Hardeep Wreck Dive

Last Friday, after finishing up a rather drawn-out closing ceremony for English enrichment camp, I took off for Pattaya yet again, this time to complete my Advanced Open Water certification.

The main dive site was the Hardeep, a sunken World World II cargo ship sitting about 100 feet below the surface. Hardeep was the deepest dive I’d ever done, and Steve demonstrated how color dissipated as light decreased. At about 30 meters he pulled out a color chart; at that depth many of the colors appeared faded, red in particular, until he shined a light on the chart and each color returned to its normal vibrance.


Another diver, Andy (actually a distant cousin by marriage—who knew I had so many cousins in Thailand?), had an underwater camera but it jammed before we got to the wreck. It's too bad, the wreck was pretty cool looking. A lot of coral and plants clung to the old ship, and fish were swarming around it. I was tempted to swim inside the wreck, but Steve (appropriately) stopped me considering I didn’t know the layout of the wreck and I wasn’t prepared to retrace my steps with a line.


Although I would previously have been hesitant to acknowledge a “local” side to Pattaya, the third time was the charm in terms of seeing a small human side to Pattaya. The captain of our boat was a friendly Thai guy, and we took off from a small, empty dock surrounded by local families. I didn’t go out to the bars this time, but while looking through some t-shirts on a street stand, the Thai women who owned it were so excited that I spoke to them in Thai that they invited me to sit down on a plastic chair and have a drink with them.

I’ve now clocked 13 dives, and have completed my Advanced Open Water reviews. The only thing preventing me from diving more frequently is the price. On the other hand, diving in Thailand has been more affordable than it would be otherwise, not to mention the really cool people I’ve met through diving and the niiiice warmth of the Thai ocean.