Merry Christmas from The Smiling Seahorse: A Festive North Andaman Diving Adventure
Merry Christmas to all! We had a really amazing Christmas trip and hope you also enjoyed the festive season with your loved ones.
We welcomed 15 fantastic guests from France, Switzerland, Germany, Canada and Sweden, who joined us for a 7-day liveaboard cruise exploring some of the best dive sites in the North Andaman Sea of Thailand, including the Similan National Park and Surin National Park. What a blast!
Unfortunately, Franck took the week off to enjoy Christmas at home with the kids. It was a treat for our family, but it also meant no underwater photos from Franck this week! Thankfully, our dream team took over with some lovely photos onboard, and it looks like everyone had a fantastic trip without us (Camille and Franck).
Christmas guests on the MV Smiling Seahorse
Great Diving in Surin and at Richelieu Rock
Great dives were had throughout the trip, with lots of schooling fish, cute nudibranchs, octopus and blacktip reef sharks.
Torinla Rocks in the Surin Islands were amazing this week, with Pikachu nudibranchs hiding among the hydroids and a Kuhl’s stingray gliding over a garden of garden eels.
Richelieu Rock was incredible too. We saw a seahorse, a few ghost pipefish, a ribbon eel, a zebra moray and a huge amount of fish dancing over the rock. Trevallies, barracudas, fusiliers, rabbitfish and batfish all added to the spectacle.
Over in the Similans, Three Trees had a strong current, but the school of barracudas hovering over the reef gave us a magical show. Sometimes a challenging current is worth it when the reef comes alive like this!
Christmas Eve Onboard The Smiling Seahorse
Of course, the fun was not limited to the diving. We had a great time onboard, especially during Christmas Eve, when we enjoyed a wonderful barbecued lamb shank and a few drinks together.
Thank you to our lovely guests for joining us this Christmas and for making the trip such a memorable one!
All the Smiling Seahorse team wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
[
Do You Know How the Christmas Tree Tradition Started?
Do you know how the Christmas tree tradition started?
Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people during winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows.
In many countries, it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits and illness.
Looks like our tree brought us luck this week and kept bad spirits away 🙂
How was your Christmas? Did you take a holiday? Did you go diving somewhere cool? Or did you stay home?
Did you get any fun scuba-diver gifts under the tree?
Tell us all in the comments section!
