We had a great experience staying on a Thai scuba diving live aboard boat. We are happy we took our divemaster Alexia's recommendation for Khao Lak Scuba Adventures. Their logo has a picture of a manta ray and the words "dive, eat, sleep, repeat" which pretty much sums up what we did for three days.
We boarded the Manta Queen l boat in the evening and motored overnight in the Andaman Sea to get to the Similan Islands. We awoke in the morning moored near our first dive site. The boat is quite comfortable and is perfectly equipped for scuba diving.
At the bow is Buddha Point. The crew set off fireworks as we left, a traditional way to protect us on our trip.
Similan means nine in Malay, so named because there are nine islands that were originally part of Malaysia. The islands now belong to Thailand and are part of the Similan Islands National Park. This is island 5 and we dove close by at Anita's Reef dive spot.
Before each dive we would have a dive briefing. Here is the dive leader Julian, who is a Spaniard and an outstanding underwater photographer.
There were seven divemasters on the boat and 20 divers. The divemasters took turns giving the briefings, each wearing the hat when it was their turn. Shown here is Enya, our Australian divemaster.
We were lucky to have Enya as divemaster for all our dives. The three of us saw amazing sea creatures and plants.
We used our Go Pro camera to get this shot of us about to jump in for a dive. It was so much fun.
Here's the Manta Queen I from the water. It sure looked huge as it came to pick us up after a dive.
Here's Pete jumping in for a dive.
He's waving after surfacing from the dive.
And here he is back on the boat.
The dive briefings included whiteboard drawings of the dive site. Richelieu Rock was so named by Jaques Costeau because the horseshoe shaped rock formation is covered in purple anenomes and looked like the collar of Cardinal Richelieu's robes.
Pete used his Go Pro to shoot a lot of underwater movies. We haven't had time to pull many still images from the movies. Instead we are including Julian's photos, like this one that shows some of Richelieu Rock's purple anenomes on the right. As you can tell, it was also teeming with life.
The furthest north dive site we visited was Richelieu Rock (which is technically part of Surin National Park). We were happy we got to dive there three times and we saw lots of lionfish on each dive. This Common Lionfish is hunting, using its side fins to sweep prey towards its mouth. Luckily Julian has a zoom on his camera, as the dorsal fins are poisonous.
This well-camophlaged fish is a Devil Scorpionfish - look for the fins. Scorpionfish is also poisonous, so we kept our distance.
The next two photos show the same octopus as it camophlages itself.
This is a close up of a different octopus - it was looking right at us!
This is a school of Chevron Barracudas.
We saw lots of different kinds of eels. These are tiny Garden Eels.
This Giant Moray eel looks like he's ready to bite. We kept our fingers well away from its mouth.
This eel doesn't look as scary since he was a lot smaller.
This is an Emperor Angelfish that was about 17 inches long.
This tiny Boxfish looks like its fins are too small to swim, but it's surprisingly quick.
Nudibranchs are sea slugs, and there are more than 2,000 species. This Ringed Chromodoris Nudibranch was about 1.5 inches, and they can grow to four inches long.
This is a Peacock Mantis, which looks like a cross between a praying mantis and a lobster.
The Tomato Anenomefish loves and protects its anenome. In return the anenome gives the fish shelter. The fish is coated in a mucous to protect it from the anenome's sting.
Ever since seeing manta rays in Indonesia we've hoped for another opportunity to watch these graceful giants. We got lucky on dive seven at Koh Tachai Pinnacle where we saw this manta ray.
Alongside the manta looked like two sharks. We learned after the dive that they are Cobia fish. Cobias frequently travel with rays and sharks, and eat the leftovers of their hosts.
This photo was taken near sunrise. The island is Koh Ban.
Most of the time we were on the boat or scuba diving. But one afternoon we took the dingy over to Honeymoon Beach on island 6 of the Similans.
The sand was so soft and white.
This photo shows the dingy and part of the Manta Queen's salon where we hung out and ate our meals.
There were two cooks who were busy the whole time making food for us.
All too soon we were back at the dock. We had a lovely time.
