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Published: November 6th 2006
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We have recently got back from a four-day four-night live-aboard scuba trip to the Similan / Surin Islands, off the west coast of Thailand. We set off on the boat at about 8pm, ate dinner with everyone, and then slept while the captain sailed us to the islands. The average day went like this:
At 6.30am, we were awoken to get up and ready for our first dive at about 7am. Hitting the water at that time of morning really wakes you up quickly! After the first dive, we had breakfast then usually a trip to a deserted beautiful beach. The second dive for the day came at about 11am, followed by lunch, then the third dive was at about 3pm, followed by a snack, then the fourth dive was a night dive followed by dinner. Yes, you get the picture, it was basically 4 days of eat-dive-eat-dive in a continuous cycle!
We saw a lot of animals - octopus, leopard sharks, turtles, a tiny sea horse, lobster, hundreds of moray eels, sea snakes, plus every fish you could ever imagine 100 times over! The coral was also pristine, and didn't seem to have been affected by the tsunami.
The only thing we didn't see that we were hoping for was manta rays...maybe next time!
After the trip, we spent the first day or so recovering on Phi Phi Island on the tiny secluded Rantee beach. I say recovering as we certainly had sea legs after all that time on a boat, and felt light headed from all the dives and the lack of sleep!
We must be recovered now as we decided to leave the secluded beach and head back to the main town of Phi Phi for a bit more nightlife and luxuries, like e-mail and 24-hour electricity! We chose to do it the hard way though. Instead of getting a longtail boat, we decided it would be "fun" to walk it. The only problem was that Rantee beach is backed by steep hills that lead up a dirt tree-root-strewn path to a viewpoint, from where you continue down the other side to Phi Phi main town. It took us about 40 minutes to climb up to the top of the viewpoint (which was quite tiring as we each had our two backpacks containing all of our belongings for the trip!), where we stopped for
a water break while admiring the gorgeous views of the island. Unfortunately, my camera's battery went dead, meaning I couldn't get a photo of us at the top of the hike with our big bags - that was sad as we certainly won't be doing it again in a hurry! The hike down to town was comparatively easy due to the stone steps, so we made it down in no time and found accommodation for the night. We were glad of a shower (and I am sure that everyone else appreciated it!).
We are planning to stay in Phi Phi for a few more days. We're starting to meet people that we bumped into before everywhere we go, which is nice. Tonight, for example, we are meeting up with a couple that we first met several weeks ago in Laos while tubing down the river. We are also going to go to Krabi soon to meet up with another couple that we met tubing in Laos. The funny thing is, both of them just got married, and both are on extended honeymoons for almost a year just like us. It seems that two weeks in Brighton is just not
good enough for a honeymoon these days!
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