Adventure takes many forms : a new relationship or job, sushi for the first time, or even a walk through an L.A. slum at 2 am on a Saturday night – all qualify.  Webster’s dictionary defines adventure as “an exciting or remarkable experience.” It’s when we break out of our daily routine and dare to take on a new challenge, boldly going into territory that is unfamiliar to us.  But most people, when they think of adventure, think of travel. And though pretty much the whole world has been explored before by other people (with Marco Polo setting the benchmark several hundred years ago), what matters is that it is your discovery. Adventure travel is a highly personal thing and what it teaches you about the vast world that surrounds you and its relationship to you is what makes it both worthwhile and essential.This is probably why adventure travel keeps growing in popularity. In a world gone wrong, cluttered with technology, self-interested politicians, bureaucracy, greed and numerous other complications, it is crucial to get back to the basics of life and to set personal challenges that bring out the noble savage in us.So remove yourself to another place, with strange people and customs, follow your nose, trust your instincts, and find a part of yourself you’d almost forgotten.Thailand is an ideal location to live out these dreams – or alternate realities. With more than 25,000 square kilometers of national park land, islands, mountains, and a welcoming people, new and enlivening experiences are waiting for you to live them out.Though there are endless adventures available here, two of the more popular possibilities involve going as high and as low as you can.Scuba Diving : The Amphibian WithinThere’s no getting around it. It’s programmed into our DNA that we are creatures of the sea, with a deep-seated desire to return to it. Meander aimlessly on thoughtful walk some lazy Sunday and your feet, of their own accord, will inevitably take you to the water – a lake, a pond, an ocean or a very large puddle – whatever is closest. We look out and yearn to return to our roots. Thanks to Jacques Cousteau, it is now possible, for a short time anyway, to return to the sea completely – for as long as the air in the tank lasts.Thailand, with its countless beaches, coral reefs and modern dive schools is a popular spot to learn to scuba dive. Thousands of proud new divers earn their PADI international dive certificates every year.It can be a bit scary at first – our instincts also tell us that we can’t breathe under water – but once you master the basic technicalities, there’s no experience like it. You have freedoms undreamed of by land dwellers. You are weightless, and can go left, right, forward backwards, up and down – and you are surrounded by colourful fish and plants. It’s another world down there.But like anything worthwhile, it does take a bit of work and discipline to make your first dive. Over the course of a week or so, you take a step by step open water course to ensure maximum safety. You’ll start out in a classroom, studying buoyancy and pressure – you even have homework and exams to do (What? Homework at the beach?!!) This is combined with practice, starting in shallow water, learning to use the equipment getting comfortable with the idea – and soon you’re heading off to the open water by boat, working your way up to dives as deep as 18 meters. In less than a week, you are granted your certificate and can dive anywhere in the world unaccompanied – the beginning of a beautiful new friendship with the other two-thirds of the planet.  Where to Go UnderWith more than 3,000 km of coastline and countless islands, Thailand has enough dive sites to keep any enthusiast busy for a lifetime. Most divers head out from island and mainland areas on day trips, but it is also possible to explore more remote and less inhabited areas on liveaboard boats, heading out for several days at a time.All of the places listed have several certified dive schools.On the Gulf of Thailand side, or east coast of Thailand’s southern peninsula, the main diving area is in and around the Samui Archipelago, which includes the main islands of Koh Pa Ngan, the well-touristed Koh Samui, and Koh Tao, which is the country’s most popular diving island, featuring several coral reefs a short boat ride away.On the Andaman Sea side, or west coast, are the islands of Phuket (the most popular holiday island in the country), Koh Phi Phi, the Krabi mainland, and the up-and-coming Koh Lanta.Central Thailand’s south coast also has a few spots. Some divers base themselves in the wild nightlife town of Pattaya, but it’s a bit of a boat ride to the best dive sites. Heading east, almost to the Cambodian border is the Koh Chang National Marine Park, a group of more than 40 protected islands, surrounded by coral reefs.Trekking : Because it’s there.Thailand’s north is a gorgeous place where lushly vegetated mountains rise majestically from the earth – the tropical tail end of the Himalayan chain. For some mysterious reason mountains were made to be climbed. There seems to be an innate desire to struggle to peaks and look down on creation as if we were God almighty. When you are at a great height, taking in vast areas of creation in a single glance, the world, for a fleeting moment, belongs to you alone. In Thailand’s north, you can do just that, with the added bonus that along the way, you can rest overnight with Thailand’s hilltribe people. There are several different hilltribes, including the Akha, Meo, Lisu and Lahu – all with their own unique traditional lifestyle. These people migrated from Southern China into what until relatively recently was uninhabited territory less than two centuries ago, and set up shop as subsistence farmers.Treks can run from two days to a week or more, as you hike through the jungle pathways on foot, by elephant (a daunting prospect at first), and by bamboo river raft, breathing fresh air, watching abundant wildlife and tiring your limbs, until you come upon the welcoming hilltribe village that you will call home for the night.An evening with a Thai hilltribe is an unforgettable experience. After your hike, the food tastes fantastic, and along with the villagers you settle sit around the fire, singing songs and watching traditional dances – be prepared to do a number or two yourself from your home country.After a few hours with these charming people, you may find yourself tempted to give up your career in accountancy, or whatever it is you do back home, shed yourself of all your possessions and live the simple life of honest hard work and a bowl of rice at the end of the day. Tempted, yes, but after a little reflection on the labours you have to put in for that rice bowl, you’ll probably opt to take home a few of the colourful handicrafts, and treasure your memories from the land of comfort from whence you came. Really, it’s better this way.Trekking : Where to StartChiang Mai, in Thailand’s mountainous north was the original home of hilltribe trekking, but in recent years a few other places have gotten into the act. Chiang Mai itself is a relaxed city of about one million people, and the springboard to some great trekking locations, including Doi Inthanon National Park, which is the host to Thailand’s tallest peak at 2700 meters. The second city of trekking is the more somnambulant Chiang Rai, a bit further north. Both cities have very good airports and regular flights from Bangkok and elsewhere.One young upstart in Thailand’s trekking world is Nan, northeast of Chiang Mai, and the coldest spot in Thailand (which is nonetheless pretty darn warm if it snows in your hometown). New luxury hotels have been popping up here recently, yet many of the hilltribes in this area are new to visitors – so it’s possible to enjoy the best of both worlds.Also becoming popular is the charming little town of Pai, which has developed into a Bohemian arts center for disillusioned hippie folk from both Thailand and abroad. The town is in the valley, surrounded by evergreen and rugged mountains with several trekking trails and hidden waterfalls.

