%.

Hurrah then for Malaysia - except that things aren't supposed to go so well. Malaysia's economic growth is expected by analysts to slow this year, and inflation is supposed to continue to rise. This means that interest rates will have to go up, and this is not so good for equity markets. The explanation for the gain is likely to be more prosaic - this year is an election year, and until the election at least, equity markets need to continue to rise to spread the feelgood factor.

Oh well.

Sage and butter

This is another post in the series that I appear to have started with beetroot and eggs - focusing on those simple but oh-so-tasty combinations that have enriched many a dish in many a kitchen. Today's combination is sage and butter, or rather, a very specific combination of sage and butter - you warm the butter till melted, then toss in some fresh sage leaves, and heat till the sage and butter mixture browns. This creates a delicious rich mixture of warm creamy smooth nutty melted butter perfumed with aromatic sage.

This combination is very peculiar to Italian cooking, although it doesn't seem to be a regional specialty. It is used in Tuscany as part of their sugo d'arrosto sauce, which is very simple - sage browned in butter, garlic and meat broth. This then goes over tagliarini - local freshly made pasta slightly thinner than spaghetti, boiled till al dente. Very simple - and very tasty.

Further south, in Rome, the famous local specialty, saltimbocca alla romana, or veal escalopes Roman style, utilises sage browned in butter as a flavouring for meat. The dish consists of veal escalopes wrapped in parma ham together with a sage leaf on each escalope. The wrapped meat is then browned in butter. The butter and cooking juices are then reduced, sometimes with white wine, to form the sauce.

You can also use the sage and browned butter combination as a sauce for gnocchi, those potato dumplings which are usually eaten with ricotta and spinach. I believe that this combination is actually American in origin, not Italian.

In actual fact the combinations are endless - the nutty aromatic flavours will go well with most white meats. Sage and butter can be combined with anything sweet (butternut squash perhaps?) to create either a great tasting sauce, or perhaps to infuse the flavours directly into the base meat or vegetable.

Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai

From 9 December to 15 December, I was with the Pretty Lady and a friend, CY at a little resort off the coast of Sabah (the Malaysian part of Borneo), slightly misnamed Sipadan Water Village. It's actually on Mabul island, Sipadan having been closed since a an accident on a construction barge sheared off the top of a major coral reef and dumped a ton of bricks on to the main drop off in 2006. Only military personnel are allowed to stay on the island now.

So we had to stay on Mabul, and had to travel to Sipadan daily. This wasn't a big deal despite the daily limit on the number of divers - it was low season and there were too few divers at all the resorts to fill up the daily quota!

I made about 14 dives over the week, one or two more than the Pretty Lady did. We saw a hammerhead shark (one of two the guide had seen in 2007 - we were very lucky), who surprised a keen photographer, buzzed the dive guide, rounded us twice and swam off into the blue. We saw 20 to 30 turtles, including a giant that was snoozing at the base of the marker buoy on the house reef, Paradise 1. We saw several thousand schooling barracuda at Barracuda Point. We saw a school of bump-head parrotfish make their round island morning swim, 3 times. We saw 2 huge snow crabs on a night dive. We saw a titan triggerfish building its nest. We saw 2 frogfish lurking in an artificial reef underneath a converted oil rig. We saw numerous shrimps , nudibranches and crabs, some almost too tiny to see.

It was a wonderful trip, and I'm a little sorry I didn't buy a camera and a casing at Changi Airport. I probably wouldn't have caught the hammerhead though. Maybe next time!

10 new places to dive

It's cold and wintry back in London - what a change from several weeks of warm tropical sun. The diving trip was wonderful, completely relaxing with great and lucky diving. I also found out from some old and new friends about some new (to me), wonderful places to dive in South East Asia.

1. Puerto Galera - Philippines

Thresher sharks, manta rays and other big pelagic life. But I'll be going mainly for the thresher sharks.

2. Komodo - Indonesia

Diveable only by liveaboard apparently. Mantas and other large pelagics. Includes a stop to see komodo dragons on komodo!

3. Lembeh Straits - Indonesia

Muck. Nudibranches, shrimps and crabs. Pretty interesting with the right crowd...

4. Raja Ampat - Indonesia

Better go before the coral dies. Apparently this is the reef to beat all reefs.


5. Pulau Weh - Indonesia

Off the coast of Acheh. Great reef life, some muck, but pelagics occasionally make an appearance. Hard to get to.

6. Similan Islands - Thailand

World famous. Big pelagics - mantas, and the occasional whale shark. Liveaboards only.

7. Burma Banks - Myanmar

Pretty difficult to get to, but unspoilt. Big, big pelagics - hammerheads, mantas, threshers and whale sharks.

8. Dungun - Malaysia

Off Kuala Dungun, there are some interesting islands which are frequented by whale sharks. Not Redang and not Perhentian obviously. Lang Tengah, possibly.

9. Malapascua - Philippines

Thresher sharks. Lots of reef life and some pelagics, but the highlight is apparently the threshers.

10. Milne Bay - Papua New Guinea

Milne Bay is a province! 160 islands, unspoilt, with some wrecks to go with the beautiful reef life and big pelagics.


And lastly one old, beautiful place:

11. Sipadan, Kapalai, Mabul - Malaysia

I saw many wonderful things here. 2 dives on Sipadan in the morning, 1 muck dive in the afternoon around Kapalai or Mabul. A week of this - heaven!


The goal is to tick off these places on by one! The next trip looks like it will be to Puerto Galera, if I can get everyone to agree.