I haven’t written in a long time… I decided the first post of the year 2012 should be about the first thing I did in 2012.
On New Year’s Day, I was in Khao Lak. I had just returned from a three-day Similan liveaboard dive trip with Sea Dragon Dive Center and had spent New Year’s Eve at a beach party with some dive buddies. I was in the course of getting my Rescue Diver certification with the same dive center, but unfortunately the dive center was closed on New Year’s Day so I only finished my course on the day after. Since I didn’t want to spend the whole day doing nothing, I decided to go with a different dive center on another dive trip to the Similans area: Koh Tachai and Koh Bon. So, that was my New Year’s Dive!
The Similans were amazing for diving and the islands were beautiful as well! The visibility was amazing and there were many beautiful fish! Unfortunately, I still haven’t seen sea turtles… Hopefully next time! Seeing octopi was new for me and I found them fascinating. There were so many schools of fish as well. During every dive, my mask was hurting my nose as I had been smiling too much, which made my cheeks push my mask up against my nose!
Considering the fact that the Similan National Park is only open to visitors for about six months each year, I was slightly disappointed with the considerably high amount of cruise boats coming in and out each dive spot or beach. Luckily I was on a very small boat with less power, so by the time we reached our dive spots, we were the only ones there – the massive boats had already done their thing and moved on. Sometimes we’d find plastics and other garbage in the ocean and since our whole group of divers were rather environmentally conscious, we would have micro-clean up projects at the end of our diving or when we had a break. I hope there are or will be more official cleaning up projects, organised by the National Park.
The trip was a great success: gorgeous dives, beautiful sights, great people and delicious food! I can’t wait to go back to the Similans. It’s the best diving I’ve done so far! (Although that doesn’t say too much of course…)
wwwanchi 