Manta Madness

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After a long and very cold (air con) overnight bus trip from Bangkok to Khao Lak, I arranged to go on a Liveabord dive trip into the Similan Islands. The boat left in the evening of the morning I arrived so I was exhausted when we started out but soon reovered. I have never done a Liveaboard before, it was a brilliant way to dive and see the Similan's. I went with Siam Dive Adventure, their boat is very new and comfortable, the package included 14 dives over 4 days and 4 nights around the Similan Islands. I won't bore you with the ins and outs but everything was good, a great bunch of people on the boat, excellent food, great weather and fantastic diving. My highlight definitly has to be swimming with a 4 metre wide Manta Ray, it was amazing, it came out of the blue and I swam with it in big circles flapping my arms like it's wings whilst we both had a look at one another, then it was off to have a look at the rest of the dive group. Following in a close second was seeing a 5 metre Whale Shark just cruise by as we were ending one of our dives. Whale Sharks are indigenous to the Andamen Sea but are rare, only four have been seen this season on our boat, very little is known about them but I was very privelged indeed to see one! I also saw White Tip and Black Tip Reek Sharks hunting, Octopus, Tuna, Leopard Sharks and a whole host of beautifully colloured and shaped coral. On a sadder note it was also possible to see the underwater damage the Tsunami had caused to the reefs, they are however recovering slowly. So to is Khao Lak, 10,000 people died here, the water came in 1 km at some places. The community and tourism is still recovering however there is now no physical evidence of the Tsunami ever hitting here so don't let the Tsunami put you off travelling here, everything is fine.

Underwater photos courtesy of Ric Parker.

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