On the final day of the Songkran New Year festival Wild Planet And Planet Scuba teamed up for one of reality tv’s well known programmes. The Amazing Race is a global competition where teams of two compete for a large sum of cash. They race around the world completing tasks set by the organisers and also the daily challenges faced by world travel with no budget! We were asked to assist in one of those tasks, doing something for us which comes naturally these days – Diving with Sharks !!
The race was already underway and by the time they reached Thailand there would only be 5 teams left in the running. They were flying in from China on separate flights and would then have to make their way to Siam Ocean World at the Paragon shopping centre. Hopefully their chosen mode of transport wouldn’t attempt to sell them a suit or offer them discounted gems on the way.
Their challenge involved one team member miming a famous phrase through the glass while the other was scuba diving around part of the shark tank trying to find the relevant words for that phrase. It wouldn’t have been too difficult if the contestants knew how to Scuba dive, and of course if there hadn’t been 30 sharks moving around them!
All contestants had to participate in the same safety briefing before being allowed into the water. Senior Planet Scuba Bangkok Instructor Paul ‘Popeye’ Durrell was in charge of the initial briefing on the surface and gearing up the teams. Next they were led into the shallow section of the aquarium where they met Wild Planet Manager Dave Milne. After a further briefing on safety and a run through of some important Scuba diving skills they were escorted underwater to the challenge zone. Their time limit would depend on how quickly they used the air in the tank!
All the teams managed to complete the task, although some looked far more graceful than others in doing so. For one contestant it looked as though the thought of doing underwater would be too much, but she did it. However it would have been impossible without the assistance of Dave at her side.
The final contestant finished at 11 pm and it was time to let the fish sleep. Where the contestants got to sleep is a mystery only to be solved when the program goes live.
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