Thailand: Islands - February 2009
Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation of an article originally written in French. I apologise for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have resulted. If you read French, click on the French flag below to access the original, correct text:
Français I just came back from a four-day diving cruise in the fabulous Similan Islands, in the Andaman Sea, in Thailand. Here are some pictures, above and under water.
Similan Islands
To start with, some pictures of this fabulous beach of the island called "number 8" of Similan, where we stopped between two dives.
Nothing has changed since my visit three years ago.
The same white sand, fine as flour, the same translucent waves, the same azure bay that can be admired from above, from the big round rocks on which one climbs by clinging to ropes, with wooden footbridges between two granite blocks.
Atmosphere on board the Sea of Fantasy
For the rest, comfortable boat and great atmosphere! I'm aboard the Sea of Fantasyfrom the company Eden Divers. I have my own single cabin and my diving companions are nice people, easy to live with. There is no German contingent, but on the contrary an international clientele.
We are thirteen customer divers, there are three guides, a videographer, six crew members and a manager of Eden Divers on board. In all, thirteen nationalities: three French including myself, one Canadian, two Japanese, two Australians, one American, two Slovaks, two Swedes, one Turk, one German, one Israeli, one South African, one Swiss and the Thais, of course.
Update : The story you are reading here is several years old... So don't try to book the same cruise at Eden Divers today, the company no longer exists! It went bankrupt, in the hands of a German man who was prosecuted in Austria for fraud, and who was arrested in Thailand in May 2014, if I am to believe the articles I have read on Thai sites ThePhuketNews and ChiangRaiTimes.
No cannonballs on board, only nice people!
But for everything to be perfect, mantas and whale sharks should have been present. We hoped for them. Very much. But none of the big beasts appeared in the blue... So I will be obliged to come back, during a next trip, to see them! 😉
I realize how lucky I was, three years ago, to come across the two underwater...
Underwater photos
No matter. The dives were excellent anyway, and I consoled myself with a lot of other bugs, including the inevitable nudibranchs (sea slugs) that I love so much...
Unfortunately, my small Canon (Powershot A95)I tried everything to revive it: hot, cold, tapping, praying to Buddha, disassembling it with a rusty screwdriver... In vain. I tried everything to revive it: hot, cold, taps, prayers to Buddha, dismantling with a rusty screwdriver... In vain.
But I was lucky in my misfortune. The Turkish dive-master kindly lent me her little Powershot S30 with its housing so that I could continue to take pictures.
I admit, the camera wasn't great, not as good as my A95. But it was better than nothing. And I still managed to take some nice pictures.
I come back enchanted from these four days of diving, sea and sun.
Tomorrow Sunday, I have to get up very early again. The pickup for the ferry to Koh Lipe is between 6:15-6:45 a.m..
Ah, the joys of Thai pick-ups with uncertain schedules! Until the last minute, we are never too sure that the expected taxi/bus/minivan is going to arrive... In general, it always shows up. Never quite at the announced time.
Go. Tomorrow, go to Koh Lipe! And I will find the way to take photos anyway. Promised!
😉
Added on 13/04/2009: below, two links to complete this post.
→ My pictures of the Similan
→ Video of the crossed turtle in East of Eden
👌
