Wicked Diving Thailand - Staff Trip!!!

STAFF TRIP

Well, its official, today is the day we have all been waiting for… The first day of the season! We have our first 3 day liveaboard trip going to the Similan Islands, departing tonight! We will have 12 guests joining us, and 4 dive guides on the boat (Give it up for small groups!) The staff, the boat, and the Similans are all geared up, and ready to get this season started.

The staff here at Wicked have just had an adventure of their own, on a 2 day, 1 night, 4 dive training trip. And what do you get when you put 1 manager, 2 trip leaders, 5 dive staff, 3 DMTs and the best boat crew in Thailand together? A Wicked time!!!

Our first dive was at Boon Sung wreck. What a crowd pleaser that dive site is! With schooling puffer fish, a marble ray, lion fish and scorpion fish, cat fish, cuttlefish and so much more, this dive was a fish party! We also went to check up on our artificial reef projects from previous seasons. There was a honeycomb moray eel who had found a new home in our toilet :) The water is warm with good visibility, this dive site is a great dive site to be enjoyed by all.

We then jumped in for a night dive, and what a treat that was! There is such a spooky and fun vibe about diving a wreck at night. I always like to say “the freaks come out at night” and that they did indeed! After a great dive, we were all looking forward to a big and delicious meal cooked by our chef, P Da. Her cooking is to die for. I am salivating at just the thought of her home cooked meals. It must be said, She might have intentions of plumping us all up. Cheers P Da! :)

The staff then all sat around socializing and talking about our day, and what we are most looking forward to this season. I can’t tell you what those things are, you’ll just have to join us to find out! We all had a nice and cozy sleep in our cabins, some of us even had private rooms, talk about luxury. The following morning, we all woke up around 7am, and followed by some coffee, and a dive briefing, we were ready for our next dive at Prem Chai wreck. There were some crazy events of this dive, as this was a final rescue assessment dive for 2 of the DMTs, Jacob and Tim. But don’t worry! We all came out of it alive and well.

Our final dive of the trip was at Khao Nayak, which is a site best suited for our open water dive students. It’s a really chilled out, easy dive, with plenty of nudi branchs, lion fish, scorpion fish, and lobster. Again, a really nice dive had by all.

After our final dive of the trip we shared a lovely lunch together and unfortunately it was time for us to return to the pier, so that we and the boat can prepare for the first trip of the season!

And that brings us up to this very moment. We are just hours away from our first trip, and are all looking forward to all the dives, laughs, and memories to be shared throughout the whole season, with you, Our guests, family and friends.

Happy Diving!!! :)


-Wicked Diving Thailand

Turtle Hatchery Visit

Turtle Hatchery with the kids from the FED School for Talented and gifted students.

Wicked Diving was founded on the belief that we need to do more than simply take guests diving. WE need to take care of ecosystems and our local community. We set aside 2% of all revenue towards these projects. This manifests itself in many ways - ranging from our work with the Baan San Fan Orphanage to our Manta Research projects.

One of our longest running programs has been working with the gifted Students at the FED school for children of Burmese migrant workers. While formerly known as the GHRE school, they have changed their name to FED now. More on them can be found here: http://wickeddiving.com/ghre-school.

Our activities with the school range from lectures given about marine topics (conservation, plastics, salt vs. freshwater) to special outings. This week we were able to organize a great day out! We took the kids to our local Turtle Hatchery and showed them around. We then followed that up with a beach clean-up after pointing out that ingesting plastics are the leading cause of Turtle deaths.

Here's a quick report from Choc:

As part of our community projects, today we took 14 of the Burmese students and Max, their teacher to the Turtle Hatchery in Tablamu Navy Base. The goal was to give them a fun opportunity to interact with these lovely marine animals, learn a bit from them and realize the threats they face.

Walking around the tanks we had the chance to observe 3 of the 5 different species of turtle that inhabit Thai waters: hawksbill, green and olive ridley; some very little ones just few days old, some very big individuals that weight 50-60 kg!

After that, we had a well deserved lunch and a beach clean-up.

The day finished with some pictures and a delicious ice cream that helped everyone to cool down a bit. ;-)

Choc and Diego.

Thanks guys - Photos below!!!!


