Diving the Similan Islands, October 2004

by Bill Quinn

My wife and I had booked a 10 day holiday to Thailand. 3 days in Bangkok and the balance in Phuket. Being selfish I wanted to get some diving in, my wife doesn’t swim or dive. So months in advance I started the research. E-mails were sent off to numerous companies but the responses were disappointing, either no reply or check or website.

Eventually I narrowed it down to 3 companies; See Bees), highly recommended in dive forums, Warm Water Divers) and Dive The World.

My mission was to get as much diving as possible in two days. I was lucky that I had managed to negotiate a two day pass from my wife, on condition that she got a luxurious spa treatment. Sounded a fair deal.

Initially it was looking like Warm Water Divers. They had a an excellent itinerary and over a Saturday and Sunday I could complete all the major dives in Phuket. This was going to be a combination of their Saturday Safari (Phi Phi, Koh Doc Mai, A Night Dive and one other dive) and then Shark Point, King Cruiser and Anemone Reef. All for about £100. My problem was that as I wasn’t staying in Patong, with a night dive on the Saturday I would need to get accommodation in Patong. I didn’t know how far Patong was from where I was staying, which in hind sight was a 20 minute drive, and I didn’t want to risk arriving back at the hotel at midnight to get up for a 6 am collection in the morning.

Then as I carried on my research, the Similan Islands seemed to be the place to go. All the guide books said best diving in Thailand, one of the top ten spots in the world. Dive The World were offering all that Warm Water Divers were offering but they also offered liveaboards to the Similans. I cheekily asked if they could accommodate a 2 day liveaboard and they replied yes.

The package was with South Siam Divers), which you can book direct and save yourself £10 but for the service I got with Dive The World I would say no benefit. My only complaint with Dive The World was their persistent e-mails till you booked a trip! However, it kept on nagging me that I needed to do something.

What South Siam do is moor a dive boat out in the Similans (about 90 Km from Phuket) and use a high speed boat to transfer people back and forth on a daily basis. The boat is moored from October till about May. However to clarify, the boat doesn’t stay in one location it moves around the islands on a daily basis.

The package I was offered was 2 days, 7 dives (including a night dive) for £125 including transfers. Even though I was going in October (rainy season, risky in the Similans) I paid my money and took my chance! Equipment hire was $25 a night, I think. No Nitrox on the boat, pure air dives only. Accommodation was based on a twin sharing, sharing with who I didn’t know but it was only one night. You could go for a slightly cheaper option based on 4 sharing but it wasn’t worth it in my opinion. You could book a twin on a single basis but this (to me) was cost prohibitive. The price also included transfers from my hotel.

So got to Phuket and had a couple of days to relax. Weather was not showing good signs for diving. Serious rain the previous week, major thunderstorms at night. It was arranged to collect me from my hotel at 7 am, they were there at 6.45 am. Good start. The weather however was a different matter, torrential rain with floods on the roads. There were several others on the minibus and this was the first sign of an interesting trip. Many different nationalities, levels, experience and days out on the boat. By 8.30 we were at the quay side. The sun had now come out, clear blue sky and starting to get hot. Toilet, drink break etc. and then down the quay wall (shoes off till we are back on dry land).

We went out in a small power boat, twin engine 250 horse power; they also have triple engine 250 horse! The boat had a shade cover on it, drinks and a toilet. You just sat back and watched the world go by. We were averaging about 50 to 60 knots across the water. Very impressive, by 9.30 we saw our dive boat and the excitement started to build. By 9.45 we were on board.

The next hour was a bit manic. It started with a liability waiver been stuffed into your hand. Followed by Ian, the dive boat manager, giving a quick talk on the boat. Where everything is. How things work, etc. By this stage our bags were onboard. Onto dive deck, sort our gear out. Dive briefing and in the water by 10.45. Impressively fast and slick, but slightly rushed.

Here are my only few criticisms of the diving. Firstly, there was no checking of qualifications or medical certificates. I was asked by Dive The World to what level I was qualified but this was never verified. Log books were not requested, so no checking as to depth or recent experience. Finally, there didn’t seem to be any logical pairing. I was put into a group with 2 PADI Open Waters; nothing wrong with PADI just meant they were depth limited to 18 metres (this however was ignored by our Divemaster who brought us to 40 metres).

