We were fortunate that our time on the west coast of Thailand co-incided with the diving season. The Similan / Surin islands offer some of the best diving, but outside the November to April diving season, the monsoons make the area inaccessible.
Daytrips by speedboat are possible, but given the remoteness of the islands from the mainland, the best way to dive there is from a liveaboard. As tourist numbers were low due to the pandemic, our options were limited but there were a few boats operating a pretty standard 4D4N itinerary. Ours ended up looking like this:
Departure Day:
Free scheduled pickup from Phuket & Khao Lak hotels
Equipment check & boat briefing
Dinner on board
DAY 1:
07h00 Dive 1: West of Eden
10h30 Dive 2: Deep Six
14h00 Dive 3: Elephant Head Rock
18h45 or 19h30 Turtle Rock (we chose the night dive over the sunset option as it was our first chance to do a night dive - a unique experience, described as 'calming' by my lovely dive buddy)
DAY 2:
07h00 Dive 1: Three Trees
10h30 Dive 2: Koh Bon
13h30 Dive 3: Koh Bon
17h00 Dive 4: Tachai Pinnacle
DAY 3:
Richelieu Rock. Having almost traveled into Myanmar waters, all 4 dives were done at Richelieu Rock, an outcrop only visible at low tide and definitely worth the mileage
DAY 4:
Having departed Richelieu Rock the previous evening, we made good time and made our last few stops on the way back
07h00 Dive 1: Tachai Pinnacle
10h00 Dive 2: Koh Bon
The time in between dives was spent on meals, checking equipment or trying to catch a few few zzz's on the sundeck. The food was tasty, varied and always more than enough.
A big thank you to the team at Thailand Divers (Jon, Choo and May) who managed to negotiate a workable price on a package that included our (non-diving) kids. It did mean we had to take the budget rooms below deck with shared bathrooms, but as we soon found out you spend so little time in your cabin it really makes no difference.
As this was our first liveaboard experience, we spent quite a bit of time discussing the pros and cons, as opposed to other kinds of scuba experiences.
- PRO: The major pro is that the focus is very much on diving. You really get comfortable with your equipment and get in the the 'zone' with regards to exploring the underwater world.
- CON: The focus is VERY much on diving. With such a large number of skilled an experienced divers together the conversations inevitably center around sites dived, gear, sightings and of course the perfect photo of that elusive (insert large/small lesser-spotted creature of choice here).
Our Dive Master and her crew did a great job of keeping everyone happy and focused on the task at hand, namely diving in the marine protected wonderland that is the Similan Islands.
All told, our trip was one big PRO!. We had countless interesting conversations with the diverse collection of international travelers. We picked up tips for destinations and made contacts to use on our travels. Language was sometimes a barrier - still not sure of the stakes in the chess game between Yolande and the Russian - but it was always interesting. I could write pages about all that happened aboard, bit in honour of our American friend, Scott, who regaled me with rhyming tales about his friends from Boston, Brazil, etc. (luckily he had no acquaintances from Nantucket) I finish off with an anecdote.
There once was a diver at Koh Bon
Instead of gliding past corals, he stepped on
"Sir, there's no need to shout
I'm just pointing it out",
said the poor dive guide that he s**t on