Similan Island Liveaboard Trip with Manta Queen 6 Cruise Number 227
his dream is over.. the sunshine, palm trees, beautiful beaches with white sand and blue water is all gone, because someone is yelling in the hallway waaay too early in the morning...,, Wakey-wakey, rise and shine!
"Welcome to the Similan Islands!" Haaaang on a bit! Isn't it just the- *looking out the window at the sunshine, palm trees, beautiful beaches with white sand....etc*- beginning of the dream?! Our dive holiday in paradise?! Well yes,it is! We woke up right next to Similan Islands number 5 and 6.
So better get ready for the first dive. But before so, there is an endless safety briefing from the tripleader.. but at least he is funny..(and his hair looks cool). Anitas Reef. Gentle white sandy slope to begin with.. a nice easy dive. So much life is going on in those balmies and corals..wow! Dive 2 at Elephant Head Rock. The fantastic panorama and the maze of swim-throughs made this dive a very special one (and we saw the biggest boxfis ever!). Dive 3 at Christmas Point?! God, that place was full of surprises! 2 white tip reefsharks and an enormous blacktip right at the beginning followed by Barry, the (possibly geneticly modified and steroid fed gym addict) great barracuda. Imagine a smaller shark..got it?..now Barry The Barracuda could swallow that thing..sideways!! The sun is about to set at the horizont,dressing up these beautyful Similan Islands in different colors whilst we are getting ready to our night dive. Torch-check,buddy-check, all good?!-lets go! Haha..the parrot fish sleeps with his mouth opened, just like my roommate..cant decide whose face looks funnier. You can't have a long enough night dive to see all the cool things,not to mention the glowing planktons in the water. But hey-ho, dinner is ready and its time to fill up the logbooks with all these fresh memories!
Day 2, 6am...Lets do it!! North Point is the northest dive site of the Similan Islands. This morning brings us spectacular visibility, a couple of white tip reef sharks, pigmy pipehorses a napoleon wrasse and we also get the chance to swim further to the outer rocks and see probably the biggest seafans ever! But lets leave the 9 Similan Islands behind and see whats up at Koh Bon Island and Richelieu Rock! A 25 minute leopardshark, thats whats up! A 25 minute leopardshark is that kind of leopardshark, who likes your dive group (or your dive guides hair) so much that she doesnt want to leave and just swims around in between your buddy and you for 25 minutes. What a dive! Lets move to Koh Tachai Island to see whats on the menu at the famous Dome (of Doom). Healthy bright corals as always,lots of schooling fish, a big male napoleon wrasse and lets not forget about the dessert...a tiny sea moth shufflin' around on top of The Dome like he owns the place (so cute it makes you 'wueeeeeeiii' into your regulator). Have you heard of Richelieu Rock? Well, we slept right on top of it! Like seriously! During a stunning sunset cruise, enjoying our 5th meal of the day (with/without a decompression beer) we said good bye to Richelieu Rock and the Similan Island National Marine Park and entered the Surin Island Marine Park.
It would take too long to write down all the things we saw during our 3 dives here, but some of my favorites from the list were ghost pipefish, frogfish, pineapplefish, different morays and the list goes on. Have I mentioned the amount of schooling fish we saw? Wow..sometimes we could not see each other because there were 2867 fusiliers inbetween us..and rainbow runners..and glassfish..and snappers.. But lets head back to Koh Bon Island and have some more fun! Hin Luang at Koh Bon Island it is! All the groups dissapiering in the deep water by a negative entry and we are all landing on top of the pinnacle, most of us just in time to see the show. 2 eagle rays flying by and checking us out right at the beginning, followed by a big white tip reef shark aaaaand a giant oceanic manta ray. She didnt stay for too long tho, just came to hand out our invitations for the manta show which was just about to begin at the Koh Bon Island North Ridge.
For the next dive our captain dropped us right on top of them,so they started dancing around us..and another one came..and then the waters of Koh Bon Island turned into a manta soup.. then to a manta Madness! They came so close at some point, whe had to go Full Turtle Mode with our heads to avoid a friendly wingslap. Great times... can we stay here like forever? Not?! Fine...where next then? Boonsung wreck!? Sure,lets do it! The visibility is not so great but we couldnt see too far anyways because of the amounth of fish around this mining platform. Fancy nudies, spearing mantis shrimp going like *WHUATTAAA* with her spears on her lunch, some cuttle fish and hundreds if not thousands of baby barracudas and yellowbacks. Like every dream,this one has came to the end as well. Not by an alarm clock or a loud snoring roommate tho, but with saying good byes to some new friends and leaving the dive center of Khao Lak Scuba Adventures with some awesome stories to share. Thank you guys for choosing us and sharing this fantastic journey,
Trip Leader Geri and his dive crew, Natnat, Dunn, Ramon and the Manta Queen 6 boat crew
Manta Queen 6 Similan Island Liveaboard powered by Khao Lak Scuba Adventures.
