Thailand - Khao Lak (Dec. 2014)

We go to Thailand Khao Lak and Similian Ilands

We're landing at Krabi Airport, and we're going on to Khao Lak. It takes 3 hours by bus and me and my husband talk about that we should probably try another airport next time we come here so the route will not be so long.
In Khao Lak it is like a long pedestrian street with shops hotels and restaurants. Arriving at the hotel "Leaf of Katahani" in its lobby, they invite us for tea while we are entered and waiting to get our bags to the room. It is humid and nice climate and expectations are high. We can't wait to go out and go see what it looks like and get to eat our first dinner this trip and prepare for pickup during the morning when we'll dive with IQ dive for the first time.

After we walk along the main street, we find a small hole in the wall that we think looks good. We bring in several dishes and share, but my favorite will be chicken in green curry that gets my head meal every night the rest of the week.

We dive with IQ dive which turns out to have fantastic service and good food, a great happy bunch.

At the exit from the harbor with the boat we are invited to breakfast and after the first dive we are invited to lunch. Two nice women cook directly on the boat, and it's like a small buffet. So incredibly good! After the last dive of the day there is plenty of fresh and nice fruit available and all the time there are soft drinks. You feel very taken care of. The crew is very calm and good and makes sure that everything flows on all the time. If you want to get help to redirect your equipment they do it for you but since both me and my husband have a little control needs, we choose to handle it ourselves.

Since the boat is quite large, it is functional for both divers and families who either want to snorkel or dive. They combine everything very well, one day of the week is only for divers on the boat, and it’s 3 dives.

We dive at Similian Iland where we get to see different animals like stingrays, sea urchins, trumpet fishes a turtle that was probably 10 years old if you look at the size and that took a little break, and a lot of other creatures.
Boon Sung is a wreck that lies about 20 meters and sank in 1985. According to legend, someone would flush the toilet and the water started to flow in. Whether that's true or not, no one knows :)

It is a wreck with an incredible amount of life and many poisonous and beautiful creatures. A fish had become entangled in an old fishing net that our guide Jong helped to untie. I have to say, this wreck became a favorite!

Richeliu Rock
Today our dive boat was on maintenance, so IQ dive had arranged a day trip with speed boat with some acquaintances of them and the trip went to Richeliu Rock. It was pretty current, so we went down the line. There were some more corals here and some clownfishes. The most enchanting thing we got to see was 3 cuttlefish. I've never seen that big, and it turned out to be mating period. Their angel looking bodies were glowing and flashing lights reflected in their bodies was the most incredible thing I've seen. First I looked up at the surface and wondered if there was something from above that reflected light on their bodies, but soon realized that it was themselves. You could see how they put eggs in crevices while they had their beautiful spectacle. They looked like a mixture of angels and aliens.

Last day we could not dive as it would be too short with time before we get to fly after the dive. We had a bit of a hard time deciding what we were going to do, but found a little day trip with bamboo rafting and waterfalls.

Our Thai Guide who spoke very good English took us out into the jungle where we got to ride the raft, and it was a relaxing and pleasant tour. After that, our guide wanted to give us some bonus, and we went partly to a Buddhist temple. It was nice until He wanted to show us the back of the monastery. There were longest of concrete cages. In one, we found a crocodile, in another mass of dead kittens, in another dead reptiles, in one there were small monkeys, etc. Outside these was a 1-meter-high stump where an orangutan was stuck in a 4-meter chain. The poor orangutan screamed, hit his head against the tree trunk and hurt himself. On this I could not take any pictures because then I could only cry. Our guide told us that when people get tired of their animals or can't have them anymore, they usually go to a temple and dump them there. It could be all kinds of animals.

Next, our guide took us to a military base where they take care of turtles and then place out into the sea when they are in the right size. From what I understood, you do a ceremony every year to place these wonderful creatures into the sea. I might then add that I am totally against all photography along with wildlife for payment. But I think and hope that maybe this was a little different, and I did not pay. On the base there were many different tanks with different ages where some were even medicated. Amazing to know that some of these will be great and contribute to life in the sea. Nothing beats seeing them in the wild and imagine being lying in the shore with tubes and seeing everyone come swimming out into the open :)

Then we finish our day's tour with swimming waterfalls, a bit cool but fantastic nice.