I don’t remember who shot it, but this group photo was taken with one of my old Canon cameras in an underwater case during a press trip to Aqaba, the sleepy seaside dive resort by the Red Sea. We only had a day and a night in Aqaba before heading to the ancient Jordanian city of Petra, so I can’t say much about the city, even if there was much to say about it (which I doubt there is).

While I don’t remember the dive location being particularly spectacular, I clearly recall the merry band of journalists from Scandinavia I was there with being extraordinarily fun to travel with. From other photos from this part of the press trip, I know that we did get to see some rather large coral formations and schooling fish.

I can’t remember when I last went scuba diving. Might have been when the above photo was taken. Or, maybe it was in Thailand a few years ago or as far back as in the Bay of Pigs, off the coast of Cuba. Hm. If that’s the case, it’s been way too long, for sure.

I wonder if my old Thai buddy Saran Sudduen still goes diving. When we were both younger men and lived not far from each other on Phuket, he and I would dive for about an hour most Saturday mornings outside of Kata Beach. We’d gear up at a local dive shop on the main road, walk down to the beach, and then head out into the Andaman Sea. Scorpionfish were fairly abundant and once in a while, we’d catch a glimpse of a small reef shark. Once we swam out to Koh Gai (Chicken Island) and dove entirely around it before swimming back with depleted tanks. We’d always return to shore carrying plastic bags and other garbage we’d collected during the dive.

Just like in Aqaba, it must be eerily quiet on Phuket now. Which is both hard to imagine and sad to think about. I hope 2021 will see things turn around. Maybe I’ll even be able to go for a dive again. I really miss buoyancy.