Author Archive
Muck Diving in Maumere
By Tony and Thomas on January 29, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Warning: This post contains cool footage
of the spectacular mimic octopus
If you see something swimming by in the video above which looks like an underwater Far Side cartoon creature wearing horn-rimmed glasses, that would be the mimic octopus. Mimic octopus? If you are wondering where you heard that name before, it might be that you read a recent National Geographic article about the discovery of a species of jaw fish which, ironically enough, mimics the mimic octopus. (That’s a lot of mimicry!)
We spent a couple of days at Ankermi Happy Dive Resort in northern Flores diving their world-famous muck sites. Lucky finds included: mimic octopus, long-arm octopus, a dazzling variety of nudibranchs, cuttlefish, yellow and black seahorses, an adult painted frogfish, 4 large harlequin ghost pipefish… it’s like a muck diving miracle.
There were also several extremely small animals we had never seen before such as bizarrely tiny pipefish and micro-nudibranchs. These animals were so small that we actually dove with a magnifying glass. Filming during muck dives is always a challenge as, unlike the jaw fish and the mimic octopus, we don’t have the ability to mimic our surroundings. Despite the challenges, of all our dive videos, this just might be one of our favorites.
Happy New Year’s
By Tony and Thomas on December 31, 2011 | 6 Comments »
We wish everyone a wonderful and exciting new year. We can’t believe this is our fifth New Year’s celebration on the road (and we are still in Asia). To give you a short glimpse of our adventures in 2011, we’ve put together a video retrospective covering this year’s travels through Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.
Four Years on the Road
By Tony and Thomas on July 1, 2011 | 5 Comments »
That’s right, four years! We hardly believe it ourselves. The last year has been spent in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. While we haven’t added a large number of countries to the list, we’ve traveled extensively and added a mind-boggling number of experiences.
Highlights range from diving with thresher sharks and mantas in the Philippines to market hopping in Vietnam’s northern tribal regions to exploring the vastness of Thailand’s Khao Sok National Park. During our month-long Vietnam Food-venture, we also sampled some of the best food on the planet.
The last twelve months have also taken us through some of the most stunning karst scenery on the planet. We paddled and snorkeled our way through Palawan in the Philippines, cruised Vietnam’s picturesque Halong Bay, and spent two months island hopping along Thailand’s Andaman coast. We’ve also seen some of the world’s most breath-taking beaches from the islands in El Nido Bay to Boracay to Nha Trang to Koh Adang. Pure tropical bliss.
But don’t think we spent all our time lying under the palms. Year four has largely been about our quest to view the planet’s vanishing wildlife from pygmy sea horses to flying lemurs to a dolphin superpod to shy tarsiers… the list could run for pages.
So, happy birthday ContemporaryNomad.com – you’ve seen a lot at the tender age of four.
Diving Pulau Perhentian
By Tony and Thomas on June 6, 2011 | 1 Comment »
We’re back in Malaysia and we’ve decided to take a quick side trip to Pulau Perhentian to exercise our diving muscles before we head out to Borneo. We only intended to do one dive to test out my newly repaired tooth before we shell out tons of cash to dive world-famous (and expensive) Sipadan. But due to a lack of self-control, one dive turned into three.
We dove Sugar Wreck, T3 and Temple of the Sea. Exciting discoveries included the biggest barracuda I’ve ever seen, our first bamboo sharks and blacktip sharks, candelabra-like coral, and some stunningly psychedelic anemones. All three dives were enjoyable, but only Temple of the Sea ranks as a must-see site. (If you dive Temple of the Sea, keep an eye out for that mega-barracuda!)
Ken’s Flower-Eating Fish
By Tony and Thomas on March 5, 2011 | 5 Comments »
We’ve tracked tigers, done the holy kora around Mt. Kailash, swum with whale sharks, and visited the Taj Mahal. But seriously, people, one of the greatest things we’ve discovered in our travel careers is Ken’s flower-eating pet fish.
In 1982, Ken (Fatt) caught the fish, a giant gourami, and put it into a small pool in his family’s garden. Bizarrely, the fish, which the family has creatively named “Fish”, seems to be thriving in the pool and has adapted to the family’s presence – it even eats flowers right out of your hand. Honestly, Fish seems much more like a puppy dog to me. How cool is that?
Also, notice our first HD video. Finally high definition has come to ContemporaryNomad.com.
