Christmas 2020 cruise, a festive and exciting week of diving in Thailand
We just returned from a festive and exciting week of diving in Thailand. After our departure from Ranong, we picked up Gary and Lisa from Ko Phayam and had our diving group ready for an adventure into the Similan and Surin Islands!
Our first day was spent exploring Surin National Park where we were delighted to be greeted by friendly turtles and roaming napoleon wrasses. We looked a bit closer to search out iridescent peacock mantis shrimp, ghost pipefish, and loads of vibrant nudibranchs, including the cutest little Pikatchu nudibranch. The divers were especially excited when we sited a tiger shark! As calm and cute as a teddy bear.
Our first day was spent exploring Surin National Park where we were delighted to be greeted by friendly turtles and roaming napoleon wrasses. We looked a bit closer to search out iridescent peacock mantis shrimp, ghost pipefish, and loads of vibrant nudibranchs, including the cutest little Pikatchu nudibranch. The divers were especially excited when we sited a tiger shark! As calm and cute as a teddy bear.
Cutest little Pikachu nudibranch
The following day we cruised south to Ko Tachai and Ko Bon in Similan National Park. As we hopped into a calm sea, we were in luck and found awesome visibility. We descended into swarming schools of fishes such as batfish, goatfish, cobias and trevallies. As we peaked through corals to find colorful juvenile angelfish, groupers and parrotfish, we also spotted an eagle ray!
 The reef was covered in glassfish |  Batfishes |
Even though we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the schooling fish, we had an exciting moment of finding a rare psychedelic batwing slug. What a trip!
Rare psychedelic batwing slug
In between dives, a friendly green turtle swam up for some air right next to our boat! We grabbed some snorkels and hopped in to say hello. It was so friendly that he stayed with us for some time to have a close look at us as well.
A marine turtle very friendly
After a comfortable night’s rest we traveled to our southernmost destinations. Beneath the famous submerged boulders, we spotted two juvenile white tipped reef sharks at Anita Reef and Shark Fin Reef.
Our sunset dive at Elephant Head Rock was filled with exhilarating swim throughs and lots of fish nibbling on their evening meals. The most beautiful ribbon eels in all three colours came out of their rocks to watch us swim by: yellow, blue and black, what a treat!
Our sunset dive at Elephant Head Rock was filled with exhilarating swim throughs and lots of fish nibbling on their evening meals. The most beautiful ribbon eels in all three colours came out of their rocks to watch us swim by: yellow, blue and black, what a treat!
we spotted two juvenile white tipped reef sharks in the southern Similans
 Night dive in Thailand |  Our night dive at Elephant Head Rock was filled with exhilarating swim throughs |
During this cruise we also partnered with the Similan National Park Rangers for a clean-up dive. We met the Rangers on the island and learned more about maintaining the natural beauty of these marine parks and were rewarded with awesome t-shirts to remember our time and work together in preserving the majestic homes of our underwater friends...
Look at this bunch of awesome trash heros!
| We were also rewarded with phenomenal visibility on our next dives as we descended into a tornado of shiny barracudas! The clear visibility allowed us to spot a massive titan triggerfish nursery. There must have been 20-30 nests in the sand, all filled with mothers snuggled close to their babies and fathers swimming close by to ward off any predators. We made sure they felt safe as we kept our safe distance from this natural wonder. |  Underwater garden in Thailand |
 Awesome titan triggerfish nursery |  a massive school of Barracudas in Similans |
Our night dive at Ko Bon was full of excitement and oddities. A funky frogfish was hanging out with a Spanish dancer nudibranch in the rocks, and we spotted eerie sea snakes and ornate ghost pipefish.
 ornate ghost pipefish | We returned to Ko Bon the following day to continue exploring one of the best sites on our trip. Franck decided to stay back on the sunset dive to grill up an epic Christmas Eve barbecue. The whole boat was rocking as we ate, drank and danced the night away! It was definitely a Christmas party that nobody will forget. |
 time for celebrate Christmas eve in style! |  |
 |  we danced the night away and had so much fun! |
| On Christmas morning we received the gift of Richelieu Rock! This was the highlight of our trip as we donned our Santa hats and dived through mind-blowing schools of chevron and pick handle barracuda, huge red snappers, and flashy rainbow runners. |  Hello! Can you see me? |
 Mr frogfish | We saw lionfish, frogfish, and scorpionfish as we cruised around the craggy site, and could not hold back our excitement at seeing a guitar shark join the party. After we passed some mating cuttlefish, we found a magnificent seahorse. A perfect ending to our holiday trip. |
Our festive cruise had come to an end so we headed home, dropping Wendi off at Ko Phayam.
Thank you to all the divers who made it so memorable! And a big congratulations to Gabriella for her junior advanced open water diver certification, to Sylvia and Ben for their advanced open water diver certification, and to Nici for her advanced open water diver and nitrox certifications!
Follow us for more fishy stories!
Thank you to all the divers who made it so memorable! And a big congratulations to Gabriella for her junior advanced open water diver certification, to Sylvia and Ben for their advanced open water diver certification, and to Nici for her advanced open water diver and nitrox certifications!
Follow us for more fishy stories!
 |  |
RSS Feed
