Diving the Similans

There is something quite magical about a country where people will quite happily try and rip you off to your face, but if you turn your back, they will not steal a penny from you. This is what I love about Thailand. Since my first visit to the country I've loved the place. On my first night there I went out for dinner at a restaurant just down the road from where I was staying. Having flown through the previous night I wasn't exactly 100% awake, and when the bill arrived, I left THB 180 (or at least I thought I did) on the table and left. A few metres from my room I hear someone calling after me - the middle aged waitress who had served me had run a couple of hundred metres after me to chase me down. I had mistakenly left THB 580 (~AU$18) on the table instead of THB 180 (~AU$6). Wow! Talk about service!

Nang Thong Beach @ Khao Lak - all to myself!

My el-cheapo accommodation

I stayed in a fantastic bungalow/guest house place called Khao Lak Seafood Family House. A beautiful, large, airconditioned room, set amongst what felt like a rainforest, all for around AU$26/night! In fact, somehow between my booking and arriving, the price magically dropped THB 200/night, not that I was complaining. Perhaps it was because Khao Lak was experiencing the start of the low season - and it's really quite pronounced there. The town was rather devoid of tourists - the bars and restaurants never had more than 1 or 2 tables occupied, the counterfeit goods' shops were practically empty, and many places were altogether closed. Not to mention the fact that the beautiful beaches were almost totally deserted (not that I was complaining).

Khao Lak was particularly badly hit by the 2004 Tsunami.
Warning signs and evacuation routes are everywhere.

Khao Lak is around 1 hour north of Phuket airport, set between some gorgeous beaches and a fantastic mountainous backdrop. The people are friendly (as per the rest of Thailand), things are cheap, food is great, and the weather is warm - though the thunderstorms were starting to make an appearance... Then there is the fact that they cater very much to Swedish and German tourists - Viking restaurants selling mixed Scandanavian/Thai cusine, lots of prices in Euros and Swedish Kroner, and yes, the few tourists that were there came from that neck of the woods too!

Apart from my two days relaxing in Khao Lak, at the various beaches, swimming, eating Thai and Indian food, reading, and drinking inordinate amounts of banana and mango shakes, I also went on a 2 day / 1 night diving trip. And this brings me back to a repitition of one of my most memorable Thai experiences from 2003 (when I did my original dive course). Silly, honest me, obviously ticks 'yes' on the form where it asks "Do you or have you suffered from asthma?". So off I go to get a doctor to "OK" the dive. Thankfully, I'm in Thailand! The 3 minute interaction which cost a tad under AU$6 went something like this:

Doctor: So, you've had asthma.
Me: A 30 second history of my asthma.
Doctor: Listens to my breathing via a stethoscope for around a minute.
Me: Breathes
Doctor: Feels a couple of joints in my right leg (presumably to make sure they are still there?). Then tells me I'm good to go diving.

Anyway, we took a speedboat out to the main boat which spends the whole season (~7 months) out at the Similan Islands. This island group is a National Park located around 1 hour due West of Khao Lak. I was originally booked to go with a company called Geo-Expedition, but due to lack of bookings, they rebooked me with another crowd called Khao Lak SCUBA Adventures. The service from both companies was spectacular, and since the boat I ended up on with Khao Lak SCUBA Adventures looked quite a bit nicer than the one I was originally booked on, I wasn't complaining.

The boat had 8 twin share cabins for guests staying overnight, but there were a bunch of day trippers who would leave by speedboat at the end of the day. Then there around 5 dive staff plus around twice as many support staff. For my AU$560 I was expecting to do my Advanced Open Water dive course with 6 dives. Thanks to the change in companies, not only did I get a nicer boat with a twin share (rather than quad-share) cabin, but I got 7 dives. And boy was it good diving!

Koh Bon dive site

We started off at Koh Bon, around 1.5 hours cruise north of the Similan Islands. The first two dives were basic fun dives. Then came an underwater navigation dive, and then just before dinner, one of my favourites - a night time dive. Whilst not quite as dark as I expected it to be (other divers around with torches, and boats above water with bright lights), it was still quite an exciting experience. Diving with a flashlight seems to have the effect of focusing your attention on something in particular, rather than everything in general. One of the coolest things, I thought, was the blue phosphourus effect when 'waving' in the water. Very cool!

Our dive boat just off one of the Similan Islands

The next morning I had my first deep dive - down to 29m at our new dive site at the Similan Islands themselves. Despite everything I had read, it honestly didn't feel much different at all to diving at 20m. None-the-less, it was part of the course and provided an opportunity to show myself that it took me around 40% longer to solve a logic problem at that depth (early in the morning) compared to above water (at night, after a beer)...

The dive-master I had was extremely professional, and the groups were always small - which made it extremely enjoyable. Despite the Similans supposedly being "one of the top 10 dive spots in the world", nothing has quite lived up to my first diving experience, but I put that more down to the fact that it was my first experience, rather than where it was (Gulf of Thailand). Either way, it was great. I did get to see some amazing corals, a gigantic sea turtle, a couple of sharks (they swam behind rocks very quickly), plenty of beautiful and colourful fish, and I got to go through some cool swim-throughs and caves.

Colourful (yet remarkably 'unseaworthy looking') boats litter Khao Lak Harbour

Of course the fact that the water temperature was between 27 - 30'C helped, as did the fact that the company on the boat was great, not to mention the food was fantastic.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the greatest photos in Thailand. Perhaps I was a bit lazy. One in particular that didn't come out was a great one of a 'local petrol station'. Enterprising individuals would buy fuel (at least that's what they claim), then fill up empty 1 litre drink bottles and display them on a stand. When you want to buy petrol, you can buy by the litre and use the funnel that's provided to fill up your moped! Move over BP!