Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Richelieu Rock (4day, 14dive, Liveaboard)

We arrived late in the afternoon in Khao Lak after coming all the way from Koh Phangan. We decided to come back to khao lak again, since we heard that the Similan islands were the best place to dive in all of thailand/southeast asia. We talked to a bunch of dive shops and managed to get an awesome deal on a last minute spot on a dive boat headed up from Phuket that had two bunks left. So we decided to go for it, a 4 day 14 dive livaboard with a company called "WestCoast Divers" (...how appropriate), that hit the Similan Islands, Richelieu Rock, and Koh Bon, Koh Tanchai (all the best sites in thailand). I had no idea what to expect since most of the diving in Egypt was done from the beach, so doing all the dives from the boat was very different.

Our boat the "West Coast Explorer IX"

Our spacious room was maybe 7ft by 5ft wide on the boat. 4 people were supposed to sleep in this room but we gave up and slept on the sundeck after 1 night. This was mainly due to the fact that I slept on the top right bunk and my feet would stick in front of the door so every time someone had to go to the restroom my feet would either get hit by the door or shoved out of the way. (with 3 other girls in the small room this happened all too frequently...)

Main deck on the west coast explorer

The boat held about 20 divers+crew and all of our dive gear. The trip departed Khao Lak at about 9pm and we motored all night to the similans to start our diving early the next day.

Sunrise at "Richelieu Rock"

A standard day on the boat started with a 7am wake up followed by a 730am breifing and suit up for the first dive at 8pm. After the first dive we had breakfast then relaxed for our 1-2hour surface interval. We then did a second dive around 11-1130am getting out to a tasty thai lunch. then again we rested and snorkeled...until our third dive around 3pm, then another rest/beachtime till we did our final dive of the day either at 6pm(dusk) or 7pm(for a night dive).


Our days were very full and it was otherworldly to spend close to 4 hours a day in a fishtank swimming with thousands of fish. Over the couse of the trip we got to see; a freeswimming octopus, a couple banded sea snakes, numerous moray eels, cuddlefish, napoleon wrasse, manta rays and some of the largest schools and baitballs of fish I could imagine. The dive sites also all had 20-30meter visibility underwater, crazy being able to see the surface from 100ft underwater!!


The best dive of the trip was on Koh Bon a small island north of the Similans famous for its Manta Sightings. We had heard that the day before we did our dives there had been some manta sightings so we were very excited to get in the water and try our luck. We jumped in and withing a couple minutes of decending a lone manta about 4 meters across did a slow flyby.... then another followed it shortly after. We drifted with the current, following the mantas to an under sea ridge where we held on to some cracks in the rock and just waited. The current was very strong and there was no hope in swimming against it so we just watched and waited as the mantas did passes and circled! at one point there were three different mantas hovering around us, seemingly playing and showing off, effortlessly gliding in the current. what amazing animals...

Leaving Koh Bon and the mantas

Then next best Dives were on Richelieu Rock an undersea pinnacle even farth north up the coast. This dive had great visibility and the pinnacle was teeming with life and color.

"Richelieu Rock" dive briefing map

One of the most eventful nights on the boat, had nothing to do with diving. We were sleeping up on the sundeck after giving up on the tiny room when we awoke to a thunder and lightning storm and a strange crashing noise. We got up and looked over the side of the boat and saw that our mooring line had broken and the huge boat was smashing up against some large rock in the bay. So with lightning overhead, the tide going out, and the thai crew looking frantic checking the hold for leaks....we thought that our trip was gonna get cut a little short. A nearby dive boat luckily came an helped tow us off the rocks before we got beached or sank. We found out the next day that the boat had been only slightly damaged and the trip could continue.

Getting towed of the rocks...