The Similan Islands and Richelieu Rock
Trip Start
Oct 31, 2011
1
14
20
Trip End
Nov 25, 2011
Similan Islands, Phangnga, Thailand
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
It's the start of our Similan Island Liveaboard dive trip and it's 4:00am *arghhh*. Need to finish getting ready and be at the dive shop for pickup at 5:30am. Naturally, the pick up was on 'Island time" and showed up at 5:50am. The trip up to where the speed boat picks us up was 1 1/2 hours long. We then waited another 2 hours for other people to show up before we boarded the speed boats that would take us to the island where we would transfer to the liveaboard boat. We finally arrived around noon.
They inform us that we will be doing our 1st dive at 1:30pm and we still haven's been assigned our cabins ... ? The boat is full to capacity ... 28 divers, 6 dive masters, captain and crew. They have left all of the luggage and bags on the dive deck which is soaking wet with sea water ... a lot of our stuff was already wet before we got in the water.
Apparently, the reason we haven't been assigned our cabin yet is that there is still someone in it! He's not leaving until after the 1:30 dive ...*arghhhh*. To make matters worse, out of the 28 divers on board, there is only one other couple who speak english ... the rest are Russian (don't get me started). So now we have to hurry, hurry to get ready for the dive and then we all waited around will the Muppet show continued on the dive deck. I don't have a good feeling about how the rest of the three days will go.
Disappointing dive ... coral all smashed up, fishing nets all over the reef, inexperienced divers kicking anemones to pieces and grabbing at coral in order to pull themselves around. Dive masters did absolutely nothing to prevent it. We each had to pay 2,000 baht (almost $70) each in environment fees as the Similans are a Marine Park. I'm wondering what that money goes on to do??? grease someones palm I would guess. We finally get our cabin after the dive ... they've stuck us in the lower deck cabins which have portholes but no fresh air as they are sealed shut. The air conditioner isn't working properly and the room smells of mold (which is turning the pealing wallpaper black right under the air conditioner). Charming !!
We do a second dive at 4:30pm and our third was a night dive. I was hoping to film some interesting night creatures but all we saw were lobsters, sea cucumbers and fish. After our night dive, we had our supper and the captain informs us that we will be leaving for Richelieu Rock (which is our second day of diving) around 9:00pm and it will take until approximately 3:00am to arrive. Being so tired from getting up at 4:00am this morning we decided to retire early. They started the engines up just as I was falling asleep ... holy cr@p !! The engine is directly under our cabin ... the noise is deafening and the furniture in the cabin (which is screwed to the floor) is vibrating so loudly you can't even think. The cabin is 10 degrees hotter than the hallway, I'm sweating to death and the smell of diesel fuel is making me sick. I still have a very bad chest cold and this is not helping. I lay there, awake, until around 3:10am when the boat anchored at Richelieu Rock. By now I was soaked with sweat and I need to go an get a drink of water. I turned on the wall light and the walls moved ... cockroaches ... this is turning into the most miserable trip either of us have experienced. I leave the light on (to keep the critters hidden) and finally fall asleep, exhausted, around 4:00am. At 6:00am the sound of "Good Morning Everybody" comes from the Dive Master ... apparently our first dive is at 7:00am ! I'm gonna kill someone shortly.
The usual Muppet Show occurs on the dive deck and everyone gets into the water. Managed to find some Eels on this dive and few scorpion fish. Better than the Similans but not the spectacular, pristine reefs that we were led to believe. One guy was always getting in my way so finally I had to grab him by the tank and chuck him to one side. He didn't`t seem to get the message so we just stayed at the back of the pack. We found a few cool things but didn't`t dare let any anyone else know as they would all molest every sea creature (no matter how small) trying to get pictures. We spotted one group pulling a small Leopard shark out from under a rock ledge by the tail in order to take pictures of it. The dive master did nothing!
After our fourth dive of the day, the boat headed back to the Similan Islands where it anchored for our second night. No engine noise this time, but still the air con wasn't`t working properly, the cabin was still 10 degrees hotter than the hallway, smell of mold and roaches made for another fit full night. I woke up just before the "Good Morning Everybody"`started. I could hardly breathe, I was so congested ... I had pains in my chest and I was exhausted. I decided to pass on the diving for the last day and try to give myself some recovery time. Marcus did the three dives that day but he said that it was a bit boring.
The speedboat picked us up for the trip back around 1:30pm ... it was a an hour and a half of being chucked around on some very choppy waves. Once on land again, we waited for our dive gear and our bags to be brought up to the minibuses. Our bad showed up and so did Marcus` dive gear ... my dive gear was missing. Trying to get the crew to understand that my gear was missing was virtually impossible. So, I went back down to the boat to look for it ... I found it atop a truck, along with many other boxes of dive gear, heading to "`who knows where". After finally convincing the driver to retrieve the box for me, we walked back, dive gear in hand, and boarded our minibus back to Chalong.
The driver was a MANIAC !!! He put the peddle to the metal and flew through Phuket doing 130 kms and hour (that`s like traveling 130 kms through Yorkville). The minivan would literally bank the corners on 2 wheels ... I was not happy !!
We're going to take a break from diving for a few days ... may do only one more before we go.
Comments
Chalk these few days up somewhat to the 'real' tourism experience when we visit these far off exotic experiences :)
At least it's over and now you have a story to tell!