Diving the Similan Islands

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Lovely beaches, low key resorts and great scuba diving pretty much sums up the lesser known and quieter coastal strip of Khao Lak just north of Phuket on the Andaman coast.  Khao Lak was our boarding point for a 3 night/4 day dive safari to the Similan Islands which we had booked with a local dive company – Similan Diving Safaris.

I had dived the Gulf of Thailand from Ko Tao back in 1999 which was OK but certainly not the best diving I have done but Ko Tao is great for learning and cheap, so it’s particularly popular with budget travellers. I was told if you wanted great diving in Thailand then the Similan Islands in the Andaman Sea was the place to go. You can do day trips from Kao Lak but the islands are not that close, the islands and the marine national park are  60 Kilometres south west of Khao Lak.  Day trips are popular for snorkelers and visiting the islands beautiful beaches but if you want to experience the best of what the diving has to offer then a live-aboard is the only way to go, trips even go as far as Myanmar these days.  After a break of 15 years I was back in Thailand, this time with hubby in tow so I made it my mission to finally dive the Similans, no matter the cost.

We had arrived by mini bus from Khao Sok National Park where we had spent a wonderful few days which I will cover in a separate post.  We checked ourselves into Phu Khao Lak resort, a very pleasant budget resort situated on the southern end of Khao Lak and 5 minutes walk from the beach.  Accommodation right on the beach was expensive so a bungalow for $20 a night set amongst palms (it used to be an old palm plantation) and with a pool to hand and walking distance from the main shopping strip and dive shop was a good option.

Before embarking on our scuba trip we gave ourselves a few days to enjoy the resort, the local beaches and do some day trips.

Our dive trip cost us AU$1500 for the both of us in Jan 2014 (prices would have changed by now) and included all our gear,  we had our own mask and dive computers with us.  Our boat was the MV/Dolphin Queen, a triple deck wooden monohull which had 6 cabins of which we had booked one of the two doubles on the main deck.  I had left Vaughan to do the research for this trip and he chose Similan Diving Safaris based on their price and excellent reviews on Trip Advisor and other sites.  The trip was classed as budget but it exceeded our expectations, the food, service, dive crew and even the boat were excellent.

All aboard!

We checked out of our resort leaving some stuff in storage as we would be back there after the trip. We had to meet down at the Dive Centre at 3pm although we went earlier as we had to be fitted for our dive gear.  Our group of 27 including dive crew was a good mix of ages from teens to the oldest, an Italian in his 60’s (most were young as you would expect on a budget trip) and nationalities of which the majority were from Europe.  A minibus drove us to the pier to meet our boat later in the afternoon.  Once we were shown to our cabin, we were fully briefed on the boat as well as safety procedures and the itinerary for the coming days.  Dinner was served before we departed in the evening at 6:30pm.  The evening sail was a chance to get to know our fellow passengers, crew and enjoy a magnificent sunset.

The Diving

Each day we had four dives except the last day which only had two as in the afternoon we sailed back to Kao Lak.  Our first dive of the day would be around 7am, our second around 10:30am to 11am, 3rd dive would be in the afternoon around 2:30pm and the last dive would be a sunset or night dive.  We dived 10 different sites in total starting with the Surin Group and moving south to the Similans.  The average visibility was 25 meters and the water temp 28C

Day 1

Dive 1 – Surin Islands

Our first dive was a check dive, we had been split up into smaller groups of no more than 4 people according to our experience. Vaughan and I have been diving a long time so we had Nico as our guide and we were accompanied by the older Italian guy and a lady from Boston.  The visibility was good at 20 meters and the water temperature was just how I like it at 28C although even at this temperature I still get cramp in my feet.  There wasn’t much coral on this dive but we did get to see lionfish, moray eels, spotted stingray and nudibranchs.

Dive 2 and 3  – Richelieu Rock

Richelieu Rock is part of the Surin Island group and is said to be one of the best dive sites in Thailand. The rock itself is a limestone pinnacle rising from a 50 meter depth and attracts a multitude of fish life as well as being home to soft corals.  The current on a dive was a little strong which set off cramp in my feet which made the diving a little uncomfortable.  The morning dive was lovely, great visibility with plenty of colourful corals and schools of fish including Clown Fish.  The afternoon dive the visibility had dropped down to 15 meters but had some great overhangs and rock ledges to explore on the pinnacle. We saw shrimp, large schools of barracuda, moorish idols, clownfish, pacific lionfish and pipe fish.

