I had been awake since 03:00 and finally got up to enjoy a hot shower at 06:00. As we waited in reception for our minibus to arrive at 06:30 we watched a small frog hop around on the mat and steps just outside. I wasn't feeling particularly well and put it down to the beer of last night. I was suffering from hot flushes but it was hot and there was no fan in reception. Our minibus arrived before 07:00 and as we were the last two people to be collected we transferred straight to Tab-Lamu, 1 hour 30 minutes away and North of Phang-Nga, bypassing some mystical mist covered valleys on the way. At Tab-Lamu we were put on a speedboat with at least twenty other people and spent the next hour racing across the Andaman Sea to the Similan Islands.
When we reached our destination we transferred to South Siam II, one of the South Siam Divers dive vessels. We were quickly briefed by long vacationist, Englishman Alistair, and then geared up for our first dive. Somehow, my gear bag had been taken and when it was discovered that the wrong gear bag had been selected and the correct bag was found, the contents from mine had been put into storage and consequently used by other people. Yet again, therefore, my gear does not fit. It really does amaze me that not one person thought 'if it's not your gear bag, it must be someone elses' as opposed to 'its obviously spare and not required.' Where are the brain cells? Perhaps the sun has this long term effect on people spending many months in tropical climates? Anyway, I eventually reclaimed my small BCD, demanded their smallest wetsuit and had to put up with regular find as my small fins had been given to someone else. The fins were far too big and made finning difficult but I wanted to dive so settled for them. Oh well!
We made our first dive at Stonehenge at 11:19 and it was very good. We saw rabbitfish, titan triggerfish, yellow boxfish, christmas tree worms, a blue spotted ray, pink anemone fish, yellow fusiliers, oriental sweetlips, lionfish, peacock rockcod, blue ringed angelfish, bannerfish, tomato anemone fish, true clownfish, powder blue surgeonfish and sea stars.
After lunch we made our second dive at 13:42 at East of Eden, reportedly the Similans best dive site. We saw a hawksbill turtle who surfaced and took five gulps of air before descending, true clownfish, christmas tree worms, an octopus, peacock rockcod, coral grouper, dart goby, blue lined snapper, pufferfish, triggerfish and a shrimp goby. I saw a beautiful tiny white fish with two dorsal fins, a pelvic fin and an anal fin. It had silver spots on its scales and two dark spots near its tail fin. It was only very small, 2 centimetres in length, and swam like a ribbon in the wind. I haven't been able to identify it.
Our third dive of the day was made at Three Trees. There were strong currents present which brought in red tooth triggerfish and we also saw schools of fusiliers, moorish idols, schooling bannerfish, a flutemouth, goatfish, scorpionfish, soldierfish, lionfish, rock cod, christmas tree worms, shrimps, butterflyfish, regal angelfish, false clownfish, wrasse and unicornfish. The false clownfish are so entertaining. You see them away from anemones swimming about. When they see you they quickly swim to an anemone and pretend to be clownfish. They are so funny!
During our surface interval we saw a turtle surface and eat our food scraps.
At 18:00 we transferred to another South Siam diving vessel where we would be staying for the next two nights. The vessel had already moored at Donald Duck Bay where soon after sunset we made our final dive of the day. We saw shrimp, crayfish, a moray eel, parrotfish and a flutemouth. There was excellent bioluminescence to play with. I had millions of tiny little fish completely mesmorised by my torchlight and they kept bumping into me and tickling my fingers!
Through the afternoon we were listening to Starsailor 'though it took me a long while to recall what the band was called...
We had dinner and beer after our dive and I retired early leaving Ian to make acquaintances with Sasson Spez, an Israeli who has lived in France for the past fifteen years.
I had to use earplugs to get any sleep as the generators were so loud! It was chilly too. Why don't liveaboards have air conditioning on during the day when it is needed most and off during the night when it isn't?! At night time it gets too cold!
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.