Jealousy emanating from all those staying in the shop; Karin, Amanda, Suzanne and Kristian headed out to the Similan Islands for a 3 day 2 night liveaboard on board the MV Parinee!
W
ith our trusty Captain Kaew in charge of the boat, we cruised out to the Similans in glorious weather, to start our diving at Hideaway Bay, a nice shallow dive site perfect for a check dive.
Greeted by a turtle, always a good start to the trip, Suzanne (ably assisted by our soon-to-be-signed-off DCTs Scott and Joa) took Jim off for dive number 3 of his SSI Open Water Course whilst everyone else went for a nice relaxing dive along the reef, with plenty of lionfish, an octopus and loads of colourful reef fish.
We headed next to Anita’s Reef (on the other side of islands 5 and 6) – a gorgeous divesite full of life. Amanda and Team Spain found a huge spearing mantis shrimp, and there were Kuhls stingrays and garden eels galore to be found in the white sandy bottom of the dive site.
A bit of a diversion from diving the first night, we all went and laid out on the sundeck to watch the Leonid meteor shower – no light pollution in the Similans so we were treated to a stunning show.
The second day took us to islands 7, 8 and 9 of
the Similans, where Paul and Monica were shown the sights by Kristian – giant morays, a big green turtle at Waterfall Bay and lots of scorpionfish hiding out. Chilling out around Island number nine that afternoon Scott was about to brief for the night dive, and a turtle came to visit the boat! Upstaged by a turtle, the briefing was put on hold whilst we all went to watch the graceful turtle swimming laps round the boat. We night dived at Bangu Bay, so so much to be found, baby spotfin lionfish, moray eels out hunting, spiny painted lobsters out looking for food.
Day 3 we headed north, Karin was taking Nalle on his second Wicked trip around the Similans, joined by Alisa from the States out on her first liveaboard, and they were lucky enough to spot a big turtle at North Pont and another at Three Trees. They also spotted another weird fish...that only turned out to be Joa in a bikini celebrating his 100th dive - congrats Joa!
More games on the boat, Monica showed herself to be a bit of a hustler at Rummikub, whilst Kristian got tangled up
trying to guess who he was (Santa Claus – real or fictional, dead or alive?!) in the name game!
We tried out a
fish name game afterwards, and it turns out that mermaids are real fish, and Nalle didn’t know what a batfish was – we promised to find him one before the trip was over!
The trip ended fantastically with an incredible dive at Koh Bon – many guests got to experience diving with a manta ray, one of the most beautiful marine creatures the Similans has to offer. It’s very early in the season to see them, so we were unsuspecting and most pleased to be greeted by not one but two manta rays - one bigger one on the northern cleaning station, and a smaller ray on the ridge – cue excited manta ray dancing underwater!
Want to explore Koh Bon with us and see if you’re lucky enough to see the mantas? Sign up for one of our Similan Liveaboards, then think lucky manta thoughts til you get here!
(Thankyou to Juan and Soledad for the beautiful photographs!)
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