Khao Lak

Day 1: Another smooth day of travel, which included a 6am pick-up, boat to the mainland and 4 bus changes on my way to Khao Lak. Give me strength! I think they were just doing it for fun in the end.

Khao Lak is located in south-west Thailand and wasn't a place I'd initially planned on visiting. However, after getting my dive licence and speaking to a few people about the quality of the dive sites this side, I decided to give it a go. Means I'll be missing out Krabi and Koh Phi Phi (maybe on another trip) so lets hope it was worth the visit.

On the journey, I met a big group of New Zealanders who were heading to Khao Lak to do some snorkelling. Got chatting to them on the journey, which finished with our arrival at 6.30pm (original ETA - 3pm). I stuck with them and, after checking out a few hostels, we managed to find a nice cheap one with dorm rooms so we all checked in.

Didn't do much that evening as the day's travelling had knackered me out. Got some food at the guesthouse and had a walk along the strip before crashing out. Will compare some diving deals tomorrow.

Day 2: The new-zealanders set off early, having booked themselves a snorkelling trip for the next few days. I then spent a few hours walking down the main road, comparing the deals on offer from the numerous dive operators stationed here. The vast majority offer 3/4/5 day live-aboard packages where you basically live on a boat and do various amounts of dives every day. Kent, my swedish friend, and also Koen had told me about Khao Lak and some of the dive sites here so I was eager to get a good deal that visited the best ones. After a few hours comparison, I signed up to a 3-day / 3 night Live-aboard deal to the Surin Islands with a company called Sea Dragon. Managed to bag the one remaining place as well - one of the perks of being a lone traveller! The boat wasn't departing until the following night so I had a day and a half to kill in Khao Lak.

After booking the package, I had a walk around and was quite staggered by the amount of germans that are holidaying here - Hundreds of them. Not a bad thing of course, on the whole they have probably been the nicest people I've met on my trip so far but still surprising how many there are. It's a straight fight between germans and canadians in terms of the nationality I've come across the most and this puts the germans well in front (I'm not counting the south-east asian countries of course).

I spent that afternoon on the beach before calling home to Mummy Bowyer that evening. Also met a nice couple of guys at my hostel - Barrie (UK) and Christy (US). Then got some food and found a bar to watch the Liverpool / United game. The least said about that, the better.

Day 3: A few more hours of sunbathing before it dawned on me that I'd been in south-east asia for 2 and a half months now and haven't had one massage. I think I've just been in auto-pilot mode when walking through all cities, saying ''NO'' every 5 seconds I get asked, that I actually forgot to try them out. Being as this was my last day in Thailand before the live-aboard trip, I decided to treat myself to one at a place on the beach. Opted for a Thai massage and it was really nice. A few people have told me they have been aching for days afterwards but it was just right for me. Not quite up to Clare's standards though (you can tell her I said that Kate).

After the beach, I headed up to Sea Dragon to get measured up for all my equipment and wet-suit for the Live-aboard. I then booked a guesthouse for my brief return to Khao Lak and we met at Sea Dragon again at 8.30pm. It was absolutely hammering it down as well. In asia, when it rains, IT RAINS!

We met the main instructor that evening - a swiss guy called Roger, who was really funny and had a very amusing accent. There were 20 people doing the trip in total and we all got chatting as we headed towards the boat on the company Jumbos. Some really cool people so I was very optimistic about the trip and really looking forward to it.

Upon arrival on the boat, we met all the other instructors and the thai staff that work on board. Roger then gave us an introduction to the boat, safety procedures and the schedule for the next 3 days. We also got put into our dive groups and met our group instructors, who gave their own introductions and showed us where the equipment, cabins were etc. I was in a group with Justin (US), Cathy & Stephan (Both Germany - what a surprise). Our instructor was called Dudu (Brazil). Justin and I were also rooming together.

After the briefing, we stayed up chatting to everyone for a couple of hours, all excited about the next few days. Some really nice people on the boat - Carina and Alex (Sweden), Raph and Steve (Aus), Dani and Brad (US), Russ and Isabel (UK & Canada), Milo (Czech Rep), Ruth (London). Also some cool instructors - Jay (UK), Mika (Finland) and Dear (Thailand). Had a feeling this was going to be good. Then off to bed - 4 dives tomorrow.

