Similan Islands

We booked a one day two-dive tour of the Similan Islands with an outfit called Sea Dragon Diving. We were on a pretty big boat with about 15 other divers from about 4 different diving companies (including 2 Japanese diving companies & 1 German company). The boat was big enough where we were not tripping over each other (we enjoyed quite a bit of time out on the sun deck) & it was well stocked with snacks (cookies & fresh pineapple). We were pleasantly surprised to find out that we were the only 2 divers through Sea Dragon, which meant we had our divemaster, Ben, as a guide all to ourselves.

Ben is about our age, is from London, but has been living in Khao Lak & working on live aboard dive boats for about 4 years. It was about a 2 & 1/2 hour boat ride out to the islands & we had a good time visiting with Ben about being a foreigner in Thailand. He had a great story about waking up to a King Cobra in his bathroom (& then having one of his Thai friends come break its neck).

Our first dive was off of Similian Island #5. Because the islands are so far away from the mainland, the visibility in the water can be up to 45 meters. We had about 35 meter visibility, which was about 15 meters better than we had experienced in Kho Tao. Our first descent down was surrounded by breathtaking purple & orange coral. Besides the coral, other highlights of the dive were seeing a sting ray, ribbon eel, garden eels & a family of clown fish.

Our second dive was off of Similian Island #7. The highlight of this dive was seeing a leopard shark. Ben led us out to a shelf that was about 23 meters deep, when we looked over the edge we saw this big tail flip around that belonged to a shark that was hovering about 10 meters below. The shark turned a full circle giving us a real good profile & the ability to see his spots. We spent the rest of the boat ride back sitting with our legs over the railing looking for flying fish, we saw quite a few, those little suckers can fly a good 15 meters. We got back to Khao Lak about 7:30pm, ate dinner, then waited at an internet cafe until 9:00pm to catch our night (public) bus to Bangkok.

One night bus to Bangkok can make a hard man humble. When the bus picked us up the only two seats left were in the very back (which were over some hot part of the bus, not sure if it was the engine). The bus had air conditioning, but Levi still felt he was having a heat stroke because he had limited his water intake at dinner so he wouldn't have to go to the bathroom the whole bus ride. Jen appeared not to have a problem with sleeping soundly, but Levi is convinced the Chinese torture Falun Gong by making them ride 12 hours in the back seat of a public night bus to Bangkok. We arrived at Bangkok at 9:30 am, Jen looked like she had got a good night sleep, Levi looked like he had been rode hard & put away wet.