-Wicked Diving Thailand

The non-tsunami of 2012

As many of you know, there was a large earthquake and subsequent tsunami warning for the Indian Ocean yesterday. The earthquake occurred in an area very similar to the one that triggered the December 26th, 2004 tsunami that caused major destruction to the region - especially here in Khao Lak. We had a very busy day and it stirred emotions - but in the end it was simply a warning and nothing happened.

With all the founders of Wicked Diving and a few of our staff having been through the 2004 tsunami - we were able to base many of of actions and reactions upon experience rather than hype. We anted to relay some of what occurred here yesterday.

First off was preparation and planning. After having some false alarms in recent years and non-functional warning buoys placed by regional governments - we have sought resources for correct information. Several of us use a great early warning system to keep notified of potential problems - bee they earthquakes, tsunamis or even volcanoes. Free, efficient and based on factual evidence is GDACS which has been set up by the EU as a free service to people around the world. You can register to received emails and/or SMS's here: http://register.gdacs.org/. Upon getting informed of the tsunami through system this we quickly put in motion several actions.

One person went online to confirm the information and look up warnings and possible risks. The source for tsunami warning that is most effective and data driven is the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which is set up and run by the US government. They have a section on Indian Ocean  at this link: http://ptwc.weather.gov/?region=3. This site issued a "Watch" and not an actual "Warning" as the data seemed to show that the earthquake was not a tsunami producing vertical earthquake, rather it was a horizontal. This gave us some relief. However, several other government bodies had issued tsunami warnings - so we heeded the collective advisories and acted accordingly. In addition, the Thailand Tsunami Warning system worked very efficiently and klaxons and a warnings were issued though out the region throughout the tsunami warning system.( for more information on why some earthquakes produce tsunamis and some don't: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/why-earthquake-did-not-cause-a-tsunami-20120412-1wvik.html)

Another of our staff contacted  all our staff. We had staff and guests located in several places - Liveaboard at the Similan Islands, Liveaboard at the Surin Islands, Staff on the Surin Islands, conducting training sessions at the swimming pool and diving in Khao Sok Park. We contacted all staff to let them know of the warnings issued and the appropriate reactions.

A major issue that worried us was communication. The phones - both mobile and landlines - were jammed from overuse.  Only 1 in 20 attempts at calls got through. However, Wicked Diving also uses Satellite phones and we were able to get through quickly and efficiently. the radios were still functional but overwhelmed with rumors and false data…essentially they become white noise generators rather than useful tools.

For our liveaboards, which were both at sea, we cancelled any dives planned and moved them away from landmass. When tsunamis are still int he open oceans, they are simply a rise and drop in the water levels - there is no actual curling wave. It is only near a landmass that the rise in water levels creates waves. Thus -  the safest place was away. Once positioned there, the liveaboards and all guests and staff were safe.

Our instructor doing pool work was informed and took her guest to higher ground. Again, direct calls were problematic, but messenger and email functioned just fine.

Our main concern was for the staff and guests on the Surin Islands. As we had quite a bit of trouble with direct calls and the staff there only had "dumb" phones - so they are restricted to purely calls and SMS. Eventually we were able to break through and contact. By this time the rangers on the Surin Islands had already done a brilliant job of alerting and moving all guests to higher ground. They had a very detailed plan in case of tsunamis and had immediately began preparing food and water in case people had to stay on higher ground for more than a few hours. Our staff and guests were all impressed with the planning and calm attitude!

Of all our staff and guests - we were least worried about those in Khao Sok. There was no chance a tsunami could hit an inland lake. However - in all of Thailand - it appears they had the most damage! The earthquake was felt by our divers while diving in a cavern. While the earthquake was not strong it was enough to cause some small waves. These overturned several long tails while on the lake! Who knew?!

Once we had communications with all staff and guests and had their safety assured - we then sat down and monitored all the news feeds and updated those outside through our Facebook page and emails. For such a major event, there was surprisingly little up to the minute information. After we heard that Sumatra, the closest point of land to the earthquake, suffered only the slighter rise in water levels (a few centimeters) we started to relax. When the expected landfall time of a possible wave passed without any damage - we all started to feel much better. When the "warnings" were lifted, we let all staff, guests and boats know that the threat was over and to return to normal routine.

