Glad to be finally back in the water after a year!
This was a special blackwater trip - we did blackwater dives every day except for 1, and did 2 blackwater dives on the last day for a total of 5. This was my first time trying BW and despite not having the right gear, it was a lot of fun. Downside is it got me hooked on BW and convinced me to spend more $$$ to upgrade my camera.
Pictures here: Thailand Blackwater (Jan 2024)
We did 22 dives over the course of 6 days. I was shocked at the water temperature - this is my second trip to the Similans and I don't remember it being this cold last time around - but we frequently had thermoclines down to 25-26. I only bought my 3mm (thinking it would be 29-30) and wished I had my drysuit. There was also a lot of stinging jellies in the water on the last 2 days. Visibility was quite poor which was another shock vs what I remember from Dec 2018.
Blackwater can only be done in the Koh Bon area and a lot of the days were accordingly spent at Koh Bon and Koh Taichai. It does get repetitive after a while. I find the topography a bit boring with all the rocks and not very much coral or color and wished we had the chance to visit some of the other sites in Similans and Surin that I remembered being quite pretty. It's a tradeoff for doing blackwater every day which is fine - I just didn't realise we would repeat so many sites. No mantas or whale sharks here this time either.
2 days were spent at Richelieu which was lovely - best reef / fish action / overall dives by far. Nothing big tho - no mantas, sharks, or even turtles. A few octopus, some decent macro (finally saw my first harlequin shrimp! both white and yellow ornate ghost pipefish, hairy shrimp, oranguatan crab, a few nudies and cowries), a lot of hunting action (barracudas, trevallys), and really pretty soft corals filled with glass fish. I wish we had more days here instead of Koh Bon but logistically not possible with the blackwater schedule.
The boat is owned by a lovely French couple Frank and Camile and attracts mostly Europeans - over half the guests were French and kept to themselves. The food was also mostly Western or fusion - very little traditional Thai food (and sadly nothing spicy), I would've liked a better mix. Not as good or as many options as the best liveaboards I've been on (Carpe Diem, Philippine Siren) but tasty enough. They stagger the dive groups (sometimes going to different sites) which is great for diving but means unless you're the first group in the water by the time you get to lunch/dinner it is usually lukewarm or cold. Food is usually a big plus on liveaboard trips for me so this was a bit of a bummer. Cabins are small but adequate although I don't think it's cleaned very frequently - things like toilet rolls not replenished daily. It definitely feels more budget than the likes of Mermaid I, Philippine Siren, etc. but then again the price reflects that as well.
We had Alex Tyrell on this trip who gave daily presentations on BW diving basics and photography tips which was great. Frank is also an avid photographer and he and Alex both helped optimise/troubleshoot some of my gear which was much appreciated. I also asked Alex a bunch of random questions and learned a lot. The BW special trip (as well as the underwater photography special trip after this one) attracts a lot of photographers some of whom are quite pro and it's great for learning something from everyone.
Something I found strange is the way they do pick ups after dives - which I've never encountered before out of the 8 liveaboards I've done - they only have 1 dinghy for 4 groups and they will pick up your camera but ask that you hold on to a rope, then tow you to the main boat. It's quite uncomfortable and getting back on the main boat is also quite difficult especially in big swells, I got a lot of bruises on my shins. Most liveaboards will pick you up directly in the dinghy - and will let you take off your tank in the water so it's easy to get up the ladder. I did ask for this halfway through and they accommodated but it was not standard practice.
