Français Thailand: Islands - February 2009
I have just returned from this four-day dive cruise to the Similan Islands. I'm not going to have the time tonight to post a long bill, but here are some photos. Photos on the water, under the water ...
Similan Islands
And here are some pictures of this fabulous beach of the island called "number 8" Similan, where we made a stop, between two ploufs.
Nothing has changed since my passage from three years ago.
The same white sand, fine as flour, the same translucent floods, the same azure bay that can be admired from above, from the large round rocks on which we climb by clinging to ropes, with footbridges in wood between two blocks of granite.
For the rest, comfortable boat and great atmosphere. I have my single cabin and my dive companions are nice, easy-going people. No contingent of Germans, but on the contrary a squarely international clientele.
Thirteen divers, three guides, a videographer, six crew members and a manager of Eden Divers. In all thirteen nationalities: three French, including myself, one Canadian, two Japanese, two Australians, one American, two Slovaks, two Swedes, one Turkish, one German, one Israeli, one South African, one Swiss and the Thais, of course .
UPDATE - October 2014: the story I made here dates from July 2009, do not go book at Eden Divers today, the company no longer exists ... She went bankrupt in the hands of a German, now sued in Austria for fraud who was arrested in Thailand in May 2014. See the articles in English of ThePhuketNews and ChiangRaiTimes.
Nice atmosphere, no ball, that charming people! For everything to be perfect, it would have been necessary that mantas and whale sharks were at the rendezvous. We hoped for them. But none of the big bugs appeared in the blue ... I'll have to come back to see them!
😀
I realize how lucky I was, three years ago, to meet both underwater ...
Photos under the water
Whatever. The dives were excellent anyway, and I consoled myself with a bunch of other critters, including the inevitable nudibranchs that I love so much ...
My small Canon (Powershot A95)who had been quaking for some time, let me go for good on the second day. I tried everything to revive him: hot, cold, pats, prayers to Buddha, disassembly with a rusty screwdriver ... In vain.
But I was lucky in my misfortune. The Turkish dive-master kindly lent me his little Powershot S30 with his subwoofer.
Not terrible, less powerful than my A95. But it was better than nothing. And I still managed to make some nice little pictures.
I come back delighted with these four days of plots, sea and sun.
Tomorrow Sunday, I have to get up very early, again. The pick-up for the ferry to Koh Lipe is between 6:15 and 6:45 ... Ah, the joys of Thai pick-ups at uncertain times! Until the last minute, we are never too sure that the taxi / bus / minivan expected will arrive ... In general, it always ends up pointing. Never quite on time.
Go. Tomorrow, go to Koh Lipe! And I will find the way to take photos anyway. Promised!
;-)
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Added on 13/04/2009:
Below, two links to complete this post.
»My photos of the Similan
Video of the turtle cross at East of Eden
:-)
Thailand: Islands - February 2009