Our last day in Khao Lak before we set off for our 4 day 4 night diving adventure, we rented scooters and headed to some of the more remote beaches around the area, suggested to us by a local surf shop run by a guy from Oregon. We scooted out towards the point of Khao Lak, passing by many luxury resorts and quite a few thai fishing boats. We found our beach which had a couple of small restaurants and a place to rent surf boards. We set up camp under a few umbrellas and beach chairs and relaxed the day away. We did rent one board even though the surf was quite small. I think we were all able to get up on the board even if it lasted only a few seconds before we were back in the water. Other than the few torential downpours, one of which occured on our ride back to Khao Lak (piercing rain to the face), we had a very relaxing sun filled day.
At 8pm we met at Sea Dragon Dive shop and prepared for our live aboard trip. The boat was pretty big holding 17 divers, 5 dive masters, and a thai crew of about 5. It was three levels, our bunks and dive equipment on the bottom, food/sitting area in the middle, and a sun deck on the top with 3 hammocks. As we left the harbor the Thai crew set off firecrackers, the loud noises keep the bad spirits away and provide good luck for our trip.
The first night we "steamed" for about 6 hours til we arrived at the Similan Islands, our first dive location. The diving was very good, clear waters, many fish, lots of coral. This first dive we saw a white tip reef shark. After we took the dingy to the shore, a beautiful beach with the softest sand ever. We hiked to the other side of the island, and up a very steep, slippery, muddy hill to a viewpoint. I didn't quite make it to the top, a little too steep. It was a little like mud skiing on the way down. After a few more dives, and nights we steamed up to the Surin Islands which provided more beautiful dive sights and beaches.
The last day we headed to Richelieu Rock, one of the most famous dive sites in the world, one of Jacques Cousteau's favorites. Marika, our dive master, was amazed to see only one other dive boat at the site when we arrived. I guess it can get quite crowded and be one of the worst sites because of the number of people. For us it was the best site of them all. There was so many different corals, and fish everywhere. Our first dive we saw a giant barracuda, a school of regular barracuda, and 4 cuddlefish, two of them were mating (one top of each other and changing colors). The second dive we saw more barracuda, pipefish, box fish, and a little tiny yellow seahorse. After another delicious Thai meal we headed back to land.
We had Sea Dragon drop us off in kuriburi? a town on the way back to Khao Lak where we were able to catch the night bus up to Bangkok. The first thing we noticed about our bus was our lady-boy bus stewardess?? who brought us snacks on the drive. We enjoyed an interesting 12 hour bus ride second to last row on the bus, with much whispering and giggling coming from the back of the bus from under the blanket which housed the lady-boy stewardess and another male bus rider. I guess we will see much more of this in Bangkok...
-Amy
Thailand Photos
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