I arrived in Phuket and signed up for a liveaboard trip that left later that day. I was lucky to get the last spot on the last trip offered this season. Monsoon season is coming up and the National Park will be closing soon. We drove about 2 hours from Phuket into the Province of Khao Lak to board the boat. The boat was way nicer than I imagined with three floors, one with equipment, dive platform, kitchen and tiny, but comfy cabins, one with a dining area open on three sides with an amazing view and refreshing breeze, fancier cabins and the captains bridge, and, finally, a sundeck with a hammock and lounge chairs that quite a few people choose to sleep on instead of freezing in their aircon cabins. To my relief, the other tourists were between the ages of 21 and 45 and almost all spoke fluent English. I had been terrified that I would be the only anglo on a boat full of German 60 year old married couples and would spend four days sitting alone and listening in on conversations I had no hope of comprehending.
But instead, the next four days flew by in a blur of diving, eating, sleeping and laughing at each other. We saw a leopard shark, manta rays, Kuhl's stingrays, sea snakes, lion fish, turtles, moray eels, puffer fih, angelfish, lobster, barracuda, and squid. The dive sites in the Similans not only offer a chance to see all these amazing animals, but also clean/clear blue water, brightly colored corals and thousands of tiny fish in huge schools. It was absolutely breathtaking and even the "dullest" of dives left me wanting more. Absolutely amazing experience.
Another thing that I got to experience on the liveaboard was a thermocline. We were waiting to see of any manta rays would show up at a dive site in Koh Bon so we were lined up above this ledge of coral keeping an eye out on the blue (kind of like watching a huge blue screen). I noticed the water in front of me was shifting from clear blue to this funny greenish yellow color and getting really blurry. Within minutes, the cloud had hit me and it was FREEZING! I have yet to find someone who can thoroughly explain it to me, but for some reason the water remains separate, the warm blue and clear and the cold greenish and really blurry (kind of like looking through frosted glass). Sarah aptly described it like watching a sandstorm heading for you. I personally didn't mind it, after the initial shock wore off, and entertained myself by swimming along with my body in warm part and my arms dangling into the cold part. It was very cool!
Overall, I love love loved my liveaboard trip. I think 4 days is about as much as I can handle with 4 dives a day, but I would get on another boat in a heartbeat!
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