Having been through a tsunami before, and a couple of false reports of them - we know the biggest worry was not locally, but for those at home. The is often a great deal of misinformation in the western media and news stories favor dramatic footage versus those showing nothing happening. We took it upon ourselves to use the "emergency contacts" supplied by all our guests and contacted them to let them know that everyone was safe and in good spirits. This was deeply appreciated by all.

Finally, after all this was done - we sat down and had a cold beer.


Tsunamis and earthquakes are acts of Mother Earth over which we have no control. However we can prepare, we can plan for the various outcomes and we have the correct supplies in case of emergency. In addition having open and functional channels of communications to both our guests and to those on the outside are essential. We are deeply relieved that there was no tsunami.

-Wicked Diving, Thailand

About Khao Lak

We have been doing some spring cleaning around here. This is an updated page for our About Khao Lak Page...


A popular beach resort situated on the Andaman coast of Southwestern Thailand, Khao Lak is a perfect holiday location for families and those looking for a more relaxed and peaceful destination.
Named after the national park Khao Lak-Lam Ru, which was declared a national park in August 1991 Khao Lak covers a vast area of 150 sq.km and encompasses the Amphoe (districts) of Amphoe Thai Muang, Amphoe Kapong, Amphoe Takua Pa and Amphoe Muang.
The area usually refered to as Khao Lak is actually a string of beaches stretched along the Andaman Coast (Khao Lak, Nang Thong, Bang Niang)
Untouched by mass tourism with pristine beaches, lush dense jungle, and clear waters it is a breathtakingly beautiful location and serves as the gateway to the Similan Islands National Park Reef and Surin Islands National Park Reef.
There are many waterfalls in and around Khao Lak – in Khao Lak Lamru, Khao Lam Pi, Sri Phang Nga and Khao Sok National parks respectively, and they're all within easy reach from the beaches.

-Similan liveaboards

A new generation of divers - part 2

Last week, Wicked Diving started the Open Water course with 3 students from the Foundation for Education and Development (FED) as part of a unique program to train up some of their students to become Dive Guides, which will allow them to find work in the diving industry in Thailand.

The theory and pool training were done over last weekend and this weekend it was time for the Open Water part of our course with ChaiChai, Japu and Myintzu. Marcel, together with Divemaster Trainees Lucy and Lukas, took them to a local reef called Khao Nayak. A short boat ride away from the harbour of Tublamu, this is an ideal place to start the first dives of your open water course. Shallow water, big sandy areas to practice your buoyancy and there is quite some interesting marine life to be found as well.
Two dives were planned and after a thorough dive briefing it was finally time to gear up, do the buddy checks and get in the water!
After a small descend on the line, we all landed in the sand and it was time to adjust, acclimatize and go for the dive!

Conditions were perfect: no current, 15+ meters visibility and a comfortable depth of 7 meters. All three did a great job! We could see the big smile on ChaiChai’s face behind his mask and regulator when he saw the first fish! After a bit of swimming around over the sand, we went to the rocks and corals and found some lionfish, a honeycomb moray eel, Moorish idols, angelfish and much more. After 45 minutes it was time to go up, have lunch and do a short snorkel session over the rocks..

On the second dive, there were a lot of exercises planned. Regulator retrieval, mask flooding, air sharing, buoyancy exercises etc. Again, all three did great and showed us that they are absolutely comfortable in the water. After the exercises there was some more time left over for a small dive to find some more interesting marine life.

Having finished dive 1 & 2, sadly it was time to head back to land. The good thing is that 2 more dives were planned on Sunday. This time it was instructor Collin, together with Lucy and Lukas, to take them back to Khao Nayak for the final training dives of the course. More underwater adventures and again they did great on the skills and on the dives.

Now only the final exam is left and once they pass that, we are proud to certify them as our first Burmese Open Water divers in the history of Wicked Diving!


None of this would be possible without you - our guests and friends. As part of our Ethical Dive Center program - 2% of all our proceeds got to support projects that improve our local community and environment. This course comes at no cost to the kids. When you dive with Wicked - you make a difference.

