Trip Notes and Images from Similan, Thailand, Jan 03
We made our second trip to Phuket in a year -- this time to dive off a
liveaboard in the Similan Islands. We also did a day-trip dive in Phuket: at the
King Cruiser wreck and the Phuket Shark Point. The visibility was so-so (15-20
m), but the wreck is a pretty nice dive with plenty of life.
Our Similan liveaboard was on the Rhapsody, arranged through Siam Dive
and Sail. This company has a pretty good web page, and response time for emails
is excellent. In Phuket, we did not even see them, since they broker details
through other shops.
Rhapsody is probably the most comfortable of boats -- 4 rooms, each
with double beds. We were in the exec room, with attached bath, which is
convenient. The food on board is excellent -- we order from a fairly wide menu,
and the chef is excellent.
There were two dive-masters, so most dives were done in two groups; the less
experienced (us) went usually with the less experienced DM, which was ok, except
one dive at Richelieu rock, where we missed the site, drifted in strong currents
and murky water for a while, and then aborted.
Elephant rock was probably my favorite site. 3-4 dives per day, with one
night dive on day 2.
This was my first time with an underwater camera (Olympus 5050 in a PT015
housing, plus an EN wide-angle lens). The photos are almost uniformly poor (and
more so when compared to those from our next trip, in June 03, to Puerto Galera).