Next we go back to Yangon, Burma where we will be on a meditation retreat until December 27th. We send our love and best wishes to all of you for a wonderful holiday season!
We boarded the Manta Queen l boat in the evening and motored overnight in the Andaman Sea to get to the Similan Islands. We awoke in the morning moored near our first dive site. The boat is quite comfortable and is perfectly equipped for scuba diving.
At the bow is Buddha Point. The crew set off fireworks as we left, a traditional way to protect us on our trip.
Similan means nine in Malay, so named because there are nine islands that were originally part of Malaysia. The islands now belong to Thailand and are part of the Similan Islands National Park. This is island 5 and we dove close by at Anita's Reef dive spot.
Before each dive we would have a dive briefing. Here is the dive leader Julian, who is a Spaniard and an outstanding underwater photographer.
There were seven divemasters on the boat and 20 divers. The divemasters took turns giving the briefings, each wearing the hat when it was their turn. Shown here is Enya, our Australian divemaster.
We were lucky to have Enya as divemaster for all our dives. The three of us saw amazing sea creatures and plants.
We used our Go Pro camera to get this shot of us about to jump in for a dive. It was so much fun.
Here's the Manta Queen I from the water. It sure looked huge as it came to pick us up after a dive.
Here's Pete jumping in for a dive.
He's waving after surfacing from the dive.
And here he is back on the boat.
The dive briefings included whiteboard drawings of the dive site. Richelieu Rock was so named by Jaques Costeau because the horseshoe shaped rock formation is covered in purple anenomes and looked like the collar of Cardinal Richelieu's robes.
Pete used his Go Pro to shoot a lot of underwater movies. We haven't had time to pull many still images from the movies. Instead we are including Julian's photos, like this one that shows some of Richelieu Rock's purple anenomes on the right. As you can tell, it was also teeming with life.
The furthest north dive site we visited was Richelieu Rock (which is technically part of Surin National Park). We were happy we got to dive there three times and we saw lots of lionfish on each dive. This Common Lionfish is hunting, using its side fins to sweep prey towards its mouth. Luckily Julian has a zoom on his camera, as the dorsal fins are poisonous.
This well-camophlaged fish is a Devil Scorpionfish - look for the fins. Scorpionfish is also poisonous, so we kept our distance.
The next two photos show the same octopus as it camophlages itself.
This is a close up of a different octopus - it was looking right at us!
This is a school of Chevron Barracudas.
We saw lots of different kinds of eels. These are tiny Garden Eels.
This Giant Moray eel looks like he's ready to bite. We kept our fingers well away from its mouth.
This eel doesn't look as scary since he was a lot smaller.
This is an Emperor Angelfish that was about 17 inches long.
This tiny Boxfish looks like its fins are too small to swim, but it's surprisingly quick.
Nudibranchs are sea slugs, and there are more than 2,000 species. This Ringed Chromodoris Nudibranch was about 1.5 inches, and they can grow to four inches long.
This is a Peacock Mantis, which looks like a cross between a praying mantis and a lobster.
The Tomato Anenomefish loves and protects its anenome. In return the anenome gives the fish shelter. The fish is coated in a mucous to protect it from the anenome's sting.
Ever since seeing manta rays in Indonesia we've hoped for another opportunity to watch these graceful giants. We got lucky on dive seven at Koh Tachai Pinnacle where we saw this manta ray.
Alongside the manta looked like two sharks. We learned after the dive that they are Cobia fish. Cobias frequently travel with rays and sharks, and eat the leftovers of their hosts.
This photo was taken near sunrise. The island is Koh Ban.
Most of the time we were on the boat or scuba diving. But one afternoon we took the dingy over to Honeymoon Beach on island 6 of the Similans.
The sand was so soft and white.
This photo shows the dingy and part of the Manta Queen's salon where we hung out and ate our meals.
There were two cooks who were busy the whole time making food for us.
All too soon we were back at the dock. We had a lovely time.
Next we go back to Yangon, Burma where we will be on a meditation retreat until December 27th. We send our love and best wishes to all of you for a wonderful holiday season!