There is still more to come from these amazing kids. Keep an eye on this space :)

-Wicked Diving, Thailand

Our recent Divemaster program

Here at Wicked Diving, it is required of each Divemaster Trainee to participate in a project that improves the local community, reduces our impact on the local ecosystem and/or helps protect the marine environment.

In this case we had a big mystery on our hands. We are trying to reduce the use of plastic bottles and bags - but what actually happens to them? Are they simply buried, burnt? So in addition to several other pieces to the puzzle, the DMT's came up with this fact sheet that we are able to put up around town.

What happens to Plastic Bottle sin Thailand

View more presentations from Wicked Diving.



-Wicked Diving, Thailand

Khao Sok National Park

Below is a blurb from our revised Khao Sok page. Information about how to get there, what to expect and more. Oh yeah - and we do diving there!!!

Khao Sok National Park

Established as a National Park in 1980 Khao Sok is one of the most unique and popular destinations in Southern Thailand., the park itself is part of the oldest evergreen rainforest in the world. Located in the Western part of Suratthani Province, it is easily accessible from Phuket, Krabi, Khao Lak and Koh Samui.

Khao Sok National Park covers 646sq km of thick native rainforest with towering limestone cliffs, an island studded lake and is connected to two other Thai National Parks, Kaeng Krug and Phang-Nga. Khao Sok is also enjoined with the Khlong Saen and Khlong Naka wild life sanctuaries. Together these five locations combine to form the largest protected nature preserve on the Thai-Malaysian peninsula, covering an area of 4,000sq km.

The landscape features three breathtaking waterfalls; Sip-Et Chan (4km), Than Sawan (9km) and Than Kloy (9km) which filter down in to beautiful smaller streams found all along the various trails.

Another prominent feature of Khao Sok National Park is the imposing Pantoorat Mountain.Named after a giant in Thai mythology who is said to have died at Khao Sok of a broken heart when her adopted son ran away, the mountain outline resembles a body laid to rest.

Wildlife
Visitors will be treated to glimpses of the plethora of wildlife living in the park, such as Wild Elephants, Leopards, Tigers, Malayan Sun Bears, Malayan Tapir, Wild Boar, Sambar Deer various species of Monkey, the Asian Ox and neumerous reptiles and amphibians.
There are also 38 species of Bat living in the network of caves scattered around the park and over 180 different species of Bird can be found in the skies of Khao Sok.

Fauna and Flora
Khao Sok is perhaps most famous for the Rafflesia flower, discovered by Dr. Joseph Arnold and named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (the founder of Singapore) this impressive bloom can grow to over 100 centimetres (39 in) in diameter, and weigh up to 10 kilograms. To see the Rafflesia flower you have to go when it is in bloom around late January or early February
Other prominent flora and fauna found in The Khao Sok National Park include bamboo, lianas, ferns, palms (such as the rare Kerriodoxa elegans which only grows at Khao Sok and Ko Phuket), rattan (including the giant rattan with 10 cm diameter stems), and last but not least the wild lotus (Bua Phut which can reach up to 80 cm in diameter).

Activities
There is so much to see and do here in Khao Sok! You can find a great selection of activities at Khao Sok, ranging from visits to caves and River Running to Elephant Trekking, Jungle Trekking, Canoeing, Rafting, Night Safaris, Zipline Riding, Spelunking, Tubing, Swimming and Scuba Diving. The great news is that here at Wicked we offer Khao Sok Diving tours to the Chiaw Lan Lake where you will see Giant catfish, caverns, submerged trees and even a sunken village!

-Wicked Diving Thailand

Wicked Diving - spreading the word about coral reef conservation

Below is a report on the recent visit to a school Wicked Diving sponsors. As part of our ethical operations, we not only pay the rent for the entire Outreach school, but is also part of the training for our divemaster trainees to participate in projects that help increase awareness within the local community. We feel very strongly that as future divers - they should learn how to affect more than just divers, they should be improving the community they will work in. It also helps the children in the school learn far more about the marine environment.


By Divemaster Trainees Lucy, Will, and Lukas.


The Divemaster intership at Wicked Diving includes to participate in a Community or Envyronmental Project, to comply with that, last Jan 26th we had the opportunity to visit the Youth Outreach Program (a local school for burmese children) to present a lecture on Coral Reefs.


