Noise, trash and an awful lot of people

Noise, trash and an awful lot of people were my first impression of Thailand. Or, to be more precise, Bangkok. But as soon as I left this busy centre of Thailand behind me, the true beauty of this Asian country unfolded before my eyes as I travelled with my fellow student and good friend Michelle Grote in our rented car all the way from Bangkok to the island Koh Phangan in the Gulf of Thailand.

Secluded beaches, busy food markets, new tastes and smells, palms, wild elephants and monkeys, all these were my impressions of Thailand.

When I finally arrived on Koh Phangan by speedboat, my final destination for the next six weeks, along with the university course for coral reef ecology of the “Carl von Ossietzky University” of Oldenburg, I wasn´t too shocked by the rather basic accommodation and after a quick snack from one of the various food stands on the local temple festival I went to bed.

After a refreshing coconut the next morning, Eike Schoening introduced us to COREsea (Centre for Oceanic Research and Education) and gave a short talk about the Do´s and Don´ts in Thailand and on the island itself.

Perfectly organised by Eike, we boarded the diving ship “Gaia” shortly after. For the duration of our university field trip, we used this ship to reach the various snorkelling spots for our biodiversity surveys while we enjoyed  the traditional Thai food, which Mo, a lovely Thai woman, served us each day to strengthen us for the afternoon snorkelling trip.

While we recorded the biodiversity, I already started with the data collection for my B.Sc. thesis, the abundance and biodiversity of sponges in different habitats and the size of three different sponges, Xestospongia spec. Haliclona spec. and one invasive sponge.

When the university trip was over after two weeks, I moved from the basic hotel to COREsea to share one of the shared rooms in a former brothel with two other volunteers. During the next four days, I completed my PADI Open Water diver to assist with the projects of COREsea whenever I wasn´t occupied with my Bachelor research. I shifted the main focus of my research onto the measurement of barrelsponges (Xestospongia spec.) to create agecurves for this specific sponge in different habitats to compare these.

A sponge bleaching event (see the Facebookpage of COREsea for further information) in the bays Haad Khom and Mae Haad keept me occupied as well. But as an environmental scientist in the making, it was really interesting to see an event like this in person.

Besides the scientific research, I experienced some other sides of the island Koh Phangan as well, jungle trips to secluded beaches, the full moon party on the southern beach Haad Rin, the famous Thai new year, Songkran, which is a giant waterfight and amazing work with wonderful people from all over the world in an amazing environment.

Thanks a lot to everyone who made this possible for me,

Paul-Jannis Grammel