Similan Island Liveaboard Manta Queen 3, Trip Number 218.
What an amazing trip we had! Manta Queen 3 was lucky to have Manta Rays on 5 dives flying above below and all around us. This 4 days and 4 nights Similan Island Liveaboard trip was only beginning! Leopard shark, huge great barracudas, white tip reef sharks, napoleon wrasse, porcupine ray, marble rays and harlequin shrimps we were looking for the whole season. But lets talk about everything in order…
Day 1 started at Koh Bon Island, West Ridge and what a surprise – Manta Rays on the check dive! For one of our guest, who was doing PADI Open Water Course it was first dive in her life and Mantas came to check how she is doing for most of our guest it was first Manta show and we were glad to share their happiness with them. Because dives at Koh Bon Island were awesome we decided to stay for the rest of the dat and see more Mantas. It was fantastic!
2nd day started at famous Koh Tachai Dome where we experienced some strong current and were lucky to say good morning to beautiful leopard shark and big school of chevron barracudas. After the second dive we sailed for a few hours to the world class dive site Richelieu Rock. Good viz, no current and tons of fish. What else could we wish for at Richelieu Rock?! May be to see pineapple fish hanging around with ghost pipefish? Ok! We saw it! It was beautiful!
On 3rd day we thought that the ocean could not surprise us anymore after diving at Koh Bon Island and Richelieu Rock, we know what to expect… we were so wrong! Morning started at dive site called Hin Luang at Koh Bon Island. Huge, no Really, HUGE marble rays, leopard shark, school of emperor fish and giant trevallies hunting glass fish. That’s how every morning is supposed to start. But the biggest surprise for us was to find harlequin shrimps only found so far at Richelieu Rock, which was a great gift from the ocean. One more beautiful dive with Mantas and a family of napoleon wrasse and we move to Similan Islands. With happy faces after 2 great dives in the morning we jump to explorer northest dive site of Similan Islands – Christmas Point and what a surprise – Manta Rays followed us and this time called their friends – 6 white tip reef sharks. Bang! Bang! Full of emotions after fantastic day of diving we decided to watch the sunset on Donald Duck Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches in the Similan Islands. After dinner we fell asleep like kids, dreaming about underwater world.
On the last day of the Similan Island Liveaboard trip we woke up with the sun and were ready to continue our underwater adventure. On first dive of the day some groups saw white tips reef sharks, a porcupine ray, a bunch of blue-spotted stingrays, pygmy pipehorses, a playfull octopus and many more. On our last dive in the Similan Islands we dove with huge lobsters and hundreds of blue dragons at Elefant Head Pinnacle.
It was a great trip with great people! Meanwhile having all cool dives we study a lot and finished 15 courses on board. Congratulations to PADI Open Water Divers – Banina and Xixin, to PADI Advanced Open Water divers – Antony, Eli, Sjoerd and Karima. Some of the divers took a next step and got PADI Deep Diver Specialty, well done Daniel and Andrea! 7 divers took a PADI Nitrox course on board and get PADI Enriched Air Diver certifications, keep on diving Fabrizio, Silvia, Karima, Daniel, Eli, Sjoerd, Nima!
Thanks for the great trip guys, we hope to see you again!
The Team of Manta Queen 3, Similan Island Liveaboard trip number 218 powered by Khao Lak Scuba Adventures.