We discussed what coral is, how it grows and where it is found. We explained why it is important to Thailand - with reference to biodiversity, tourism and fishing. Finally, we showed them what threatens the coral locally and what can be done to counter these threats, emphasizing what the children can do to help to preserve them.


With the aid of some presentations, 2 mini plays, traditional spoken instruction as well as videos, we manage to keep well the attention of the 20 or so children for 1:30 hrs! :)


Finally, we challenge the children with a quizz to ascertain how much they had retained from our explanations - with a small prize for the team with the highest score. We were really pleased to see most of the children had learned a fair deal and, judging from their feedback, had enjoyed the session as much as we had.


Overall, a really rewarding afternoon as a Divemaster! ;)



Thank guys! Great job! When they joined our Divemaster program, who would have expected to be preparing powerpoints for Burmese school children :)





You can learn more about the the Ethical programs Wicked Diving participates in. We use 2% of all revenue generated to support these programs. When you dive with Wicked - you are helping improve our local communities.

Similan Diving

Similan Diving - New Year's Liveaboard with the Parinee!

New Years Trip

Here's the group photos from the Wicked Parinee Liveaboard to the Similan Marine Park and Richelieu Rock - enjoy!Hope they bring back memories of fun times in Thailand and a wicked New Year party!


Starting with the first dive at the Boonsung Wreck close to Khao Lak with thousands and thousands of Barracudas circling us we were off to a great start. We eventually missed the bigger creatures at Koh Bon that day but with a large Napoleon wrasse, Lobster, Octopus and a Sea snake every one was happy heading to Koh Tachai for the first night dive of the trip.


The waves did not shake anyone out of bed after an early start of the Parinee when we moved North to Richelieu Rock on New Year's Eve. The experience of two fantastic dives with a Sea horse, Shrimps, Barracudas, Moray eels and never ending shoals of other fish let everyone wish for more air in their tanks. Back at Koh Tachai we had a fantastic dive at the Pinnacle where we watched a feeding frenzy of trevallies and a huge school of Chevron Barracudas circling the Northern Pinnacle.


We celebrated into the 2012 after another great night dive at turtle Rock, having the first count down with the help of a flexible clock a little earlier as usual since only a few could stay awake until our second count down of the night. No one minded since we could enjoy the fire works for a long time over Island 8 and 9.


During our travels we enjoyed playing Rummikub, Bananagrams and Yatzi till the late evenings. We will miss the sound of the dices and tiles on the wooden table. Everyone was friendly to each other so that no master assassin was awarded the toothbrush's games first price. But the crew and staff thanked Baxter for his endurance in driving the boat back into the safety of port. A treasure hunt for oranges made everyone a proud owner of various Wicked items like stainless steel bottles, t-shirts, mask straps and hand made organic soaps.


On our days diving the Similan Liveaboard everyone was amazed by the crystal visibilities. Turtles, Octopus, Barracudas, Sea snakes and more Lobsters met us on our dives at North Point, Whale Back Rock, 3 Trees, Turtle Rock, Elephant Head Rock and West of Eden.


We are happy that we could take you all out on this trip and thank the captain and crew who made the travels safe and convenient. We hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did. Thanks again for being such a great fun-loving group of people, you make the trips more of a holiday than a job for us - it was brilliant to meet you all, having a wonderful start into the New Year & get to share the diving experiences with you. Congratulations as well again to Yoko, Linsey and Steve who passed their SSI Advanced Adventurers with Tuk. Two thumbs up!

-Similan Diving

Similan Diving Liveaboard parinee - December 20-22,2011

And a great diving holiday!

Starting with a great breakfast impeccably prepared by our super chefs P’Nui and P’Taai, we already knew we were off to an awesome trip!

Check dive at Hideaway Bay was the prelude of great diving, followed by the action at Anita’s Reef, where we were all flying in the current watching the reef passing by before our eyes.

Next day West of Eden, then 3 Trees and Turtle Rock, to complete the “Wicked hardcore diving day” with the beautiful night dive at Bangu Bay. What a day!!!! Even by snorkeling with P’Korn we had the chance to see octopus, titan trigger fish and tunas.