So 10.45 arrived and chaos breaks out onto the dive deck. 24 divers and Divemasters kit up and enter the water. I was really looking forward to this. I had in my mind that I wanted to see (a) Shark (one will do), Rays, Turtles (very unlikely, but I can dream) and if possible Cuttlefish (the bigger the better).

So dive one was in a location called Boulder City. Didn’t sound the most interesting but guess these people knew what they were doing. Into the water, our group formed and the descent started. My initial impressions were how warm the water was 30°C at the surface and 28 at maximum depth.

Within minutes it was like an aquarium. Loads of fish. By the fifth minute there were two gorgeous lionfish right under us. Amazing how their fans were out. We were swimming through shoals of fish. There were so many you couldn’t count them. They couldn’t get out of your way quick enough and bounced off your mask. Suddenly, after 10 minutes, our Divemaster signalled shark. There he (or she) was on the sea bed a 3 metre Leopard shark. We approached slowly and the shark just stayed there. As I manoeuvred round to get a better picture, I must have kicked the sand and a small Ray shot up and away. The shark was a perfect poser, allowed me to move 1 metre in front of it to take a head on shot. Then he had enough and swam off underneath me. This dive could have ended then and I would have been happy.

We carried on and there was another Leopard shark about 5 metres in front of me. Swimming gracefully along. I couldn’t believe how beautiful this was. The orange coral looked amazing, nearly eerie how it was standing proud. We started our ascent and another Leopard shark appeared. After 34 minutes, maximum depth of 28 metres we surfaced.

I was grinning from cheek to cheek. If I did no other dives over the next two days I had got value for money. I was incredibly happy.

Next it was time to sort our rooms out during the surface interval. The room was sufficient size for 2 people. Air conditioned and very clean. No ensuite just a communal loo and shower down the hall. The whole boat was very clean and had a real feeling of being new. Upstairs you had a shade deck with a TV room and numerous DVDs to watch. And up on top was a large sun deck.

Breakfast was being served and it was of the typical high quality of all the meals we had during our stay. The food was always very cleverly done; a mixture of Thai and “Western” options, meat, fish and vegetarian so plenty of choice for everyone.

Surface interval gave us a chance to talk to the other guests and it really showed the diversity on the boat. 3 shark experts (2 from US, 1 from South Africa), A Canadian soldier based in Iraq, A US diplomat based in Saudi, A few Japanese travelling through, 2 backpackers on their way home to Oz, an American Divemaster (with more camera equipment than you could imagine) were just some of the guests. The boat's own Divemasters were from around the world, ours was from Holland, only 2 Thai Divemasters on board.

By the time of the 2nd dive I had a storming headache so I slept it out. I didn’t mind as I had such a good first dive that there was no point pushing myself when I didn’t feel 100%. When people came back on board, I was gutted, Turtles were swimming over the reef. Oh well there is always next time…

13:30 we were in the water for Beacon Point. This was as impressive as the first dive. You could really get up close to the fish. They seemed so tame but wild at the same time. I was starting to regret that my marine identification skills could be written on the back of a postage stamp! Yet again, the coral was lovely. More Rays came out to play. An eel poked its head out of the rocks. The starfish looked like cuddly toys. After 32 minutes and a maximum depth of 31 metres, the dive was over. Not as good as the first dive but the first one was so hard to beat!

19:05 back in the water for the night dive at Breakfast Bend. A shallow dive, 14 metres over 32 minutes. Water temperature was still 28 °C. Just a nice slow swim along. The fish all seemed to be so relaxed. Nothing major to report but still a nice dive and a nice end to the day.

That night it was just chill out, watch DVDs, drink beer, and chat. Later that night the Thai crew were having dinner on the dive deck. Some crabs that they got off one of the local fishing boats (not on our menu). They kindly offered some crab and it was lovely. Then they suggested the chilli sauce. One guest tried some and it nearly killed him, for me it was hot but very pleasant. 3 hours later I could still taste it and feel it burning my mouth.

Went to bed to be woken at 4 am by the engines. We were on the move. Room was a bit stuffy so went on deck for air. It was cold, very cold and windy but very refreshing. My room mate spent the rest of the night asleep on the sun deck.

7 am and we got the alarm knock. 07:25 and we were in the water at Ko Tachai. Something incredibly nice about diving this hour of the morning. This dive was mostly about coral. I have never seen so many different types. And the size of some of it. What also got me was the colours, not only of the coral but the fish and rocks. There were vibrant yellows, oranges, blues, definite blacks. Words just can’t describe it. After 28 minutes of trying to take this all in, the dive was over. 35 metres maximum depth.

