The biggest appeal of diving to me is the calmness I get when underwater, listening to nothing but the breath that I take and the bubbles flowing out from the regulator, the sense of weightlessness and the ability to move about without restriction in 3 dimension. It is a form of freedom you never get on land.
The magnificent seascape and underwater creatures, well, they are just a huge bonus. While no picture can convey that sense of liberty, here are some underwater pictures I took from various dive sites at Similan Islands.
My gears were Olympus E-PL3 with the underwater housing coupled, Inon UWL 100 & Dome port, and a single Sea & Sea YS-01 external flash.
swim through, Deep Six
I logged 14 dives over 4 days of diving living aboard M/V Vilai Samut operated by Liquid Adventure. (previous year experience here). The boat departs from Khao Lak at night, so night one started before day one. The sites we went to were:
Day 1:
- Stone Henge
- Deep Six
- West of Eden
- West of Eden (night)
- Elephant Rock
- Koh Bon
- Koh Bon
- Ko Tachai (night)
- Richelieu Rock
- Richelieu Rock
- Ko Tachai
- Koh Bon (night)
- Koh Bon Pinnacle
- Bon Soon Wreck
tiny black reef fish atop table coral at West of Eden
We were lucky to have excellent visibility of at least 30-40 meters in more than 70% of the dives, and had at least 20 meters in the rest of the dives too. Comparing with Pulau Sembilan/Lumut’s 5-10 m visibility…
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pics, and say no to shark’s fins!
giant spiny lobster, night dive at West of Eden
sea snake, Koh Bon
the reef at Koh Bon
clown fish in anemone, night dive at Elephant Rock
an unnerving cuttle fish, night dive at Elephant Rock
lion fish, night dive at Elephant Rock
Dave convincing a lion fish to pose, Richelieu Rock
cleaner shrimps, Richelieu Rock
chevron barracudas, Richelieu Rock
star fish on coral, night dive at Koh Bon
boxer shrimp, night dive at Koh Bon
porcupine fish, Bon Soon wreck
Bon Soon wreck
ghost pipe fish, Bon Soon wreck
eeh so cuteeeee
Michelle: thanks 😀
Wow, challenging… Seem a lot of treasure underwater, haha… Is Similan Island open for visiting in May?
cocoeriley: off season there already, monsoon. Season is usually till around march only, from around august or so I think
love the wreck one but the star fish looks like a spidey…
Anonymousmich: the wreck area also has loadsss of fish too
Sea Kraits’ venom is very potent but they are shy. Cuttlefish can camouflage itself. They look very alien. Beautiful photos. Well done. I hope it will be around forever.
Meng: thank you, ya the snake’s shy and cute but we know better than to get too close to them. 😀
diving, how i miss u.
myhorng: lets do it!
stunning photos!
rsa: thank you thank you 🙂
my husband and I visited Phuket island of Thailand. One of the places we really enjoyed was a Thai Cultural Theme Park – Phuket FantaSea. Every service area there was beautiful and neat. We enjoyed watching their beautiful, costumed parade culminating at an outdoor stage with a Bangok theme show. The place is really somewhat like Disneyland of Thailand! The highlight their main show held at a beautiful Palace of the Elephants Theater. I must say it was pretty amazing, I left overwhelmed by their beautiful culture. International buffet dinner was good, particularly the noodle soup. We remember it as one of our nicest outings in Phuket and do recommend it for a quality evening-into-the-night entertainment. Don’t miss it!
Linda: Sounds like you had a lovely time, I’ll be sure to check out that place if I find myself at Phuket again.