buksida
Contributor
Back now after a great week in Khao Lak where we did a number of day trips to the Similans, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock.
We decided to go with Sub Aqua Dive Center who delivered us to the dive sites in rapid fashion (1 hour 15 max) on their speed boat.
Day One
A couple of cruisy dives were done off island 9, I would have liked to have seen some of the more adventurous dive sites of the Similans but these were nice and relaxing, good viz (25m+), plenty of fish and great hard corals.
Day Two
Second day was Tachai and Bon, these two places did impress with great submerged plateaus, vertical walls, leopard sharks, octopus and even a manta came to visit on our saftey stop at Koh Bon. Needless to say it was a long stop!
Day Three
I had been looking forward to diving Richelieu Rock for some years now but was a little dissappointed with this one, maybe it had been a bit over hyped. The viz was a fair bit lower and while there were plenty of schooling fish including barracuda, jacks, trevally, snappers there were also plenty of divers, around 7 boats in total. The sound of engines blattering across the surface shattered the tranquility somewhat. The second dive was better as a few bigger boats had left, found mantis shrimps, huge morays, a turtle and generally had a nicer dive.
Day Four
Back to the Similans and Elephant Rock where the viz was awesome (35m+). Great dive site here with huge rock formations, caverns, swimthroughs etc. Close inspection of the surfaces revealed nudibranchs, anemone shrimps, tiny sponge crabs, a great dive here. Final dive was at Beacon Point, again I wanted to see the wreck but it seems that the operators stick strictly to their schedules and own dive spots.
For further reading a completed article on the diving and a week in Khao Lak in general can be read here:
Diving the Similans: The Khao Lak comeback
We decided to go with Sub Aqua Dive Center who delivered us to the dive sites in rapid fashion (1 hour 15 max) on their speed boat.
Day One
A couple of cruisy dives were done off island 9, I would have liked to have seen some of the more adventurous dive sites of the Similans but these were nice and relaxing, good viz (25m+), plenty of fish and great hard corals.
Day Two
Second day was Tachai and Bon, these two places did impress with great submerged plateaus, vertical walls, leopard sharks, octopus and even a manta came to visit on our saftey stop at Koh Bon. Needless to say it was a long stop!
Day Three
I had been looking forward to diving Richelieu Rock for some years now but was a little dissappointed with this one, maybe it had been a bit over hyped. The viz was a fair bit lower and while there were plenty of schooling fish including barracuda, jacks, trevally, snappers there were also plenty of divers, around 7 boats in total. The sound of engines blattering across the surface shattered the tranquility somewhat. The second dive was better as a few bigger boats had left, found mantis shrimps, huge morays, a turtle and generally had a nicer dive.
Day Four
Back to the Similans and Elephant Rock where the viz was awesome (35m+). Great dive site here with huge rock formations, caverns, swimthroughs etc. Close inspection of the surfaces revealed nudibranchs, anemone shrimps, tiny sponge crabs, a great dive here. Final dive was at Beacon Point, again I wanted to see the wreck but it seems that the operators stick strictly to their schedules and own dive spots.
For further reading a completed article on the diving and a week in Khao Lak in general can be read here:
Diving the Similans: The Khao Lak comeback
