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  Similan Islands, Thailand
Thursday, October 26, 2006

We just spent the last four days on a Liveaboard Dive Boat in the Similan Islands. Whereas Khao Lak is rainy and muggy, the monsoon is finished in the Similans. We had nothing but sunny weather for the four days. Similan means nine in Thai and the island chain is so named because there are nine islands. The dive boat spent the first two days stopping at various sites off islands 4-9. The third day we headed north of the Similans to Richelieu Rock, which is a big underwater rock located in the middle of nowhere. Richelieu is considered to be one of the top dive sites in the world, and after doing two dives there we can definitely attest to the underwater beauty of this site. There is beautiful bright colorful coral everywhere and so many fish that they interfere with the underwater visibility. On the fourth day the boat began the trip back towards the mainland, stopping periodically for diving. All together we did 14 dives over four days, and had a great diving experience. We even saw some underwater creatures we had not seen before such as leopard sharks (about 2.5 meters long and spotted). We also saw eels, snakes, lionfish, turtles, scorpionfish, etc. etc.

There were about twenty other divers on the boat plus crew and staff. The divers were from many different countries including Russia and Hong Kong. The food was good and we had our own room with a double bed. The only downside to the trip was the air conditioning in our room. It was either way too cold even when turned down to its lowest setting, or way too hot when turned off. We shared the air conditioner with the room beside us so we were trying to be considerate of their needs. The first night we turned on the airconditioner and were soon too cold. So we put on our fleece jackets. We did not have long pants with us so we threw a towel over our legs (no blanket provided). Joan had a spare pillowcase and she also put her feet in that. We were still cold so we threw rain ponchos over us. After an hour of crinkling noises every time we turned over we were still cold so we turned off the air conditioner. Enough trying to be considerate of neighbors in case they wanted it on! Without airconditioning it was hot in the rooms but our neighbors never said anything about it. We are not sure if they liked it hot or if they thought the air conditioner was broken. After the first night we slept with our window open at night. This seemed to work fairly well, except for the night that we were travelling through open ocean to Richelieu Rock where the ocean was a bit rough - we got splashed through our window. However, it didn't matter much. Other than the first night we were so exhausted by bedtime from all the exercise diving that we could sleep through most anything.

We are now headed back to our resort for two more nights and then we head home.

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