I was a bit disappointed with the dive guides. I can understand it's difficult with so many photographers, but there were a few incidents that really annoyed me. I lost my group once and found another group but was told I can't join them and continue the dive (despite having plenty of air) but had to surface immediately - the rationale being the group that you lost is also meant to surface once they realised they lost you and everyone goes down again together. Except my group didn't follow that and continued to dive - so my dive was the only one that got cut short. Frank talked to my guide after that and she said it was too difficult to manage 3 photographers, so I got swapped to a different group after that which only had 1 other photographer. Yet somehow we still managed to lose our guide on one dive with just the two of us - the two of us was together only the guide was lost. I heard there were a couple of others that lost their group as well. On another dive it was just me and the guide and towards the end I was waiting to take photos of a harlequin shrimp, had plenty of air and was only on 51min of dive time (their policy is max 60min), my guide signaled safety stop and I signaled to my guide I wanted to wait until the person was done and get 1-2min with the harlequin, but she continued to repeatedly flash her light in my face until I gave up and followed. I was quite annoyed and asked to go back on the next dive (which was also just me and her), she agreed but then we never went back! I wanted to shoot wide angle on the 3rd dive but was forced to go macro again because she didn't take me back to the harlequin on the second dive, and then by that time it had moved under a rock and there was no way to get a good shot. Obviously outside her control but I don't know why it was so urgent we safely stop at 51min and we couldn't wait 2min on the first dive. The 2 guides I had did point out some macro but nowhere near the frequency as the guides I've had on Mermaid I (Komodo - Wayan), Carpe Diem (Raja Ampat - Agus), or Philippine Siren (Visayas - Jonato) - I think comparing vs Lembeh or Anilao guides would be unfair but the other 3 are similarly wide angle / macro combo destinations.
My first trip to Similans was in Dec 2018 on the Gentle Giant which felt similar in accommodation comfort, had much better food (or perhaps more fair to say food suited to my tastes - was mostly authentic Thai, still some of the best Thai food I've ever had), a more varied itinerary (going down to both Similans and south Andaman). I loved the Smiling Seahorse for the unique blackwater dives, the multiple days at Richelieu (which again I think only they do), but the food and the few mishaps do give me pause in whether I would want to go back. As a whole other than Richelieu I felt the diving in Similans was a big notch below Raja and Komodo, and don't feel super inclined to repeat immediately. It's good diving, but it's hard to top the other two.
This was a special blackwater trip - we did blackwater dives every day except for 1, and did 2 blackwater dives on the last day for a total of 5. This was my first time trying BW and despite not having the right gear, it was a lot of fun. Downside is it got me hooked on BW and convinced me to spend more $$$ to upgrade my camera.
Pictures here: Thailand Blackwater (Jan 2024)
We did 22 dives over the course of 6 days. I was shocked at the water temperature - this is my second trip to the Similans and I don't remember it being this cold last time around - but we frequently had thermoclines down to 25-26. I only bought my 3mm (thinking it would be 29-30) and wished I had my drysuit. There was also a lot of stinging jellies in the water on the last 2 days. Visibility was quite poor which was another shock vs what I remember from Dec 2018.
Blackwater can only be done in the Koh Bon area and a lot of the days were accordingly spent at Koh Bon and Koh Taichai. It does get repetitive after a while. I find the topography a bit boring with all the rocks and not very much coral or color and wished we had the chance to visit some of the other sites in Similans and Surin that I remembered being quite pretty. It's a tradeoff for doing blackwater every day which is fine - I just didn't realise we would repeat so many sites. No mantas or whale sharks here this time either.
2 days were spent at Richelieu which was lovely - best reef / fish action / overall dives by far. Nothing big tho - no mantas, sharks, or even turtles. A few octopus, some decent macro (finally saw my first harlequin shrimp! both white and yellow ornate ghost pipefish, hairy shrimp, oranguatan crab, a few nudies and cowries), a lot of hunting action (barracudas, trevallys), and really pretty soft corals filled with glass fish. I wish we had more days here instead of Koh Bon but logistically not possible with the blackwater schedule.
