Khao Lak in a sentence: All dived out after swimming with some of the worlds most beautiful tropical marine life.

After a relaxing few days in the Jungle and on the Lake we made our way West to Khao Lak - this is further North of Phucket and does boat trips to the Similan Islands.

We caught a local mini bus which took around 3 hrs!! Despite our hotel being 5 min drive from where he wanted to drop us off he wanted our seats for more passengers, therefore kicking us off the bus (what a tw@t). He wasn't taking any of it and decided that we would make the short walk over, this wouldn't of been too bad except it decided to rain! Our first impressions of Khao Lak were not great.

We met up with Louise who we were diving with in Koh Tao - she had booked onto a liveaboard for the following 4 days/4 nights to scuba dive the Similan & Surin Islands and Richelieu Rock (one of the best diving sites in the world!). We thought that we will have a look at some similar trips depending on price so spent the evening walking from dive shop to dive shop to find the best deal! Our initial thought was to do a 2 night trip as we were limited on time, they were cheaper and none were leaving for a few days, until we arrived at Khao Lak Scuba Adventures - they had 2 places left on their liveaboard (the Manta Queen 6) leaving tomorrow evening for 4 days/4 nights and gave us a price we could not refuse (40% off the asking price) - with dive computers, all equipment, all meals, park fees etc included!!

The following day we spent wondering the town and shopping for a GoPro for Louise - she decided she ought to purchase one so she can film her dives. We highly persuaded her to do this as we love ours and it's great to use when diving! Turns out we are bad influences on each other with her helping to persuade us to do the liveaboard. We bought ourselves a red filter to go over the lens of our gopro as red is the first colour you lose underwater and would help to bring our pictures back to life.

Our transfer was due to pick us up at 19:30 for our liveaboard - we were very excited to spend the next 4 days diving, doing a total of 15 dives - deep, wreck and reef diving. All around the Similan Islands and Richelieu Rock. After having to sign some paper work at their office they then took us to our home for the next few days - the Manta Queen 6. A luxury boat that had a total of 13 guests, 5 diving professionals, 4 boat boys, a technician, the cook and of corse the Captain! This boat was the Captains permanent place of residence therefore we had to take our shoes off and were not allowed to wear footwear for the next few days - this was strangely liberating.

Once the boat crew had loaded everything on board - baggage, food for the next few days, fuel, scuba equipment, cases of beer etc we were ready to set off :). But first it is tradition to set a firework off at the front of the boat for good luck and safety on our trip, this was great to watch! We got introduced to everyone on board including the crew and begin our briefing of the next few days - all of which sounded amazing and very intense. We were showed to our room - this was tiny!! Bunk style beds just long enough for Curt to be able to stretch his legs out, an ensuite shared with the room next door and the floor space no bigger than a sq metre! Safe to say it was very cosy. Before having dinner and an early night ready to dive in the morning!

The next fews days were rather similar - we had a tight schedule of a maximum of 4 dives a day (3 dives on the last day). The routine fitted in with their motto very well 'Eat Sleep Dive Repeat'. We woke up every morning before sunrise at 05:45 and had a light breakfast (cornflakes and tea/coffee) before the morning dive which lasted roughly an hr, we then had breakfast which consisted of eggs, toast, fresh fruit, tea and coffee. Our next dive was roughly at 11 again lasting around an hr. Then having lunch - this was a traditional Thai dish the cook prepared in her TINY kitchen. One lunchtime we were luckily enough to have a HUGE green turtle swim around our boat bobbing it's head in and out of the water! Then we did an afternoon dive. Between this dive and our night/sunset dive we had snacks - typically spring rolls or fried banana (which is actually quite nice) or on our last full day PANCAKES! Which went down a treat. Our last dive of the day was shorter than our other dives due to the nitrogen levels in our blood from the previous dives therefore our bottom time could be no longer than 40 minutes. And yes you guessed it, after this dive we had dinner - another typical Thai dish all preferred by the cook! Between diving and eating this was our 'free' time, we could spend this however we pleased, mostly sunbathing on the sun deck out front and taking a nap as all this diving and eating was tiring us out! Seriously, it's so tiring! The excess nitrogen present in your body isn't natural so your body exerts a lot of energy getting rid of it. We also had unlimited supply of tea, coffee and hot chocolate as well as some amazing biscuits - but they were very addictive (named cocaine biscuits by the crew), once you started you couldn't stop! On the third day the boats RIB took us to the beach on one of the Islands for an hr - it was nice to feel the soft sand between our toes and have our feet on land again even if it was just for a little bit.

