liquid adventure | Khao Lak, Diving, Snorkeling, Liveaboard, Similan Islands

It’s Getting Really Good In The Similan Islands !

We’re still digesting all the amazing marine encounters we had on our last liveaboard trip. Every day brought something new and exciting during our 3 day / 3 night liveaboard trip, covering the Similans, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock.

First day we started off with a check up dive at West Of Eden, the dive was good with a lot of activity and we saw that the water had that good-green colour meaning that there is lots to eat for the fishies.

The current was running a bit funny and with a bit of power so instead of doing another boulder dive site for our 2nd dive, we chose to do an easy drift dive to make the dive more easy and comfortable for everyone. Breakfast Bend is a long reef that runs along the east coast of Similan Island #9 which holds all the reef species which is common in the area. This dive we saw all that and then some, turtles , banded sea snakes, a big school of BIG Barracudas and one of our dive groups had a black and white tip reef shark swimming around them at the end of the dive !

Hallelujah Rays At Koh Tachai

We did our sunset/night dive at Koh Tachai, and the dive itself was an ok one with lion fishes, crustaceans and the odd giant moray eel around. After 38 minutes down there we were ready to ascend to the boat when 2 Spotted Eagle Rays swam past one of our dive groups ! For the dive guide Linus it was a true hallelujah moment since the Eagle Rays has been extremely elusive for him during his 4 seasons diving in the Similan Islands. This was the first proper sighting for him so a big congratulations and a well deserved Finally !

Richelieu Rock And A Grande Finale

We started our 2nd day at Koh Tachai Pinnacle, and what looked like easy conditions quickly became a challenging dive as the current picked up during our descent. For most people the dive was cut short due to fighting the current to much, but 2 beautiful dives at Richelieu Rock after made more than up for it.

Visibility was clear on the inside of the pinnacle while the outside wall had thermoclines and a lot of plankton in the water. Really impressive sighting to see large Yellow Tail Barracudas and Massive Spanish Mackerel hunting amont the schools of fish that were feeding there.

During the first 2 days we had some amazing dives with a lot of cool sightings and pressure was on Koh Bon to provide that little bit extra for our last day of diving.

We did the morning dive around Koh Bon Ridge as the conditions didn’t suite the Pinnacle, and it was lucky we did. In total we saw 3 different species of sharks and lots of activity on the “corner”. We didn’t see any Manta Rays but conditions were looking ideal, so instead of heading into main land to do our fantastic wreck Bonsung, we decided to do one more dive at Koh Bon and hope for the big guys to show up.

And show up they did ! 10 minutes into the dive, first one, then two Manta Rays was cruising and hovering around our dive groups ! They spent 30 minutes with us and on the journey back the whole boat was smiling from some truly amazing 3 days on board our liveaboard the M.V Vilai Samut !

Congratulations to Magnus and Emilia for finishing your Advanced course ! Good thing you made quick work of your Navigation Dive so you got to see the Manta Rays as well !

Thanks to all our guests that joined us and a big thumbs up for choosing such an incredible trip !

Upcoming Liveaboard Trips!

Our next liveaboard departure is the evening of 29th of February, returning on the 3 march and we still have spaces AVAILABLE ! Hurry up now to get a cabin and go out diving with us and the stunning marine life we have in the Andaman Sea. Click HERE for our full schedule.

/ The Liquid Team

[Show as slideshow]

Can It Get Any Better ?

We return once again from another spectacular liveaboard trip around the Similan Islands, diving & snorkelling in some amazing conditions.

First day started off great with a zero current dive at West Of Eden, allowing us to play around as we wished among the boulders. Despite the early morning there was already loads of activity with blue fin – and giant trevally hunting all over the dive site. Towards the end of the dive our group staying a bit shallower got lucky and managed to see a massive great barracuda, a hawksbill turtle and a black tip reef shark all within the last 10 minutes of the dive.

Our snorkeller got lucky as well and bumped in to 2 turtles among the large rock formations.

With a start like that spirits were high, and with a sea that just got flatter and flatter by the hour we had a blast for the rest of the journey.

Pelagic Magic And A Lesson Learned

The 2nd day we dove Richelieu Rock for a couple of dives and it really put on a show ! A lot of the dives here we focus on the small stuff as this dive site is home to many special little critters.

But this day the small guys were in the shadow by 35 m visibility and huge schools of silver fish going crazy, trevallies, barracudas, mackerel and even large Wahoos hunting on the east side of the pinnacle. It’s not often we get that perfect combination that the current is enough to get the fishes active but light enough to make the dive easy so we can enjoy the show without blowing through our air supply.

During our ascent one of our dive guides learnt why it’s a bad idea to dive with a cold as he suffered a reverse block in his sinuses. Our guide ranks the dive as one of the absolute top ones at Richelieu Rock but the sinus problem as one of the worst experiences under water in his career.

It’s easy to get over confident as an experienced diver and continue to dive with slight discomfort while you have a cold, with the help of antihistamines and decongestants. However this is not a recommended practise over a longer period of time, and by doing so in this case it led to a very painful experience.

If you have a runny nose, make sure you can equalize with ease before diving, and if you experience discomfort during ascent or descent, it would be wise to rest from diving until your condition improves. Easiest way to avoid a problem like this is to stay dry between the dives and take it easy with the air condition at night and of course have adequate thermal protection during your dives !

Flat As A Pancake And New Advanced Divers!

Since Richelieu Rock is in the middle of the ocean with we’re always under the mercy of the weather if we can go there or not. On this day it looked like there been an oil spill as the wind completely died down and left the sea totally flat. If a fish farted 500 meters from the boat we saw the bubbles brake the surface. It stayed like that at the rest of the trip and heading back to main land we thought back on some of the trips earlier in the season with stormy seas and it’s amazing how much it can change over such a short period of time.

Congratulations to our 4 new Advanced Divers that did their course on board, Joe, Nicole, Max and Romina , well done and welcome to the 30m club !

We saw some familiar faces this trip as Ola and Mattias from last season joined us again. Last season they had one of the best dives on record at Koh Bon with 4 Manta Rays cruising around us for an hour, the Manta’s failed to show up this trip unfortunately but the diving held top class throughout the trip and with 3 different species of shark sightings, 30 m+ viz and very little current one can’t complain.

Thank you all that joined the trip, hope you enjoyed your stay on board and hope to see you again !

Regards,

The Liquid Team