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Published: December 25th 2006
Upstream Sunrise
Taken from the bungalows while we wait to go to the marina.Merry Christmas!!!
We just returned from the Similan Islands and plan to pick up my Dad at the airport today and finally be united to have a nice Christmas on the Ko Yao islands.
But going back a few days… From the appropriately named Family Bungalow in Khao Lak, we awoke at sun rise to make our way to the marina, where we prepared to board our live-aboard boat for 3 days. The destination: Similan Islands. These 9 islands are a National Park in Thailand and boast some of the best scuba diving and snorkeling in the world. They lived up to their expectations!
Our boat slept about 18 people, the other patrons were two Swedish families who were very friendly. We made the four hour trip west into the Andaman Sea to the cluster of 9 islands. We explored the islands from north to south, from #9 to #1.
The first day consisted of snorkeling, laying on the deck sun bathing, eating awesome food prepared by the Thai crew (lots of seafood!) and puttering to another island and repeating the aforementioned. The lifestyle was more then ideal. In the afternoon after plenty of snorkeling we set
Morning Beach
The upside of waking up so early - a beautiful sunrise at the beach. foot on island 8, played some volleyball and did a nice hike up to a view point where we watched the sunset. We then spent our first night at sea, some people slept on the top deck and enjoyed the warm breeze and stars.
Day two was much of the same, we woke up to a tasty breakfast and did a morning snorkel. We headed down to the middle 3 islands, saw some cool sea turtles, octopus, eels, puffer fish, parrot fish and countless others. We moved from bay to bay, stopping to give people the opportunity to snorkel and explore.
We thought that we might try and scuba dive out here, but we were plenty satisfied with snorkeling because the visibility was so clear that we could see everything from the surface. We hung out at the beach on island #6 for most of the afternoon, enjoying the white sand beaches and exploring the island barefoot - I didn’t wear shoes on for 3 days, and loved every minute of it.
Day 3 we moved south to the last few islands, which boasted some of the best snorkeling of them all. Which high hopes of seeing
Crystal Clear Water
Snorkelling during our first afternoon at island #9 Manta Rays, Sharks, and maybe Dolphins, I was very excited. We missed the dolphins but managed to see the other two - awesome. At the edge of the reefs we were able to see some bigger fish, they were quite the sight. Jason even did some cleanup as he dove down and hauled up an old lobster trap that was caught up on some coral.
The afternoon was spent snorkeling, and after lunch we reluctantly made our way back to the boat for the last time. After a nice lunch, we buckled down for the return trip to the coast.
The 3 days were tawesome. We returned on Christmas Eve, and spent the night hanging out at our bungalow lisening to Christmas carols on our music players. It’s quite different having a warm topical Christmas, but I’ll get used to it. Today we pick up Dad at the Phuket airport and make our way to the Andaman bay to spend Christmas night and New Years.
Merry Christmas to all!
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jann
non-member comment
merry christmas you beach bums!
Thanks for all the photos. Hope your beautiful family is all together now and that your mom is healing. Snowing here and tree sales are over! Joye is back in the hospital for pain. Her kidney stone was blasted a few days ago, but they only kept her in overnight. Sure glad your holiday is meeting your expectations. christmas kisses