Last day North point early morning, then we tried our luck at Kho Bon, searching for those black-and-white, pelagic creatures J. We were not quite lucky this time but we still had wicked time under water! And what a pleasure to see P’Korn diving with Tuk! Congratulation P’Korn on completing 2 resort dives! Ian, be ready to share your passion with her! She’ll soon want to become certified J. Last but not least, the Boonsung wreck; nobody believed that we were keeping the best secret for last dive. The abundant marine life around the wreck was simply fantastic, leaving all of us asking for more……maybe next time!

The group was very well mixed, as we had some more experienced divers, Ian, Maurits, Caroline and Andrew, all taken care by Colin.

Sajit and Daniel, a bit less experienced but very much willing to improve their skills, and by the way, Daniel has taken some awesome pics!!

David and Mameaw, freshly certified OWD in BKK, taken care by Tuk and now they dive as they had been doing that for ages. Well done guys!

Some open water diver decided to progress to the next level; congratulation Maarten, Fleur, and Mona on completing your SSI Advanced Adventurer course. And thank Anna and Gae for their great job!

Sujin completed the Open Water AND the Advanced Adventurer course under the safe and professional guidance of Anna. Not only that, she was with no doubt the sweetest of the whole bunch. Her kindness has stolen a piece of heart from us all.

And of course, as any Wicked trip, not only diving but lot of fun. Daniel won the prize for the best serial killer with his tooth brush. And never trust wicked instructors while playing tooth brush killing. In fact at the end of a perfect dive at West of Eden, Sajit was killed by her guide (that was me J). Mona the most strategic and most successful werewolf of the Wicked’s history. And how to forget the arguments between Daniel and Maurits on deciding who was a werewolf needed to be killed (and of course Mona listening and hiding). Typical of our Similan Liveaboards

A special thank to Capt. Khaw for cruising us safely to dive sites and back home, P’Khaw and P’Toon for their help on the dive deck.

Overall, we hope you all had a wonderful trip, thanks again for being such a great fun-loving group of people, you made the trip more of a holiday than a job for us - it was brilliant to meet you all & get to share the diving experiences with you.

-Similan Diving

Wicked Diving Christmas on the Parinee

White Christmas on the Similan Islands
(White Sand Christmas that is...)

Starting with the first dive at the Boonsung Wreck close to Khao Lak with thousands and thousands of Barracudas circling us we were off to a great start. We eventually missed the bigger creatures at Koh Bon that day but with a large Napoleon wrasse, Octopus and a Sea snake every one was happy heading to Koh Tachai for the first night dive of the trip.






The waves did not shake anyone out of bed after an early start of the Parinee when we moved North to Richelieu Rock on Christmas Eve. The experience of two fantastic dives with mating Cuttle fish, Shrimps, Barracudas, Moray eels and never ending shoals of other fish let us forget the sometimes challenging currents. Some of us even got luckey to see a Sea horse. Back at Koh Tachai we had a fantastic dive at the Pinnacle where we watched a feeding frenzy of trevallies and a huge school of Chevron Barracudas circling the Northern Pinnacle. Christmas evening ended with another night dive at Koh Bon and an enormous dinner cooked together by P'Nui and P'Tai.

During our travels we enjoyed playing Rummikub and Yatzi till the late evenings. We will miss the sound of the dices and tiles on the wooden table. Chris' persistence paid out in the toothbrush game when he finally managed to kill Kerry after a 24 hour duel and won the prize for the game.

On Christmas day we did another 4 dives, finding more Octopus, a ghost pipe fish, turtles, Moray eels and other fantastic marine life around the boulder sites of islands 8 and 9. If someone waited for gifts under the Christmas tree then even their wishes got fulfilled. A treasure hunt for oranges made everyone a proud owner of various Wicked items like stainless steel bottles, t-shirts, bottle coolers, mask straps and hand made organic soaps.

We are happy that we could take you all out on this trip and thank the captain and crew who made the travels safe and convenient. We hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did Thanks again for being such a great fun-loving group of people, you make the trips more of a holiday than a job for us - it was brilliant to meet you all, spend the Christmas days together & get to share the diving experiences with you.