Live-aboard Day 1: I had opted for this trip because it visited the Surin Islands, rather than the Similan Islands, which all the other companies in Khao Lak go to. Sea Dragon is the most established dive company in the town and the consensus seems to be that the Surin Islands are slightly better than Similan, with more to see and better sites. Lets hope so.

The first dive was at 7.30am at a site called Koh Bon. Was a really nice dive but didn't last very long because myself and Stephan were out of air after 25 minutes (meant to last about 45 mins). This was my first dive since my course and I was now determined to improve my air consumption. There's a definate art to the way you breathe under water and I haven't mastered it yet, which makes you feel a bit guilty when the dive is cut short. The nature of scuba diving and the buddy system means that once one person is low on air, everyone has to finish the dive, even if they have twice as much left. It doesn't really seem fair and I felt bad for Justin and Cathy because they had loads left. Determined to try and improve my consumption over the next few days. I wasn't too worried about it doing my course but it's a different matter when people have paid lots of money to dive and you are responsible for ending it.

Anyway, the dive was good and we saw lots. After we finished, I spoke to a few of the instructors to see if they could give me any tips and techniques on ways to breathe to consume air. Was given a different technique by all of them, which was good as I had some to try out on the next dive. Once we were all back on the boat, we were treated to a very impressive and substantial breakfast.

Dive 2 was simply horrible. The dive manuals tell you that you won't enjoy every dive and that was definately the case here. This one took place at a site called Koh Tachai and the current was so strong, that some of the instructors said it was the strongest they had ever experienced in Thailand.

In our group, about 10 minutes into the dive, we lost sight of Cathy and Stephan (or rather, Dudu did - I was buddied with Justin and more than happy to just keep sight of him). The dive had been really tough up to this point because of the current, making it hard to move and very exhausting as we were always against it. It's easier to move the closer to the bottom you get but the rock formations of the site were making it difficult to even get there. It just wasn't a nice dive and I even got into a bit of a panic myself at one point - something I've managed to avoid on my dives so far. You use even more air when that happens.

After looking around for the other 2 for a couple of minutes, myself, Justin and Dudu returned to the surface to see if they were there. Not only were they back on the boat, they had clearly been out of their gear for a good couple of minutes and Dudu wasn't best pleased. Apparently, Stephan had got into a bit of a panic and headed up and Cathy, being his buddy, headed up with him. After a bit of reprimanding, we had to terminate the dive. I didn't mind because I hadn't enjoyed it one bit and was again, pretty low on air but I felt bad for Justin again as he had loads left. Like I say, a bit unfair at times. Not a pleasant dive but I definately learned a lot from it.

Dive 3 was at Koh Tachai again but a bit closer to the island, where the current was milder. Air consumption was better this time and it was an enjoyable dive.

This dive did have a bit of an embarassing moment for me, which I could not tell you all about. However, it's funny so I feel I should share (so consider yourselves lucky). Dudu had arranged with me prior to the dive that if I was low on air again, and the others still had plenty, we would continue the dive with me using his alternate air source. I was more than happy with this arrangement because it meant I wouldn't have to feel guilty about cutting the dive short and would mean a longer dive for everyone, including myself.

When, as expected, this happened, I switched to Dudu's alternate and we carried on swimming. What he didn't tell me however, was that he would be holding my hand as we swam around looking at the fishes! He just grabbed it and, as I'm now breathing from his tank, I couldn't exactly pull away. I had to laugh to myself, knowing that the others were behind laughing their heads off. Something quite romantic about scuba-diving hand-in-hand, pointing out fishes to each other. I got some serious stick for that back on the boat. It was funny to be fair. A while later, Dudu came up to me and said we couldn't do that again. I'm not sure if that's because it's against safety procedures (it definately is) or because he felt uncomfortable about the whole thing. Either way, I didn't disagree and it made me even more determined to improve my own consumption. Had to face the fact that I wouldn't be living it down for the whole trip now though. To be fair, I'd do the same though so can't really complain. All good banter. 

The final dive of the day was a night dive. Roger took over as our instructor for this one, which was quite funny because he forgot to tell Dudu, who, as Roger was briefing us, was stood behind him waiting to give his own briefing. Had a laugh about that. Roger had decided that Dudu was due a break and he didn't really put up much opposition. So it was a night dive with the funny swiss guy for us.