Thailand has beautiful place very much if you come to tour in thailand , assure that ,you do will not be defeated certainly.

will be collected by your guide and transported to the aquarium in time for your booked Predator Dive

Free dive with the ragged-tooth sharks in the Cape Town aquarium.

These sleek bronze predators will glide past you as you scuba dive in the two million litre tank at the predator exhibit that is also home to many other species of large predatory fish from the South African coast.

After your free dive close encounter with the Ragged Tooth Sharks your guide will transport you back to your hotel for the rest of the day and night at your own leisure

Open Water One or Discover Scuba qualification required.

You will have an early morning collection by your guide and transported to Oudtshoorn.

Croc Cage Diving is based on the same principle as shark cage diving.

Visitors, 12 years and older, who are brave enough, will encounter these 4 meter Nile crocodiles while they swim around in a crystal clear heated croc pool.

Crocodiles close their mouth around their prey with an amazing pressure of over 1 ton per square inch.

Croc Cage Diving is not for the faint-hearted.

No dive xperience necessary

If this is not enough you will also be allowed the opportunity to have a natural encounter with cheetah, tiger cubs, reptiles and Humphrey the pigmy hippo.

After your croc cage dive and encounters with various other xciting creatures your guide will transport you back to your hotel for the rest of the day and night at your own leisure

This is no aquarium!! Your shark diving xpedition begins with a light breakfast in Gansbaai followed by a brief orientation on the day’s activities ahead where you will xperience one of the most exhilarating days of your life!

You do not need certification for the cage diving at Shark Alley.

If you are not up to jumping in the cage you can get a brilliant view of these spectacular predators from the upper deck of the boat.

For the brave there is no limit on time in which you can spend in the cage.

Time permitting, the boat will visit Geyser Island en route, to view the Seal Colony.

During the right season you will also definitely have a very good chance of viewing the whales along the way.

All equipment will be supplied. A light lunch and snacks and drinks will be served on the boat.

Transport by means of luxury people carrier is provided both ways.

Once returning to your hotel you have the rest of the day and night at your own leisure

Komodo island is an original habitat of the biggest lizard in the earth. Komodo island offers visitors with the beautiful landscape, quite and calm, bring you close with a touch of Nature and beautiful under water scene. The island located between eastern Sumbawa and western Flores lie three tiny grass-covered islands Komodo, Padar and Rinca.

Each islands together form the Komodo National Park, a protected wildlife reserve. This is the home of the giants lizard known as the “Komodo Dragon” it was thought to be a myth until the turn of the century.

Not just amazing while look the giant Komodo Dragon, explore the Komodo’s under water and ecosystems which has well known as the best diving site in the world. Beautiful corals, reefs, thousands sort of fishes to the crystal water and beautiful beach are await to visit. Bali Sea Safari cruises offer luxury sailing program to adventures, exploration and expedition to enjoy the beautiful of the tropical islands a long the Lesser. Sailing with Indonesia traditional Boat, Phinisi Cruises, your journey will be unforgettable moment.

