Manta Queen 6 Trip 169
On the evening of the 01.01.2015 our Manta Queen 6 liveaboard made its way out of the busy harbor of Khao Lak close to Phuket Island into the big vast Andaman Sea towards the Similan Islands.
Aboard is a big variety of guests, from all over the world including, China, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Austria. On the first day we started off with a beautiful dive at the Similan Islands called "West of Eden", looking at the sparring mantis shrimp, big gorgonian sea fans and loads of other life. After a strengthening breakfast of eggs and bacon we headed towards "Whale Back Rock" and a massive lobster among all the other sea life. After that we made our way to "Eagle Head Rock" and some of our group was lucky enough to be blessed with a visit from an eagle ray. As soon as it started getting dark, we headed towards the famous landmark at the Similan Islands "Donald Duck Bay", where we had a lovely night dive, with loads of feather starfish, crabs and sleeping triggerfish. Tired but happy everyone headed to bed, with a full belly from dinner.
Our first dive on day two at the Similan Islands, was "West of Eden" again and this time we were lucky enough to see a beautiful turtle eating some soft corals. Dive two was the famous "Elephant Head Rock" and among the awesome swim through and massive boulders were plenty of clownish, box fish, moray eels, garden eels, blue spotted sting rays and sweet lips. After a lovely lunch, our third dive of the day was at "Turtle Rock" and after that we headed towards Koh Bon Island. Koh Bon Island is without doubt one of the highlights for any Similan or Phuket bound liveaboard. Our final dive was on the Koh Bon "West Ridge" and turned out to be a lovely drift dive with a lot of feeding action going on from trevallies even some barracuda.
Early morning on day three we dive the Koh Tachai Island "Dome" and saw loads of big schools of fish and even some octopus. After that we headed towards the world famous "Richelieu Rock" at the Surin Island Marine National Park and did three dives there. We saw box fish, pipefish, puffer fish, cuttle fish mating, snappers, big schools of barracuda and loads more amount the beautiful hard and soft corals. On the morning of the last day we dive at Koh Bon Island again, this time diving the Koh Bon "North Ridge" twice. Both were wonderful drift dives and we were surrounded with glass fish, huge napoleon wrasse, big puffer fish and some lovely octopus again.
With a heavy heart we headed back In direction of mainland and still had one more dive on the "Boon Sung Wreck". We saw loads of scorpion fish, puffer fish, nudibranches, lionfish, but fish. Pretty much any fish since we literally swam in fish soup.
Happy and tired we arrived back at Khao Lak Scuba Adventures after a lovely trip.
Congratulations to Josephine for completing her PADI Nitrox course, to Franziska and Johannes for completing their PADI Advanced Diver Course. Xu Ping Yang, Lu Huang and Li Xin Wu for completing their PADI Advanced Diver Course, Dong Chuan Zhao for completing the PADI Nitrox course. Ya Fei Kang completing the PADI Open Water Diver Course.
If you are planning to visit Thailand stop by at Khao Lak and join us on an incredible liveaboard adventure for 3, 4 or 5 days and 5 nights at the Similan Island and Richelieu Rock.
Safe diving always
The Team of Khao Lak Scuba Adventures