10:30 and we were in Ko Bon. The current was really ripping. You had to pull yourself down the shot line hand over hand. I was lucky as I was the first down. This was incredible. In about 10 minutes I had run off about 15 pictures. There was so much to see. So much choice. Stunning long slim trumpet fish. Blue starfish. And many many more that I can’t name. Once you got to the end of the shot, you were in the rocks and away from the current. After 10 minutes where was everybody? Still no sign of them and I was too engrossed in taking pictures. Eventually they arrived down the shot and we headed off. Pretty quickly we hit maximum depth, for me 36 metres for some 40 metres. On the way back I noticed our Divemaster handed his Octopus to one of the British divers. On the ascent he signalled to me to keep an eye on her as he took her to the shot line and gave her back her reg.

I could see the shot line in front of me, only about 5 metres away at a 45 degree angle. But the current was too strong. No matter how hard I finned I couldn’t get there. Then casual as anything a Banded Sea Snake swam about a metre in front of me. Struggling with the current, I managed to wrestle my camera out of my BC and took a picture. It was my last picture and I was hoping that it would come out (it did).

After 3 minutes and 50 bar of air struggling against the current I gave up. The shot was above me. So I ascended to 3 metres grabbed it and pulled myself down to 6 metres. As I knew I shouldn’t of done this I increased my safety stop. This was difficult, I had a pair of panic eyes staring straight into me just wanting to end the dive and I was trying to calm her down. Eventually I gave the signal to ascend but I had to struggle to slow her down. At the surface, I filled her BC and hung onto it with one hand and the shot with the other. The current felt so strong I felt as if I was been pulled in two. She was crying at this stage and no sign of the boat coming for us. I checked her air 10 bar! After 5 minutes (what seemed like an eternity) the Divemaster surfaced and took over.

What happened was, at the descent she had got separated from her husband, who was behind her. He couldn’t get down the shot, Divemaster saw this and told him to surface. She was panicked as to where he was. I have never seen anyone so relieved when they got back onto the boat.

A very memorable dive. The first ten minutes were amazing, I could have stayed there all day. And the last ten minutes were unforgettable. I was not too impressed with what happened and the situation I was put in. The Divemaster should have looked after her, not brought her to 40 metres and when he realised she was running low on air abort the dive. He also should not have passed his responsibility to me. It was a good lesson but for the wrong reasons.

13:30 and the last dive of the trip. Unfortunately, no pictures came out on this one. Need to move to a digital set up. This was a very pleasant and slow drift over coral reefs just admiring what was below us. The size of the reefs, and coral was incredible. Just before the dive finished a group were huddled around a rock. I managed to see what they were looking at. It was a huge octopus just visible under the rock. He looked so sad, with his eyes staring at us. In reality he was probably scarred of all the divers around him. I can remember saying to myself, if you are sad what about me I’m going home now.

I was low on air so the Divemaster signalled to me to surface on a DSMB and do a safety stop. I was hanging at six metres relaxing and watching the world go by. And it did, first a reef shark swam by. Not a care in the world. I checked my time safety stop over, air 50 bar. Sod it I said I’ll increase my safety stop just to be safe (I didn’t want to get out). I was glad I did, 2 minutes later a Silver Tip Shark went by. After an 8 minute safety stop I ascended. Dive over after 40 minutes, maximum depth 25 metres.

As I surfaced alone I was bobbing in the water. I could see the boat but I was beeing carried by the current. I raised my flag and was collected. Back on the boat, everybody was taking the Michael out of my flag; playing golf was the usual comment. But they all said how easy it was to spot me.

I was warned about the currents before I went out. So I made sure I had a flag, strobe and DSMB. I was the only one who had. After experiencing those currents I am glad I did. I wasn’t separated, I wasn’t in trouble but it could have happened very easily. I was also advised to wear a full length wet suit. You could dive in the skin or a light shorty, but with Fire Coral, Sea Snakes, Lion Fish, etc. about the extra length just gives you extra protection. Well worth it.

Back on the boat it was a mad dash to pack gear away and load it onto the speedboat back to Phuket. An hour later we were on the mainland and I was back in my hotel by 18:30. Despite my criticisms this was a well organised trip, which proved to be excellent value for money. Any regrets? Just one, I wasn’t out there for longer! A great two days, amazing diving, hard to beat, excellent value for money. Part of me is still out in the Similans and I can’t wait to go back.

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