Started this year off with two things: a shiny new engineering degree, and an overwhelming desire to remove myself from the heart of another ridiculous Canadian winter. Having lived on a student budget for the past 4 years, I wasn’t in a financial situation that would allow me to fulfill my desire. Fortunately, I knew my daily sacrifice of a roll of film and relentless praying to the photo contest gods were heard when I received an email from Jason Heller. Apparently, I had been awarded an 11 day trip aboard the Archipelago Adventurer II as a prize from thie 2008 Wetpixel & DivePhotoGuide underwater photo contest at Our World Underwater. In the following few weeks, I also found out about a few more prize trips coming my way from other contests. All of a sudden I had myself the ultimate graduation present – a two month Indonesia/PNG voyage!

After convincing my brother, Kris, to join me, I secured a pair of spots aboard one of Archipelago Fleet’s Komodo itineraries near the end of May. Andy Shorten and Gede Sartana made this process a breeze by doing something important that other liveaboard staff sometimes don’t…..that is, efficiently responding to emails.

In addition to being prompt, they made sure to accommodate my ‘economic’ lifestyle by setting me up with an affordable hotel and cheap domestic flights. The next few months were a bit of a blur. I was busy trying to pay off my new (large) credit card debts, going to scuba shows, and spending quality time with my girlfriend before I abandoned her for the summer. As quickly as the trip was booked, it was time to pack and leave.

After about a month of diving Raja Ampat and a few parts of PNG, the time came to make our way to Labuan Bajo (western tip of Flores). The short flight from Bali to Flores gave a nice view of the ocean peppered with small islands.

We were greeted in Labuan Bajo by the talented photographer and Scuba Diver Australasia field editor, Simon Buxton, who would be our cruise director for the trip. We made our way to the massive Archipelago Adventurer II (second largest liveaboard operating in Indonesia), and within 2 hours we geared up and got in for a check-out dive just off of Tebolon island at a site called “Coral Garden”.

Somewhat typical for a ‘check-out’ dive, it was rather uneventful, but still yielded some interesting nudibranchs and gobies. My uncharged strobe batteries didn’t help my frustration. I came out of the water a bit disappointed, but very quickly my spirits changed drastically.

I wrapped a towel around my waist, pulled off the old trunks, and was planning to take a nice warm shower, when I noticed something tiny skip a few feet across the surface beside the boat. After walking down the side steps to water level, I realized what it was… a juvenile flyingfish (about an inch long), drifting by in the current. I’d only seen a juvenile one other time in 13 years of diving, so I decided that I wouldn’t let the opportunity pass. I jumped into the current bare-assed sans mask to stay with the little guy, knowing someone eventually would come to help me.

Sure enough, Kris jumped in and made his way over with my housed D300 and mask in hand, and was followed soon after by one of the crew in a support boat. I’m glad I took that naked leap of faith, since a few nice images resulted, including this one. Those are clouds in the background, shot from below.

Still in the harbor of Labuan Bajo, we had a night dive at the same site, before a much needed gourmet dinner. The night dive was very productive, and so was dinner… my stomach hadn’t been stuffed like that in recent memory. Overnight, we ‘sailed’ west toward Komodo, stopping midway in the Tatawa Besar region for a pair of frustrating, but beautiful, morning dives.

I say they were frustrating because I had my macro setup when the 2 eagle rays, giant trevally, and school of sweetlips decided to make an appearance in the crystal clear water! Nonetheless, typical for most Indonesian waters, there were still plenty of macro subjects to keep me happy and busy. After surfacing, we continued the trek from Tatawa Besar to Komodo, arriving in time for a late afternoon and night dive at “Pink Beach” and “Sodo Lia”, respectively. On the night dive, one of my strobes “went Caribbean” on me (i.e. worked when it wanted to), so I had to do some ‘macgyvering’ to get it back in proper working order.

I have to commend Archipelago Fleet designers for designating such a large area of the boat for underwater photo gear…the camera area is larger than most liveaboard dining areas, iit’s on the main level of the ship, and is a controlled indoor environment perfect for taking care of your expensive gear. An overnight steam brought us to one of the holy grails of diving, Rinca Island, where we would remain for the next few days.

Visibility was not the best and the water was cold (77 C), but the green nutrient-rich water brought with it a reason for the reef to come alive. Someone even likened the experience to swimming in a tropical fish tank on steroids. In spite of the poor visibility, I couldn’t help but take a stab at shooting wide-angle in such a beautiful area. I gave it my best shot, but came out with somewhat mediocre images, so I opted for the trusty 105mm macro to maximize my productivity while still stationed at this gold mine. As fascinating as the creatures were in the waters around Rinca, the ones on land got very much attention as well.