We were honoured that Antoinette chose us as her birthday company - we hope you had a memorable day! Congratulations as well again to Sonia, Dino and Ciaran who passed their SSI Advanced Adventurers with Roland. Two thumbs up!

And to all - a good night!


-Similan Diving

Similan Diving Liveaboard Jaya - December 4th-9th,2011

Similan Diving Report


Trip 5 of the season headed out to the Similan islands with Scott, Colin & Amanda looking after 9 divers and a couple of snorkellers all ready for 5 days and 5 nights on the SY Jaya! The liveaboard started at island 5 with a refresher for Jens and a check dive for everyone else, loads to see at Anita's Reef - massive puffer fish, big schools of snapper and lots of stingrays.

All checked out and ready to go! Up to West of Eden, ribbon eels and peacock mantis shrimp aplenty, and then Turtle Rock to finish off the day. A great dive briefing from Colin put the pressure on the others to find turtles and sharks, it's called Turtle Rock because of the shape of the rock, not because of the marine life! The briefing must've been lucky, because we saw both during the dive, as well as a juvenile rock mover wrasse, very cute!

Day 2 of the trip started at Christmas Point, napoleon wrasse, white tip sharks, bait balls everywhere, very cool dive. Snorkelling in Donald Duck Bay next, lots of baby black tips, sharky day so far! Annette gave diving a try with a Resort Dive in the bay, big schools of fusiliers and some huge milkfish during her introduction to scuba diving, whilst the others headed up to island number 9 to explore Three Trees, plenty of turtles around today.

Done with the Similan Islands Diving but not with the Similan National Park, we made our way to Koh Bon, where a manta ray was lovely enough to be waiting for us at the North Ridge! Happy divers back to the boat for snacks, then some snorkelling before the night dive, lots of bioluminescence along the ridge, cuttlefish and octopus out to play, and some hunting barracuda out for dinner - interesting to see on the dive, but probably not so much fun for the little unsuspecting rabbitfish!

We got up extra early to beat the crowds at Koh Bon again the next morning, diving deep along the West Ridge, gorgeous soft corals, more octopus and big schools of trevallies and snapper. The snorkellers chilled out in the bay watching a school of squid, some curious batfish, and crocodile needlefish swimming in the shallows.

Onwards and upwards to Koh Tachai and we had the Pinnacle to ourselves, lucky us! Barracuda everywhere and only a tiny current so we had plenty of time to explore both of the pinnacles on the dive site. Koh Tachai above water for a couple of hours relaxation on solid ground, then a mellow dive along the North reef through the fusiliers and glassfish for out third dive of the day.

George turned out to be an excellent games master, and so taught us all some new games, which we then spent all evening playing! Dragged ourselves off to bed with promises to play again tomorrow, it's got to be an early morning the next day to get to Richelieu Rock before everyone else! Luck was again on our side, with great visibility and no-one else on the pinnacle, we had the rock to ourselves to explore and find all the cool stuff! Tigertail seahorses, pipefish, huge groupers and cuttlefish were just a few of the highlights of our 2 dives at Richelieu.

The wind was on our side, literally, so we put the sails up and cruised across to the Surin Islands for a dive at Aow Pakad - fun drift dive, and lots of cool critters to see - one of the nicest things about the dives in the Surins is that there's always something different about! This dive was no different, with juvenile emperor angelfish, massive harlequin sweetlips, catfish and mantis shrimps. The snorkellers got to see the sharks this time, and loads of clownfish in their anemones, and also had time to fit in a beach clean up, every little helps!

Time for a bit more ultimate frisbee, had to drag an unwilling David to the beach, and he turned out to love it the most, we couldn't get him to leave! More games after dinner as we made our way back towards Koh Tachai, time to accuse your roommate as we played a new variation on Werewolf, Colin and Anneke turned out to be very good at double bluffing, whilst Grace just wanted to go on a mission! 'Just one more game before I go to bed' Libby kept saying...4 games of Resistance and 1 of Rabbit later...!