Our first dive we did with instructor James - he was English with plenty of diving under his belt, and professionally dives in Scotland. He was great, pointing out all the different fish, checking we were all ok, checking our air etc. However we were paired with Rosa who had only completed her open water course therefore can not dive further than 18m, which will limit us on some of the dives. This meant that we had to change instructors to Anja - a German lady who "quit" her marketing job to do diving as a full time job in the Similans - we think she was actually sacked. Despite the experience we would of preferred to be with James as she didn't seem to point out and look for the 'cool stuff' as much as James did. She didn't know the hand signals for the fish, never checked everyone was ready and ok to descend together, didn't know how to inflate her SMB properly (like an inflatable sausage that is supposed to stick out of the water to warn ships there are divers), couldn't maintain a constant level at our safety stops etc. Also we were then put with a couple from France, of which were well over 50, he supposedly had completed over 300 dives and was part of a dive club but safe to say had worse buoyancy control than us! As well as getting in your way the time (even though the ocean is HUGE) and was desperate to take pictures of anything and everything he saw disturbing the fish and the coral! On one dive the current was so strong we were all getting pushed deeper and deeper. While most of us kicked a little harder, clever clogs decided to fully inflate his BC shooting up from 24ish meters to about 5m like a rocket - which is very dangerous to do and could give the no decompression sickness, also known as the Benz. His wife who wasn't as experienced was doing her Advanced Course during this trip. However, we managed to handle the situation quite well and kept our distance trying to ignore them.

The only main differences between each day were the dive sites - we did a huge variety of diving all around the Similans, Surin Islands and Richelieu Rock, including reef, deep, wreck, night and sunset dives! This was incredible - the water was crystal clear (unlike Koh Tao), with visibility of up to 40m, and 30 degrees! Our first dive was breathtaking as we were only used to diving in Koh Tao it felt like we were flying - you could barely tell you were in water until you saw your bubbles coming from your regulator, a truly floating and amazing experience! The sea life as well was spectacular - the variety of fish from big schools of yellow fusiliers, anemone fish (nemo of course!), to great barracudas, blue spotted rays and MANTAS! It was amazing seeing such a huge ray elegantly glide through the water - truly breathtaking. I also used up about 20bar of air screaming to get Curts attention underwater so he didn't miss it!

Each dive site had something special about them - whether it was the meaning of the dive site or the sea life there. The dive sites we visited were either in the Similan Marine National Park - a protected natural park made up of a chain of 9 tiny islands, or in the Surin Marine National Park. Our night dive was at a site called Anita's Hideaway this had big circular memorials to remember the lives lost from the Tsunami in 2004 (10th Anniversary this year). Elephant Head Rock named by a man who believed the rock that you could see at the surface resembled an elephant - unfortunately no one could see this. The Dome at Koh Tachi will be remembered for seeing the beautiful MANTA! Richelieu Rock part of the Surin Marine National Park is located in the middle of the sea with no shelter, therefore a favourite to see BIG fish out in the blue - this is the best dive site in Thailand. We dived here 3 times covering East, West and the centre of the rock which also involved some swim throughs - swimming underneath and between rocks. Very fun indeed! We also did two wreck dives - Boonsung Wreck sunk in 1985 at 20m (apparently due to someone flushing the toilet and the water rushed in and didn't stop - however this could be a myth and it is widely thought it was sunk on purpose after the mining industry here dried up (pun intended) and it was sunk for an insurance claim!). Unfortunately when the Tsunami hit in 2004 the structure broke into four main pieces making it even more interesting. Premchai Wreck - sunk on purpose in 2001 for the benefit of recreational diving, the top of the wreck is at 16m and it is also a twin sister of the Boonsung wreck. Both very interesting to dive, and quite eerie thinking that they both used to be fully working ships.

This diving trip was excellent - we had such a variety of dive sites, with a huge variety of sea life. As well as living on the boat which was an experience in itself - everyone on board was incredibly helpful. The boat boys especially who helped you in and out of the water and your equipment for each dive, helping you put on your fins (possibly the hardest thing to do when fully geared up) and make sure you are comfortable and set up correctly before your dive, as well as filling your air tank up in between each dive - this made diving even more pleasurable. The cook who did some AMAZING meals everyday in a tiny kitchen - I could never prepare food like she did in there! And made sure our tummys were full before and after each dive! The captain who sailed us around all the islands, mostly during the night, dropped us off at each dive site and then picked us up when we resurfaced - at first it looked like he was heading straight for us, but then turned the boat on a pin so we could climb back up therefore not having to swim back to the boat. And of corse the dive professionals who taught us everything we needed to know about each dive site and navigated us around each site on the look out for amazing sea life!

It was truly wonderful to dive at such amazing dive sites with some of the best diving in the world! This was one of the best decisions we made and would definitely love to do another liveaboard in the future!

C & E x