There has been a series of events since my last trip in Surin in March. Though it wasn't that long ago but it was time for us to find another escape. And this time, to take the designer cats - Moumi, Myogi, and Kikilala - with me to spend some QT and look for inspirations.
By Moumi has always been a brand that draws from first-hand experiences, and if we want to dream about something we're not a part of (yet) - we put ourselves in those situations, then we can start working on it.
If anything, the trip in Surin got me closer to my dream visions. We've closely worked with water as a subconsciously recurring theme throughout. We've done shoots in the pool, by the beach, in the rain; only until Surin that we got a glimpse of what we were always striving for - to be submerged in the sea. After long consideration, I chose to come to Koh Tao where you can shore dive, and there are many schools that can help you do that properly and safely. And there would be our home for the next two months, I got to learn to free dive. Exploring the marine life at the surrounding beaches became a daily thing, meeting a new turtle a day was also my favourite activity. Here are some that I've met...
All these guys have ID tags and names. But for my own entertainment, I'd named them all how we wanted. There's Michael (Learns to Rock), Ed Sheeran, Tracy Chapman, Dempster, Freddie, and Lemmy Longtail, to name a few :) But it wasn't just the turtles that were exciting, thanks to the extended Covid break, the ocean got time to recuperate and there were also sightings of some rare creatures like guitarfish, eagle rays, dolphins, a very strange blue porcupine puffer fish (extremely cute!) and lots more!
Our house though isn't right next to the beach, but at the top of the hill, overlooking the sea and the coastline.
And Moumi loved her vacay home a lot! She'd been hanging outside on the balcony, watching waves and tides while the other two enjoyed the view from the comfort of the great indoors.
Once settled down, I started learning Basic Freediving at Apnea Total and at first it felt like dying 😹😹😹 but once I came to terms with it, it became something nice and to me was an achievement. I managed to go down to 21 metres deep on the rope, now that's cool! I had a bit of a break to test out the new skills while snorkeling and later went back for the Advanced course at the same place. And I loved being at this school because everyone was very chummy, Getting to watch Co-Founder Monica, instructors Nikki, Aven, and Dayna train was also something truly inspiring. They had so much control of their body under the water and were so calm, so peaceful.
And because I tend to take By Moumi collections everywhere I go, as it's been a part of our lifestyle to just travel aimlessly and to not plan ahead. I thought maybe I'd find random but interesting people on the beach and ask them to wear the clothes; turned out Koh Tao itself was at this time almost deserted. Then the idea sparked again to shoot the whole thing underwater. I was referred to Elisabeth Lauwerys aka Oceans Below - the great underwater photographer. Coincidentally she's also an instructor at Apnea Total, and I met with her during lunch with the Apnea Total family, so I asked them all to join this adventure on the spot!