Similans Trip Report - by Dorothy

Photos Courtesy of Dorothy...
















A Picture Before Our Last Dive At Boon Sung Wreck...

Our Dive Group(from Left): Me, Dorothy, Meilin,
Josephine,Yixiu and our Dive guide Chris(center, squating)

Below is the account of Dorothy's experience at the Similans:

"Hey hey!!

I am BACK from diving the Similan Islands, and it was a fantastic trip....diving-wise. Anyone intending to have a good experience on an LOB should do the White Manta - great service, fantastic crew, reliable dive guides, comfy lodging and space, and really delicious food. We were really blessed to be assigned to this Brit chap called Chris, who spent a lot of time during breaks drawing out entire dive sites before any briefing, with rocks/bommies/reefs etc. in diff colours; and whom also more than once commented he liked diving with our little group...until he started losing us underwater, and vice versa. (*snigger*) Alright, before I ramble further about nothing much, here's my dive report:

1) Anita's Reef
I woke up to light filtering into the cabin and was greeted by a view of sun beginning to rise behind some rocks, clear blue waters you could see through to the bottom with and a zest for some great diving. Indeed, the visibility was about 20m and it felt like I was in an aquarium rather then open water. I was immediately greeted by a large pufferfish hovering on the white sandy bottom on descent, and soon after, began stalking clown trigger, oriental sweetlip, and came by a bevy of brown sweetlip and blue tangs clamouring for breakfast on some corals. Schools of blue trevally, yellow tail barracudas and snappers greeted us along the way, and there were varieties of butterfly fish I'd never met. We saw some blue trevally having mouth washes by cleaner wrasses, and hovered a bit on the sand to spot garden eels (I didn't see any but the others did). The highlight was spotting a Mimic Octopus in the sand. It frolicked away from us to try to camouflage itself next to some rock and coral. I just kneeled in the sand and fired away at my camera, and the amazing thing was, another similar octopus just appeared next to it, before moving off, leaving octo no.1 still struggling to blend with its surroundings. The dive ended at a huge boulder (think it's called Hin Muang Tao) characterised by a spot of bright red coral housing a family of Clark's Anemone Fish.

2) East of Eden
Another reef with great visibility, but as I was feeling a little unwell, I got a little bored and uncomfortable during this dive, despite the once again, numerous schools of fusiliers, butterflyfish and snappers. Emma saved the dive - "Emma" the free gliding giant moray, resident at this site. We spotted here just before ascending, sliding under some table coral.

3) Elephant Head Rock
An attempt to seek out leopard sharks proved null again here, with much declined visibility. The host of butterflyfishes and angelfish here was aplenty, and huge in size as we swam among the rocks. Some spotted a huge barracuda here, which I didn't, but I did encounter a lobster, a dead one. (no fresh sashimi here)

4) Turtle Rock
After a miraculous recovery, signalled by finally being able to eat, we beheld a beautiful sunset as we waited for our night dive. A friendly hawksbill turtle swam by to say hi as we prepared for the brief. This dive, we hovered mostly on the gentle gradient of the bottom, shining our torches into corals and rocks for shrimps, crabs, etc. Another octopus showed up, and lionfish as well. There was quite a lot to spot, and we lost our dive guide for the first time in the darkness. He showed up later on and guided us in the general direction of the boat, before losing us again. Thank God for the blinking flash the instructor hung beneath the boat. We eventually found our way back.

5) Breakfast Bend/ Snapper Alley
Rise and shine and here I was in a dive that took my breath away....literally. It was a really beautiful site with good vis, schools of all kinds of reef fish, and so much to see. Nudibranchs are a rare sight in the Similans, and getting great shots (IMO) of a pretty Chromodoris kunei (or is geminina?) really made my day. We spotted a HUGE barracuda having a mouthwash (as usual I finned fwd to attempt taking photos...much to the "horror" of my buddy), and even with 30bar of air left, I still wanted to stay and observe a red spotted snapper, having breakfast among a swirling school of glass fish (or some kind of small fish). Pretty pretty dive....I was so reluctant to ascend.

