It was bittersweet leaving Vietnam. I had a bunch of great adventures, made new friends and left things unseen...but, it was time to hit up the beaches of Thailand!
Before I left Calgary, I found out that Tyson and his friend Laura were staying at Khao Lak JW Marriott for a week before my dive trip. The timing was perfect, and I spent a luxurious 3 days at the resort before doing the dive trip. This was quite the resort, definitely a step up from my Vietnamese guesthouses. You really can't beat a room that walks out onto the pool, and a beautiful stretch of sand. We had a great few days of eating, drinking and in my case, getting a little too much sun!
It was the time for my 4 day, 4 night liveaboard dive trip to the Similan Islands. I met the group that night, was taken to the boat, met my roomie Bettina and settled in as it was early mornings for diving! I had a great trip, 14 dives in 4 days including some wrecks. Unfortunately, our schedule was changed due to weather and we weren't able to go further north to Silan islands and the famous Richelieu Rock...I'll be back to see those sights someday.
The highlight was definitely seeing a Manta Ray, one of the sea creatures that I have been waiting to see. Our group was the only ones to see it during the trip. We were sitting at our 5 minute safety stop and Koen, our divemaster gave us the ok to surface. I had been looking at a large group of fish as they suddenly parted, and a faint white line was visible. As everyone started to ascend, I sat there and kept on starring at the white line and finally made out a Manta Ray. I frantically signalled Koen who went to the surface to let the rest of the group know...I have to admit I completely lost track of my buoyancy but got a few pictures. It was spectacular watching it swim below us, absolutely one of the most spectacular diving moments I've had!!! Great staff and fellow divers made the trip! I highly recommend Khoa Lak scuba adventures and a liveaboard to those diving off of Thailand.
Enjoy a selection of the many pictures from my dives. And thanks to Alex and Vincent for lending me their camera to capture all of this!
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| Sunset at the resort |
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| JW Marriott Resort - pure luxury |
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| Beach at Khao Lak |
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| Enjoying drinks at "Our Bar" on the beach |
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| Sunset from the Manta 3 |
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| View of Princess beach from the boat |
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Moray Eel...these guys are cool! We saw one hunting at night -
when they come out of their holes |
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| Loved the feeling of diving in an aquarium |
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| MANTA....Amazing moment! Can't wait to see my next one |
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| My dive buddy, Cindy |
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| Sea moths....the sit on the bottom of the ocean floor and slowly move along. Takes a keen eye to see one. |
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| So many fish!!! |
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| Manta Queen 3 - after surfacing from a dive |
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| ME! |
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| Chasing a fish...not really sure what I'm doing here. |
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| Love this one of me! |
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| Our divemasters drew us awesome pictures of the dive sites before each dive |
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| My divemaster for the trip, Koen. He was a ton of fun! |
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| CLOWN FISH....aka, Nemo. These guys were adorable |
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| Green turtle, who swam around our boat after one of the dives |
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| Amazing Gregorian sea fans with sea stars on top |
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| Love the sea fans! They were incredible |
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| My dive buddy, Cindy |
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| Lion fish. Beautiful, but deadly |
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| Posing for pictures at the safety stop |
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