Diving at the Similan Islands

A contribution by Daniela.

Exceptionally and under strict observation, I am allowed to blog today as a co-author. Let's get started.😁

When we arrived at the Khao Lak harbor, the driver opened the door, waved his hands in one direction and just said 'boat, boat'. Okay, I got my little group moving and walked in the direction he waved. When we stood in front of about 20 boats, the Frenchman in our group blurted out in English: 'which boat?!!!' ⛵ I looked at them all and then pointed confidently (or completely clueless) at one and replied 'that one!!!'⛴

Luckily, I had hit the bullseye. I knew beforehand that it was a big boat and accordingly, many divers and snorkelers were already bustling about. I thought, let's have a cup of tea first and wait...🍵

After about 10 minutes and two cups of tea, a small, chubby Thai guy took over the introduction and introduced himself as the chief dive guide for the day. Immediately, images of 'cousins-of-the-boat-owner' popped up in my mind! 🤤 (Note: that happened to me once in Turkey, they sent me down with someone who had no idea about diving, but had family connections to the boat owner).

The chief divided all participants, about 30 people, into groups of four and assigned them each a dive guide. And bingo, I ended up with him. Well, it doesn't have to be that bad.😋

Our boat finally set sail for the three-hour (!!!) journey. Every tourist flyer said two and a half hours, of course... well, I couldn't change my mind anyway.🙄

The journey was very pleasant - quite different from the stupid speedboat the day before. The boat has two floors: downstairs is the area with the diving equipment, upstairs is a sundeck and a covered seating area.

First, we had breakfast 🥞, and of course, you could help yourself to drinks the whole time. At the beginning, many fishing boats came towards us and I thought, it's crazy - I'm so tired because I had to get up soooo early and they have already finished their trip before mine even really started.

I dozed off as the alarm went off after about 1 hour - dolphins! 😀 Like lemmings, everyone ran to the left side of the boat - all engines stopped, 10 seconds of silence and holding our breath... until someone pointed to the opposite side of the boat and all the lemmings ran there. Luckily, the boat is so big, otherwise, we would have capsized 🤣. We stared at the water and suddenly, right in front of our eyes, a huge hump with a fin emerged! Simply gigantic - not dolphins, it was a whale 🐳. We saw it surface two more times, then it disappeared back into the depths. A great start to the day, the trip was already worth it.🤗

A little later, we actually saw dolphins 🐬. A group of about five animals and two of them jumped out of the water next to each other. Just beautiful, I love dolphins and could watch them all day long.😍

First dive:

The boat bell rang and everyone jumped up to squeeze into their wetsuits. This part is the most annoying for me when diving. In a wetsuit, I always feel immobile like a Michellin man. Then attach the jacket to the tank, attach the regulator and inflator to the tank and jacket, fasten the weight belt and check if everything works. Don't forget the mask, dive computer, lamp, and camera... ugh, I'm in vacation mode - who should remember all that 🙃.

Then patiently wait until it's your turn and waddle to the end of the boat with the 15 liter tank on your back and put on the fins (oh right, I forgot them 😛).

With a big step forward, I then plunged into the water - such a wonderful feeling... the weight of the tank and lead is gone, and in the wetsuit, you finally get some cooling 😊.

To all divers: yes, you could dive relaxed in a shorty at 28 degrees Celsius water temperature, but not as a self-proclaimed warm shower lover. I know, at least at a depth of 18 m, I start to shiver again.

But first, we went down to 8 m and then continued diving along the reef until we reached 30 m. My group consisted of two Swedes and another German. Everyone dived calmly and relaxed, and our 'chief guide' also did a good job👌.

To my right-hand side, there was the reef with beautiful corals and many schools of fish. Twice, I was completely surrounded by a cloud of fish-like in a fog. In addition, I saw many large fish 🐠 in various shimmering colors. Totally fascinating and at the same time relaxing because the only thing you hear is your own breath (almost like in 'I am your father, Luke'...) 😁

Back on board, we had lunch first because diving makes you mega hungry. Then warm up in the sun (because diving also makes you mega cold). And once again, the boat bell rang...

Second dive:

After my jump into the water, I counted our little group and then said to the Swedish girl: where is your boyfriend? She looked around and said, 'on the boat'! 😲 But by now, the boat had turned off to drop off the snorkelers at another spot. I laughed 😂 - I had already heard that divers don't make it back onto the boat, but that they don't even get down in the first place...

Well, eventually the crew noticed it too, and after a lap of honor by the boat, we were complete again. We went down again, and this time, we dived through different rock formations with huge coral fans. Totally fascinating, and in the green-gray glow of the ocean, they looked almost mystical. I particularly liked these tiny blue Christmas trees that retract lightning-fast when you get too close. We had a funny alternating current, so our whole group was rocked from side to side every 20 seconds. It was quite cute that all the fish around us swayed to the beat. At the end of the dive, we went out into the deep sea and swam past a wreck 🛳. We were supposed to look out for tuna and sharks🦈. So, I stared into the twilight and saw...

...nothing! Unfortunately, neither tuna nor sharks 🤔. We then started the ascent and our guide set his dive buoy so that the boat could find us.

I spent the return journey in the pleasant afternoon sun, with a view of the endless expanse of the sea 🏖.

I'm totally exhausted, but it was worth it! 😁