Songkran & Similans
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2007
1
51
102
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Similan Islands,
Thailand
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
songkran
up at 08:00.......the buckets and hoses and pistols are already out and warming up....08:25 - im already soaked and covered in powder paste that smells of jasmine and soap so it makes no difference anymore...take the decision that i might as well join in....09:00 - im out on the road with the whole family from the place im staying and theres buckets of water being thrown on every person walking, cycling, motoring, in a car, in a taxi.....people are driving up and down the strip just to be soaked, some with teams of water pistollers in the back......11:00 - everyone, everything, every surface is wet.....unsuspecting gringos arriving and unaware of songkran are getting a baptism of fire (well water)....12:00 - its getting messier by the minute, noone is safe.....the fmaily bring out trays of crispy spring rolls that are piping hot out of the pan and sizzling with beansprouts and carrots and drenching in sweet chili sauce. it goes down well with the pink fanta (sherbet flavour!)....13:00 - i realise im as wet as ive ever been, starting to get a bit chilly and ive been involved in a water fight for over 4 hours - time for a shower.....17:00 - after an epic reading session i come back down to reception to see the water chaos is still going on on the road - desperately bad pop-remix-rave music is still blaring and the thai men are twisting and grooving to the god-awful tinny tunes (i actually recognise a cover of zombie by the cranberries - its worse than the original (if thats possible)) but theyre still getting on down......19:00 - the sun sets and finally the mayhem subsides and everyone wanders off to eat and dry off. another songkran winds down (unless youre in chiang mai where it allegedly rages on for 4-5 days!!!)
similans
an hour later i head down to sea dragon to meet up with the group ill be travelling with for the next 3 days and 3 nights. every dive place ive been to since i started diving has raved about the similands - how its ranked in the top 10 dive locations in the world, how the visibility goes on for miles, how theres mantas in abundance and some whale sharks etc so obviosuly the excitement was mounting!!!!
we got those taxi-ute things (it begins with s but i cant remember the name) to the port about 20 minutes down the road and then boarded the MV Mariner, our home for 3 nights (goodbye to flipflops, no more shoes til we get back!!!) i shared a cabin/bunk bed with christina from berlin who was really cool. the passageway on the bottom level (dive gear at the back and cabin at the front) was like that scene in willy wonka (the gene wilder one) where he goes into that corridor before the chocolate room that gets smaller and smaller and smaller and he plays a piano at the end of it.) the door to the cabin area was not a square and it was not straight. very odd.
the dives themselves were awsome though the truth be told the vis wasnt as good as i expected. however the incredible just sheer ludicrous amount of marine life around more than made up for it. we didnt see any mantas or leopard sharks but there was just so so much other stuff (that i wont list cos its quite boring if you dont know what they are.) we got to do some swim-throughs on one dive (where you swim through natural "tunnels" (not long at all but still mad. i got to experience surge and current again which is good. and on the last dive yesterday i (me, not the guide) spotted a black-tip reef shark which just MADE the trip!!! there was also a resident turtle at one of the locations.
the group on the trip were really really nice, a really good mix of people. i started off diving in fionas group but then rafael (my dive buddy) and i fancied doing computer dives instead so we moved to turi's group. (the irony that fiona's group saw the leopard shark on the dive after we moved!!!!!!!) there was plenty of chillaxin time too - about 3 hours between dives (first dive was at 7:30 in the morning, nothing like some andaman ocean to waken you up first thing!!!!!) oh and i did my first night dive too which was MAD. i mean we only stayed quite close to the boat and it was only 40 mins but its so strange to swim around in the dark (with torches.) highlight of that was definately the phospheressence (sp?!) when you turn all the torches off, id stil be there now kicking up those shiny green speckles if i didnt have the risk of running out of oxegen!!!
on the last night we had an amazing BBQ (well to be honest the food was amazing the whole time but anyway)....and lots of jumping off the top deck into the sea (though i didnt partake!) we did our last dive (the reef shark dive) in ko bon which was super, we also got to see 2 cuttlefish just doing their hovering around thing.....
and then it was back to khao lak and the resurgence of my blasted ear infection (definately definately aggravated by excessive iPod listening on the boat). so its back on the anti-biotics for me and maybe take a leetle rest from the diving........for now :-)
