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We came for diving, didn't we? | |||
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As shown on the map, we left Chalong bay Sunday for a trip up to Surin Island and back. We visited various islands, each of them with fantastic sceneries. Koh Miang on days 1 and 5. Nice rocky reefs with so many small fishes. One of the places where Sarah and I spotted a snake. Koh Bangu on days 1 and 4. The dive on Monday led us through a beautiful corral reef where we spotted the biggest barracuda I ever saw. On Thursday, back to this island, a rocky pinnacle with leopard sharks Koh Bon on days 1 and 4. I loved Koh Bon! This small isolated island between Similan and Surin offers emerged beautiful scenery with caves and a hole, which hardly competes with the underwater marvels you can find there. The drop off is spectacular, but we had not enough time to explore it as one manta ray came to us and stayed there 15 mn above us. On our second dive there on our way back, a couple of manta rays kept on turning around so we spotted them all dive long. We also saw at Koh Bon a white tip shark and this sea snake which gave birth to this above mentioned signal. Congratulations Paul for your spectacular 100th dive performed there. Koh Tachai on days 2 and 4. Any diver who wants to see leopard sharks must go to Koh Tachai. They live among rocky pinnacles with hard soft corrals. We hardly avoided a collision between a leopard shark swimming from the left and Jason hidden by a rock. I cannot tell who was the more surprised, but the shark showed its lovely white belly as Jason caught it by the tail. Richelieu Rock on day 2. Richelieu rocks stands off Surin Island. It’s an immerged rocky pinnacle. Hundreds of scorpion fishes, lion fishes, a school of barracudas were seen there. Surin Island on day 3. Three dives at Surin Island. The rocky boulders were not so interesting, but an incredible number of species live in the shallow corral reefs. Justin was attacked by a trigger fish, who selected the strongest diver and had to give up quickly. Koh Hin Phae on days 5 and 6. This island of Similan archipelago offers impressive rocky boulders. During one of the safety stops in a strong current, we held tight to a rock a saw a beautiful white tip shark. Koh Payu on day 5. Koh Payu offers a spectacular corral reef, where we saw among so many other species big lobsters.
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