This trip was super fun for everyone. We had Mantas dancing together at Koh Bon on day one and a Whaleshark at Richelieu Rock on day two. Can't beat it.
We began in the bay at Koh Bon, as always. Our first dive on the West Ridge was really nice, with Sweelips, schooling Yellow Snapper, Octopus, Multi-bar Pipefish and Spearing Mantis Shrimp.
Dive two on the West Ridge turned out up be the highlight of the day, as we had visits from several Manta Rays, and at one point some of the groups saw two Mantas dancing together, gracefully turning around each other and doing flips around in the light current.
In addition to that, we saw Giant Morays, Ribbon Eels, Peacock Mantis Shrimp, Blue Spotted Stingrays and so much more. A fantastic couple of dives to start the trip off right.
Next up were the three dives at Tachai Pinnacle. These were a little tough this time around, with some strong current and challenging conditions. We did have the huge school of Chevron Barracuda circling overhead and at the safety stops, so that was nice. The morning dive a Tachai was interesting, with an extremely strong thermocline coming in, changing the viz from about fifteen meters down to one meter in a matter of seconds. It got almost complete dark too. Exciting, anyway.
Then it's in to Richelieu Rock. What a wonderful place Richelieu is. About one minute into the first dive we saw her: the same four meter female Whaleshark that we had seen just four days ago! She was still there, seemingly waiting for the return of Manta Queen 2 to her home! :-)
So beautiful, she swam lazily in the current, right in front for everyone to see. She came around a few times and then left. We carried on into the dive, enjoying all that Thailand's best dive site has to offer.
Over the course of the next three dives, we saw Cleaner Pipefish, Ornate Ghost Pipefish, Tigertail Seahorses, juvenile Angelfish, Tiger Egg Cowries, Schooling barracuda and Trevally, nudibranch, Cuttlefish, Octopus, and more different types of Morays that I want to name. An absolutely wonderful day, capped by a magical sunset in the Surin Islands.
The third day saw dives at Koh Bon and the Boonsung Wreck. Finally some easy conditions on the pinnacle, with blue water and almost no current. Stewie the Stonefish was there as always. Nice to visit that little guy every four days!
We had a few special finds on the Boonsung, the stand-outs being multiple Frogfish and one cute little Seamoth. So cool!
A special thank you goes out to all of our students onboard this trip. Annete did her Nitrox course and is now a certified PADI Enriched Air diver. Lasse, Mattias, Sophia, Aymeric and Joyce all completed their PADI Advanced Open Water course during the trip. Way to go guys! Sweet!!!
I've been saying this for some months now: this season has been the best diving in the Similans in a very long time. The time to come diving here is NOW!!! Contact us at www.khaolakscubaadventures.com to book your adventure on any of our four amazing liveaboard boats. We can not wait to introduce you to all of our resident creatures, Mantas and Whalesharks included! Hope to see you all underwater very soon! :-)