6) Christmas Point
Our last site at the Similans and still no leopard shark! This was the last chance. After some odd currents and thermoclines, we nearly lost Chris again, until we heard him clicking frantically for us. There it was, the leopard shark, lying on the sandy bottom behind a rock. We simply kneeled on the sand near it and fired with our cameras, and it didn't budge a bit. I shifted to take closer shots from the front as well...still it didn't move. Only the expansion of it gills and slight opening of the mouth showed signs of life in the 1.5m wonder. The ascent from this site was wrought with more chilly thermoclines and currents. I was pointed to a giant grouper just before making my way upwards. Nothing really mattered...the leopard shark was on the top of our minds, and the first thing we screamed at the people on the boat when we hit zero metres.

7) Koh Bon
A long sunny boat ride brought us to Koh Bon, and I was contemplating taking a nap as the boat docked near the island. Absently, I decided to walk towards the bow of the boat for some wind, and as I got there, the crew suddenly dashed out from their room and gestured to me. I looked and there it was, a manta ray flapping near the surface some metres away. We excitedly shouted "Manta!" and aroused all the napping divers into action. It made it rounds, occassionally breaching and making us cry in wonder. One of the instructors quickly donned fins and snorkel and paddled out in chase.

We had 3 dives planned here. On our first dive, we barely spotted 2 mantas cruising overhead in the first 10min, before totally losing Chris. As our surroundings was neither rock nor reef, the five of us were totally lost, and ascended to our record shortest dive, lasting 20min. Chris came back with report of making it to the reef as planned, and seeing 4 mantas surrounding them. My heart cringed at having missed all that. Dive 2 was a sunset dive, and this time, we were determined to stick close to Chris. The site got darker and darker, but not before we spotted lionfish, another octopus, a very fierce moray and a banded sea krait (we later found to be named "Hector" - another resident). In the last rays of light, I spotted the manta cruising by once again, before being hit by a bout of strong current, sending me and another diver clinging onto the rocks for dear life. We only let go as the rest of the group came drifting by with the current as well. Dive 3 showed us a different side of the same site in daylight. I spotted an octopus and a huge school of yellow snapper before finding myself hanging on to rocks again, waiting for mantas to pass by. They did not disappoint. We spotted 3 flying by and one more overhead. As we made our way along the long ridge, I couldn't help noticing an entire highway of yellow snapper. Fish life was aplenty as well, and I spotted 3 blue puffers swimming together...so cute! Chris spotted a black tip shark, which we all missed. (vis at sites where mantas roam are typically not so good)

8) Boon Sung Wreck
Our final dive was in 3-5m visibility, with so much particles and silt in the site we....(you guessed it)....lost Chris within 15min into the dive. However, all 5 of us stuck together once again, and explored the piece of wreck we found ourselves at. We found a family of Durban hinge-beak shrimps, bumped into a school of white trumpetfish (never seen them in a school before), honeycomb moray, stonefish and many lionfish. The schools of smallfish here was numerous, and the many puffers were all XL sized. Currents were pushing us around, and we held on to a guiding line to ascend. I was almost swept away when I got distracted by a cute purplish jellyfish tumbling about next to me.

The diving was wonderful, and nearly made up for the frustration that came later on, when we found out the dive instructor we booked the trip with hadn't arranged our Phuket accomodation for the night yet. Unwise and risky move on his part, but thankfully, we eventually found rooms for the night and made our way back home safe and sound. The Lord's hand of protection is always upon us, and indeed He created all things for us to enjoy. I've got a new hobby and it's called video editing. Haha! Wish I'd discovered the software in my laptop earlier. Have attached my Manta video for your viewing pleasure.(Also did up my Bali one into a 3min plus show, but it's 28plus mb large so will have to upload somewhere)Photos will be uploaded soon, after I've edited them.=) --



Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

Bubblingly yours,
Dorothy
"
View Dorothy's Similans Trip Photos at her Kodak Gallery
Meilin's Photos can be found on her Flickr account

My photos...erm...are still in the midst of being processed...uploaded a few already and loads more to come... u can view them in myphotoalbum gallery following the link here.