Gobies And Other Bottom-Dwelling Fish

It's another theme post, this time featuring fish that you find living on the bottom, either in the sand, under pieces of coral, or in small cracks or holes in the reef.

Not Your Everyday Fish

This post is a grab-bag of some of the more interesting things I've seen over the past week or so.

First up, some pictures featuring critters with particularly cool eyes. Both of these are from a site near Havelock called simply 'The Wall'. I've only dived it once but am eagerly looking forward to more dives there as it is absolutely loaded with cool stuff.




Next, some small things. Both of these are things that I've seen a number of but never managed to take decent pictures of before.




And finally, some fish that aren't all that uncommon but that I want to include in this post. I've seen so many Scorpion fish that I rarely take pictures anymore but this one was posed perfectly and the picture is probably the best I've ever taken of one. Batfish are also relatively common but I've never seen a school of them anywhere near this large.



That's all for now. I'm falling behind on pictures I want to post though so expect another post in the next day or so.

Oh no, it's a theme post.

Mantis Shrimps, like the one in the first picture, are currently one of my favorite critters. If you want to see something cool, search for 'Mantis Shrimp' on YouTube and watch some of the videos.

Small World

Even though the guys I've been diving with (Dive India) have been great, tomorrow I'm switching to a different dive shop starting tomorrow. The other day I ran into one of the people I traveled through southern Laos with in 2003 and it turns out he's now part owner of one of the dive resorts (Andaman Bubbles) on Havelock. I'd known he that he had worked as a dive instructor for a while in the Andamans in 2005 but it was a pleasant surprise to run into him. Also, he and his former girlfriend were in fact the people who originally put the idea of getting re-certified in my head so he's at least partly responsible for the excess of fish pictures on this blog.

And, speaking of fish pictures...

Johnny's Gorge

I'm still enjoying the diving in the Andamans quite a bit. The following pictures are all from "Johnny's Gorge", easily my favorite site here. The highlights are a spot I've taken to calling The Aquarium due to the sheer number of different types of fish that hang out there, and the schools of Chevron Barracuda and Jacks that roam the area. Also, although I don't have any pictures of them, I've seen White Tip Sharks on two of my three dives there. This is one of those spots that I can happily dive over and over again.

India Is Still India, Except With More Fish.

I've been on Havelock Island in the Andamans for a few days now and am enjoying the diving immensely. Both of the dives today were particularly nice.

Unfortunately the internet connection on Havelock is slow and expensive so I'm not sure how much I'm going to be updating while I'm here (so possibly business as usual for this trip). On the other hand I'm feeling motivated to post right now so here are a few pictures from my second dive today...

Annapurna Circuit Final Part

Here are the final pictures from my Annapurna Circuit trek (only 5 weeks after returning to Pokhara).

Day 14: Kagbeni to Murpha




Day 15: Cheater!

There are no pictures from this day. I decided to skip part of the road and take a jeep back to Tatopani. However, part way there I decided I'd rather be hiking on the road than riding so only went as far as Ghasa where I spent the night.


Day 16: Ghasa to Tatopani




Day 17: Tatopani to Shika




Day 18: Shika to Chitre

No pictures from this day either. I ended up only hiking for a couple hours in the morning before deciding not to move any further from my lunch stop.


Day 19: Chitre to Ghorepani




Day 20: Ghorepani to Tadapani

From this point on I am retracing part of the route from my Annapurana Sanctuary trek in 2007 so some of this may look a bit familiar.




Day 21: Tadapani to Chomrong




Day 22: Chomrong to "New Bridge"

Another day with no pictures. I was getting very lazy by this point.


Day 23: Chomrong to Naya Pul (and back to Pokhara).




That's it for my Nepal pictures. Sorry for the long delay in posting these but I kind of lost interest in updating the blog for a while.

In other news, I'm finished with diving in the Simalins (which has been fantastic) and am catching a bus back to Bangkok in a couple hours. On Sunday I fly to Kolkata and from there on to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands for lots more diving. This means that I'll likely be back to mostly fish pictures for a while.