The decision to splurge on the Similan Tour yielded great rewards. Not only providing some decompression time, it also gave us our best tropical water experience to date.

We have finally uploaded photos from the last few weeks of travelin' fun:

Similan Islands
Khao Sok
Trang

The Similan Islands are world renowned for the clear underwater beauty they provide to many scuba divers, and are shortlisted to become a World Heritage Site. For some odd marketing reasons, they are never mentioned for snorkeling, leading one to believe that all the good sights are too deep for us tankless swimmers. Wrong. The east side (monsoon protected) of the islands provides abundant acreage of shallow coral gardens before rapidly dropping to deeper depths that are still visible in the 20-25 meter visibility we were lucky to enjoy.

This convenient geography allows the snorkeler to get close looks at the complex ecosystem surrounding the shallower reefs while also being able to peruse the steeper drop offs for the bigger creatures of the sea. And you can do it at your own time for however long you want without worrying about running out of oxygen from your tank. Plus, if you are into free diving you can also experience the depths as "any person can free dive comfortably to depths of 30m." This was easy for Olaf (owner and guide) to say right after he did spend a large portion of his first snorkel session poking through corals 15 meters below us. I guess after a couple day course on technique, free diving is quite simple and appears to be gaining momentum in the underwater community. Not having taken the class or gained the technique ("Look at me, I'm about 3 meters deep!") we settled into the more relaxing position at sea level to observe the hard (brain, staghorn, mushroom) and soft (cup sponges, seafans) corals housing parrotfish, clownfish, triggerfish, lionfish, pufferfish, unicornfish and other numerous neighbors.

Whether observing terrestrial or marine habitats, I am usually the one scanning the perimeter more often with hopes of catching a glimpse of the larger inhabitants while Em is deep into a plant or coral deciphering its function. This trip the more sensational creatures treated Em to some private viewings. She got a long look and short swim with a black tip reef shark, and a face to face (hoping the current doesn't do something bad) experience with a sea snake.

Some other highlights were giant moray eels, crown of thorns starfish (Yeah for Andrew Wood) and swimming with large sea turtles. We observed an octopus get pecked at by a group of black fish (apparently must have been in their territory). Most fascinating with the battle was the octopus's defensive camouflaging mechanism: If attacked while on the sand, the octopus would flash white, in contrast to the dark red and purple of its usual coloration. We finally watched it settle in on a hunk of coral, mimicking both the color and texture. But if we had to pick our favorite underwater encounter, it would be swimming along with a green sea turtle. First we saw it slowly moving above the bottom, grubbing on algae and grasses interspersed among the coral. Even though it noticed us, it definitely didn't feel threatened and continued its grazing. We then followed it into the deeper waters where it slowly rose to the surface for a breath of air before being joined by it's mate coming from our right and then swimming slowly off into the blue abyss.

While this underwater world is truly phenomenal, the beauty of the live aboard boat is you can snorkel as long as you please. And there are temptations to not being in the water as life on board is quite comfy: endless coffee, tea, and fruit, bottomless meals of top notch food, full time shade, beautiful views, and the consistent boat rocking back and forth that rivals any Thai massage for deep relaxation to both body and mind.

The Similan live aboard dive season begins in November but Olaf ran this trip early to satisfy Hans & Natalie's vacation schedule allowing them to get in their third "Similan Tour" and for Olaf to get a look at how the conditions were after the monsoon season. This meant us four guests were outnumbered by crew (all of which were considerate and fun) and enjoyed the solitude of moorings that normally would be shared with many boats, most of them running their loud air compressors and herding up their guests with megaphones. Tough to believe after our silent visit, and all the more reason to patronize the off- or shoulder- seasons!

Just in case we hadn't been spoiled enough, our path back to the mainland intersected with a large pod of dolphins. Whether it was jumping, breaching, fast surfacing races or spinning around longitudinally while playing in the water off the bow of the boat, they were excited to share their zest for life.

We won't be doing such tricks, but we look forward to sharing fun filled moments with our friends and family at home very soon!

Labels: snorkeling, Thailand