Monkeys, deer, and boars occasionally made an appearance on shore, but the main attraction was the giant monitor lizards (aka Komodo dragons). Each morning, a few dragons would come to the beach to catch some rays….some from the sun and some from our flashes. In hindsight, it was probably foolish to get as close as we did, but Simon and I found ourselves sprawled out in the sand only a few feet (in some cases inches) from the reptiles. The time came to pull anchor and start heading toward northern Komodo.

We stopped for a pair of manta dives along the way at a site called “Toro Lenkoy”, and had varying success. Our first attempt was uneventful, having only one show up at the end of the dive. However, the second attempt was much more exciting. The current was powerful so our group decided to go with the flow and cross our fingers. My brother and I stopped for a moment for a few quick photos, and were immediately separated from the rest of the group. We drifted on and on, figuring we’d catch up to the group at some point, but came to a split in the current so stopped to decide which path to take.

Before we knew it, there were three large mantas swooping only feet from our heads. We remained at the base of a large coral head as they circled, but they suddenly got spooked and bolted away with the flick of a fin. Confused, my brother and I looked at each other with ‘what the hell?!?’ faces, but immediately realized what had happened…a flock of divers had just poured into the water above us and turned on their hyper-jets toward the mantas to get a closer look.

The sight of this new group scaring off the mantas was quite disturbing, so we called it a dive and started surfacing. After doing our safety stop, and briefly encountering another pair of mantas, we popped up to find ourselves dangerously far away from the ship. Without the sea floor as a reference, the strength of the current was impossible to detect. Safety sausages were inflated and after a few tense minutes, we were spotted and retrieved by one of the two sharp-eyed tenders. We continued the journey north, stopping at Tatawa Besar again.

The current was strong when we entered, making photography difficult. After momentarily being distracted by a beautiful scene of soft corals, Kris and I once again found ourselves separated from the rest of the group. As if the manta dives we just did weren’t enough to complete the trip, a few eagle rays and white-tips came by, and then out of the blue, a 12-foot Minke whale graced us with its presence. Sadly, I was only able to get ‘proof-shots’ of it. Kris and I surfaced expecting others to have had a similar experience, but were surprised to find an empty support boat. Apparently, the current where we stayed had died down, while the rest of the group was whisked away in a torrent, ending up on a beach more than a kilometer down the coast. This is Komodo diving. We stayed overnight near a small island (Gili Lawa Darat) just off the northern tip of Komodo, and did two morning dives close by.

These sites, “Hard to Find Rock” and “Easy to Find Rock”, were stunning underwater pinnacles. Current was minimal since we entered during slack-tide, and had encounters with a small group of pygmy seahorses, large schools of jacks and sweetlips, and a platoon of nearly 100 mobula rays. In the afternoon we moved to Banta, our final dive destination. We dropped anchor in an idyllic bay and got in the water. Not expecting any large animals, everyone setup for a macro dive…then Murphy’s law presented itself in the form of mantas, mobula rays, and eagles rays coming at us from all directions.

That’s the way it goes sometimes, I guess. Again, as frustrating as that was, the macro life in this area made up for it within a few minutes. Before the night dive, a few of us chose to go for a little hike up the hills of Banta, since we’d heard that the view was incredible. What an understatement. The final night dive of the trip did not disappoint. Ghost pipefish, shortfin lionfish, napoleon snake-eels, and several bobtail squid were all waiting for us, allowing for loads of macro photography. After the night dive, we had our final dinner on board, accompanied by the crew playing, singing, and dancing to traditional Indonesian music.

The following morning everyone was eerily quiet, since we all knew the trip was two dives away from being finished. Thankfully, we ended on a high note, since “Tanjung Tanduk Rasa” and “GPS Point!” impressed us all with reefs teeming with life. Eagle rays, cuttlefish, a colony of pygmy seahorses (barbiganti), large schools of various species, and more anthias than you could shake a stick at were the highlights of these dives. By the time I dried off and showered after the last dive, the crew had already washed all of my gear and hung it in the sun to dry, which was a very pleasant surprise. I should note that the level of pampering in general on Archipelago Adventurer II was a few notches above most other liveaboards that I’ve experienced.

Simon Buxton (cruise director), the dive guides, and the whole crew were knowledgeable and well prepared for any issues that needed addressing, including the safe transport of a couple’s bulky rebreather equipment to and from a support boat on each dive, which isn’t often encountered. Thanks to you all, you did a wonderful job. By the early afternoon, we had already made it west to Bali, and were promptly transported by a pre-arranged taxi back to the airport where we all went our separate ways. That marked the end of my first ‘Archipelago Adventure’, but I’m sure it won’t be the last. A big thanks goes out to staff Archipelago Fleet for continuing to sponsor underwater photography competitions and making my trip possible!