Thailand: Similan Islands Diving

Similan Islands provided close to, if not the best diving I have ever done (Tonga coming in very close if not slightly better). We did 6 dives over two days - we were meant to do 7 but didn't have the stamina for a night dive after a 5:30am rise, a 3 hour bus/speedboat trip and 3 dives!

The crystal clear warm waters of the Similan held much to discover. We saw sharks (leopard, black tip reef), blue spotted rays, lionfish, moray eels with cleaner shrimp), garden eels, colourful nudibranchs, massive schools of fusiliers, 1 lone tuna (yum yum), a frogfish, flutefish, clownfish, triggerfish...so many fish....and heaps of coral....so much coral!! You get the idea - was amazing!

Our boat, the South Siam 4, was fully equipped and very comfortable with a large upper deck, air conditioned lounge, dive platform, sundeck and basic double cabins. The food was fantastic too - a full Thai and western buffet for breakfast lunch and dinner.

We arrived to a boat full of Swedish divers, who left that afternoon leaving just 4 divers and a snorkeler. We slept well (and early) that night, rising early for our first dive just as the sun was coming up - magic! We were very lucky to get a quiet night as the next day we swapped over with a very large crowd of very noisy Russians with very little English and questionable diving skills.

Would highly recommend any divers heading to Thailand make the effort to go out to the Similans and South Siam Divers are well worth looking up to get you there.

Next Up: Kata Beach, Bangla Rd, Elephants and the rest.

Don't forget, for a more detailed account, go here, and for more photos, go here.