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Published: February 26th 2014
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For our last full day on the island we booked a 3 dive full day trip with Island Divers ($137). We have never done 3 dives in a single day, the normal day is 2, but we hated to miss out on anything by opting out after we heard there have been some recent Whale Shark sightings.
We left at 0730 and rode 1 ½ hours to the King Cruiser wreck site through the roughest seas I have been on. I struggled not to get seasick so early in a long day as the boat pitched back and forth, practically capsizing as far as I was concerned. Entering and exiting the boat was a treacherous affair, but once we were in under the water it was calm and peaceful. The King Cruiser lies in 70 ft. of water and was a passenger/car ferry from Phuket that had hit the reef and sunk 15 years ago under such suspicious circumstances that the insurance company never paid out and the captain disappeared.
We descended the buoy line and arrived on the wreck right above the toilets. We swam the length of the 255 foot long ferry, doing two swim-thrus through doorways
and hallways, both on which I scraped on barnacles to avoid getting impaled by Scorpion fish and Urchins hanging along the sides. The visibility was about 45 feet and dropped down to about 15 on the starboard side because of the strong currents. Unfortunately we had to surface early as one of our group sucked through all his air and had to buddy breathe with the Dive Master for half the time in order to have enough to safely ascend.
Our group consisted of 2 young and cocky Israeli Soldiers on leave and a Danish guy who immediately assured us he was not there as a sex tourist, but just for sightseeing and diving. Several times we have met solo male travelers who within minutes of first speaking with us tell us that they aren’t there for sex. How sad that such a beautiful country is plagued with such a justified stigma.
Our 2
nd and 3
rd dives were nearby at Phuket Shark Point and Anemone Reef. These dives had much better overall visibility, and we could appreciate the great diving Thailand has to offer. The corals were so colorful and bright, with numerous huge sea fans and anemones.
As far as sea life went we didn’t see anything terribly exciting, but saw a huge Giant Barracuda, Seahorses, Clown Fish (Nemo’s), Box Fish, Scorpion Fish, Lion Fish, Snappers, 5 species of Moray Eels, Porcupine Fish, a Blue-Spotted Stingray and others.
We got back at 1530 and were exhausted from the Nitrogen and choppy seas, but refused the temptation to nap on our last evening here. We hiked up to the famous postcard image viewpoint, a deceivingly long and strenuous hike that took over 1 ½ hrs, even though it appeared to be a short way on the crappy hand drawn not to scale tourist maps. We chatted with some Brits who were equally as frustrated and lost along the way. We finally reached the viewpoint as the sun was setting and jockeyed for position among dozens of other tourists snapping photos. It was beautiful, but in retrospect I would not recommend it to anyone else unless you were staying for numerous days.
We enjoyed a quiet dinner and finished up our bottle of rum we had been carrying all week. We fell asleep in our treehouse on the cliff listening to the waves crash against the rocks.
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