The boat is owned by a lovely French couple Frank and Camile and attracts mostly Europeans - over half the guests were French and kept to themselves. The food was also mostly Western or fusion - very little traditional Thai food (and sadly nothing spicy), I would've liked a better mix. Not as good or as many options as the best liveaboards I've been on (Carpe Diem, Philippine Siren) but tasty enough. They stagger the dive groups (sometimes going to different sites) which is great for diving but means unless you're the first group in the water by the time you get to lunch/dinner it is usually lukewarm or cold. Food is usually a big plus on liveaboard trips for me so this was a bit of a bummer. Cabins are small but adequate although I don't think it's cleaned very frequently - things like toilet rolls not replenished daily. It definitely feels more budget than the likes of Mermaid I, Philippine Siren, etc. but then again the price reflects that as well.
We had Alex Tyrell on this trip who gave daily presentations on BW diving basics and photography tips which was great. Frank is also an avid photographer and he and Alex both helped optimise/troubleshoot some of my gear which was much appreciated. I also asked Alex a bunch of random questions and learned a lot. The BW special trip (as well as the underwater photography special trip after this one) attracts a lot of photographers some of whom are quite pro and it's great for learning something from everyone.
Something I found strange is the way they do pick ups after dives - which I've never encountered before out of the 8 liveaboards I've done - they only have 1 dinghy for 4 groups and they will pick up your camera but ask that you hold on to a rope, then tow you to the main boat. It's quite uncomfortable and getting back on the main boat is also quite difficult especially in big swells, I got a lot of bruises on my shins. Most liveaboards will pick you up directly in the dinghy - and will let you take off your tank in the water so it's easy to get up the ladder. I did ask for this halfway through and they accommodated but it was not standard practice.
I was a bit disappointed with the dive guides. I can understand it's difficult with so many photographers, but there were a few incidents that really annoyed me. I lost my group once and found another group but was told I can't join them and continue the dive (despite having plenty of air) but had to surface immediately - the rationale being the group that you lost is also meant to surface once they realised they lost you and everyone goes down again together. Except my group didn't follow that and continued to dive - so my dive was the only one that got cut short. Frank talked to my guide after that and she said it was too difficult to manage 3 photographers, so I got swapped to a different group after that which only had 1 other photographer. Yet somehow we still managed to lose our guide on one dive with just the two of us - the two of us was together only the guide was lost. I heard there were a couple of others that lost their group as well. On another dive it was just me and the guide and towards the end I was waiting to take photos of a harlequin shrimp, had plenty of air and was only on 51min of dive time (their policy is max 60min), my guide signaled safety stop and I signaled to my guide I wanted to wait until the person was done and get 1-2min with the harlequin, but she continued to repeatedly flash her light in my face until I gave up and followed. I was quite annoyed and asked to go back on the next dive (which was also just me and her), she agreed but then we never went back! I wanted to shoot wide angle on the 3rd dive but was forced to go macro again because she didn't take me back to the harlequin on the second dive, and then by that time it had moved under a rock and there was no way to get a good shot. Obviously outside her control but I don't know why it was so urgent we safely stop at 51min and we couldn't wait 2min on the first dive. The 2 guides I had did point out some macro but nowhere near the frequency as the guides I've had on Mermaid I (Komodo - Wayan), Carpe Diem (Raja Ampat - Agus), or Philippine Siren (Visayas - Jonato) - I think comparing vs Lembeh or Anilao guides would be unfair but the other 3 are similarly wide angle / macro combo destinations.
My first trip to Similans was in Dec 2018 on the Gentle Giant which felt similar in accommodation comfort, had much better food (or perhaps more fair to say food suited to my tastes - was mostly authentic Thai, still some of the best Thai food I've ever had), a more varied itinerary (going down to both Similans and south Andaman). I loved the Smiling Seahorse for the unique blackwater dives, the multiple days at Richelieu (which again I think only they do), but the food and the few mishaps do give me pause in whether I would want to go back. As a whole other than Richelieu I felt the diving in Similans was a big notch below Raja and Komodo, and don't feel super inclined to repeat immediately. It's good diving, but it's hard to top the other two.
A7RV or A1? I just got an a6700 and it's amazing how much the AF is improved.