Dive 4 – Tachai Reef

Vaughan did the night dive and he enjoyed it because there were swim throughs and boulders.

Day 2

Dive 1 and 2 – Tachai Plateau

The plateau is a submerged crowned reef of sheet corals and scattered boulders.  The boulders provided great swim-throughs and cut-through opportunities.  Both of our morning dives were awesome, so many schools of fish plus moray eels, stingrays and gropers. The visibility was up to 28 meters.

Dive 3 and 4 – Koh Bon

Koh Bon is a wall dive so we were dropped off at one end and picked up at another.  The site is popular with manta rays although we didn’t see any.  We did enjoy  colourful coral which attracted large schools of fish like glassfish, large bigeye trevally and yellow-backed fusiliers

Day 3

Dive 1 – Turtle Rock

Turtle Rock gets its name from the large rock formation on the surface which looks like a turtle.  The spot had some rocks and canyons to explore.  It was a very nice dive with plenty of colourful coral, garden eels, sweetlips, snappers, large schools of angle fish and we even spotted some stingrays.

Dive 2 – Elephant Head Rock

The name as you have probably guessed it comes from the elephant shaped head rock at the surface. The rock has some great swim-throughs, small caves, and arches.  Fish we saw  consisted of snappers, sweetlips, moorish idols and schools of fusiliers

Dive 3 and 4 – West of Eden

The West of Eden site had some boulders and canyons to explore. Both the afternoon and evening dive were done here.  The afternoon dive seemed to be dominated by shrimps and the night dive had a large number of red spotted crabs

Day 4

Dive 1 – Boonsung Wreck

Boonsung Wreck is a dredging boat that sunk around 20 years ago and the 2004 tsunami broke up the wreck. The wreck attracted several lionfish, schools of fusiliers, moray eels, scorpion fish and nudibranchs

Dive 2 – Premchai Wreck

Premchai is another tin dredging wreck that was sunk in the early 2000’s. The dive was excellent with many schools of barracuda, nudibranchs, moray eels and scores more fish that I can’t put a name too!

And when you’re not diving..

In between dives and when you’re not eating and sleeping there is plenty of time to enjoy some fun and relaxation whether it be sunning yourself on the upper deck,  playing games like cards or Uno or jumping off the side of the boat and going for a swim. It was a good time to get to know your fellow divers and staff and have some fun.

On the third day between our second and third dives we had the opportunity to visit the beach on the largest of the Similan Islands.  A few of us jumped on to the rubber dinghy and was ferried to the Island.  We spent an hour enjoying the gorgeous beach and clear blue waters. A walking track took you up through the camp site and to Sail Rock lookout where you had great views of the beach. Vaughan chose to stay behind and spent his time swimming with a turtle for which he took some great video with our GoPro.

What the chef dishes up..

If there is one thing you are sure to enjoy, that is the culinary delights dished up by the on-board chef. The food was delicious and plentiful. Before the early morning dive you had a light breakfast of tea/coffee and toast. After your first dive you are treated to a hearty breakfast of eggs done different styles, pancakes, cereals, ham, sausages. Lunches ranged from salad, fish, chicken to pasta. Dinner was a buffet of Thai food, pasta, fish and whatever else the chef dreamed up.  Even between meals you had access to hot and cold drinks, biscuits, lollies (sweets), cakes, fruit and electrolytes to keep you hydrated.  Oh and how can I forget the beer fridge 🙂 yes beer was on-board which we could only drink after our last dive for good reasons!

General Life on Board..

I have now done three dive live-aboard’s in different places and I have to say they are the best dive holidays I have had.  There is no lugging your gear down to piers, once on-board everything is a step away and you don’t even have to put your gear together everything is done for you.  Food is usually excellent and the best thing I like about live-aboards is the social aspect, its not long before you make good friends with like minded people who are there for the same reason you are.  You can enjoy some great socialising whether its diving together, lounging on the sun deck, playing card games or simply enjoying a beer and chat after the last dive.  Falling asleep to the rocking of the boat is pretty cool too and if you nearly always get to enjoy some amazing sunsets.

To sum it up..

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip, the boat was great, we couldn’t fault the service of the dive staff and crew and the diving was lovely, I can definitely recommend Similan Dive Safaris particularly if you are looking for a good budget trip. We didn’t see any of the “big” fish, in fact we didn’t see one shark but we did get to enjoy the variety of dive sites and I had never seen so many large shoals of fish as I have on this trip.

 

Visited month: January 2014

 

If you have enjoyed the photos and would like to see more! then the complete gallery can be viewed in the Trip Photos