This was really cool and I could see a lot more than on my night dive in Koh Tao. Again, I was still using too much air and it was cut a bit short but I seemed to be improving my consumption with every dive.

4 dives in one day was pretty tiring so we were all grateful for a shower, a rest and some nice food afterwards. The Thai staff on-board were really great and the food throughout the trip was superb. After dinner, we settled down to watch the DVD that Marikka (videographer) had compiled from the day's diving. Was a really good watch although not much footage of our group from dive 2! Had a couple of drinks afterwards and got to know some more of the people on the boat.

Live-Aboard Day 2: The day consisted of 3 dives at the Surin Islands and I absolutely loved it. The water was much calmer than the previous day, meaning we could enjoy the dives more and we saw loads. Justin was moved to a different group at the start of the day, which I was quite pleased about because it wasn't fair on him to have to finish the dives early. I was surprised they didn't do the same with Cathy as she was also really good with her air. This meant I would be buddying with Dudu for the rest of the trip. No holding hands though!

The highlight of the day was something that only myself, Dudu and Marikka saw - A White-Tip Reef Shark. We only caught a glimpse of it as it swam straight past but I actually pumped my fist under water when I saw it. Had chosen this trip because I'd been told there was a chance of seeing some Sharks and I had. Was well chuffed. Being the only diver to see it, I was more than happy to gloat to the others when we got back on the boat as well! A few joking insults came my way in return but it was all good fun.

After the day's diving had finished, we then had an additional treat when someone spotted loads of dolphins swimming either side of the boat. We were moving to the next site, ready for the morning and they were all swimming alongside us and springing out of the water. Fantastic to see and we all felt very lucky. The trip just gets better and better.

That evening, we watched Marikk's DVD again, complete with footage of the shark (more gloating from me) and also the dolphins we had seen. She also managed to get footage of loads of other fish that were nowhere to be seen for the rest of us. We all said we wanted to swim with her the next day. Even a few conspiracy theories that she was using old footage - I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.

After dinner, we had some cocktails on the sundeck and a really good evening with all the staff and other divers. All really cool people on the trip and we got on like a house on fire. All a bit sad that this was our last night and the diving would be finishing tomorrow.

Live-Aboard Day 3: The final 2 dives of the trip took us to Richelieu Rock, one of the top 10 dive sites in the world. One word - AMAZING. It really was. Both dives were incredible and it was more a case of ''what didn't you see?'' than ''what did you see?''. Some unbelievable corals and more species of fish and eels than I could list here (All in my log-book). Saw so much and each dive ending was a real disappointment. To make it even better, my breathing had improved significantly now and the final dive lasted 45 mins, which I was also well pleased about (still pretty sure that Cathy could dive for another hour though - she just doesn't use any air!). Got a good breathing technique and pattern now and I'm eager to put it into practice again on my next dive. A real shame it was all coming to an end because of how I was improving. Carina has given me the nickname ''Sea-Gypsy'', claiming I've been going around stealing other people's air underwater. Haha - hopefully I can lose that name now.

And that was that - what a trip. We got the boat back to shore and a mini-bus back to Khao lak. This has, without doubt, been the highlight of my trip so far. Had so much fun, some amazing dives, saw sooooo much wildlife, met some great people and the organisation of the whole thing was exceptional. I would definately recommend Sea Dragon to anyone coming out here and I don't think it will be the last time I do one of their trips. I really couldn't fault it and was genuinely gutted when it came to an end - I could live for a month on that boat, no problem.

Once we got back into Khao Lak, we said goodbye to everyone and a few of us agreed to meet up that evening for some beers. Justin checked into the same guesthouse as me and we went to get some food with another lad staying there - Sabad (Canada). We then met up with Russ, Isabel, Jay, Ruth, Stephan and Tom, a guy who works for Sea Dragon and had sold me the trip in the first place. Was very grateful to him. Few beers with everyone before going our seperate ways. Shame to part as we had all become good friends on the trip.

That's it for Thailand - my favourite country so far. Had an amazing time in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia but the south of Thailand has been my favourite place (with the exception of Koh Samui). 

Malaysia next - 24 hour bus journey to Kuala Lumpur in the morning. Oh Joy.