Up early for a sunrise dive on the Pinnacle, trevallies going crazy, and a little bit of a current got us nice and ready for breakfast when we got back to the boat! Sunbathing and chill out time on the sun deck (got to love those bean bags!), then time for our final dive at the Boonsung Wreck. Ridiculous amounts of fish all over the wreck, not the best visibility we've had so far this season, but there's so much to see it didn't really matter, huge schools of baby barracuda, and there were so many lionfish and pufferfish on this dive we stopped counting!

Time for a final game of rabbits on the way back to Tap Lamu, set the timer on the camera for a group photo and time to say our goodbyes! Not long til we all meet again in the Happy Snapper later though :) Thanks to Roman & Rohan for the photos, and hope to see you all again in the Similans, or back on the Jaya in Komodo!

-Similan Diving

Similan Diving Liveaboard - 16-21 November 2011

Similan Liveaboard - Jaya on the Similan Islands

Another 5 days and 5 nights on a pirate ship?! Ok, if we have to! With 11 divers; Sonia, Scott andAmanda in charge; Captains Ahmad and P’Daeng at the wheel; Hari pumping tanks and P’Nok cooking chocolate doughnuts (and all of the more nutritious food too of course!) Jaya trip number 2 of the season headed out to the Similan National Park.

We started the trip with 3 dives around islands 4,5,6 and 7 – plenty of different marine life to get the 5 Day Similan liveaboard started, and an interesting variety of reef, boulder and pinnacle dive sites.

Team America were desperately searching for a clown trigger fish, and luckily Turtle Rock provide d!

Island 9 was our location for the second morning, we started at Christmas point, stunning topography, huge boulders covered in schools of glass fish, and all the bigger pelagics coming in for breakfast.

Off to the beach at island 8, up to the viewpoint for gorgeous views all the way to Koh Bon and Koh Tachai, nice clear day! Frisbee was declined, so time for a bit of sunbathing and relaxing for everyone before the hoardes hit the beach, and we popped to North Point for a diver-free divesite! Seasnakes and turtles there, then next dive at Koh Bon was also very fishy, lots of octopus along the reef.

Koh Tachai the next day, more octopus, lots of trumpetfish over the divesite, and a school of curious batfish swimming around the buoyline to keep us company on our safety stop. More beach time, more food, then another dive! Eat, sleep, dive – a good pattern for the liveaboard trip adventure! Night dive at Koh Tachai North reef, turned out to be a very popular dive, we found a turtle, lots of hinge-beak shrimps and crustaceans galore, plus some little flounders hanging out in the sand. This trip had a few divers new to night diving, and now they’re hooked!

Up before the sun the next morning to get to Richelieu nice and early, plan was for 2 dives here. The first 2 dives were awesome, massive school of barracuda, funky dermatobranchus nudis and juvenile boxfish, pufferfish and bannerfish everywhere! We’ve had some crazy cephalopod action this trip, already had so many octopus, and then at Richelieu we saw another octopus, a school of squid and 5 cuttlefish – 2 of them putting on an impressive mating display, the sign language for which made the dive groups giggle!

Lots of relaxing, and plenty of fish identification after the dives – some people made the ID-ing a little harder than others (what was that silver fish?!)!

So good were the morning dives that there were clamours for more Richelieu, so we abandoned beach time at the Surins and stayed for one more dive at the famous rock! Sunset dive, all of the fish were going hectic and it was like being in a whirlpool of fish. Lots of different kinds of pipefish, peacock mantis shrimps, and a couple of zebra morays – all in all a very productive diving day!

Time for games this evening, everyone was a bit more awake, so Scott showed us all how to play our as-yet-unnamed game! Good fun, a mixture of charades and guess-who, but watching Bob do the moonwalk to describe Michael Jackson, narrowly beaten by Vero’s impression of Tony Hawkes. had us falling off the beanbags with laughter.

A rocky night, but another spectacular dive at Koh Tachai made up for the early morning, more batfish and a big school of jacks circling the pinnacle, then off to the Boonsung to finish the trip with some crazy pufferfish getting hassled by remoras, crocodile flatfish, and so many fish it was hard to find your buddy!

Back to solid land for group dinner and drinks – thanks everyone for an awesome trip, and thanks to Max, Vero & Kent for the beautiful photos!

If you like how this trip sounds - why not consider joining our Komodo Liveaboard trips?

-Similan Diving