The Plan

Mid-October. End of the monsoon season. The monsoon season runs from April to September/October, during which time it’s almost constantly raining and there are many typhoons hitting the island, so if sun and beach is the goal, it’s perhaps best avoided.

On this trip we planned to spend a few days on a liveaboard (living on a boat for a few days, diving every day), diving the famous Similan Islands national park, which is closed for ecological regeneration every year during the wet season, so we would be one of the first visitors this season.

We decided to book our trip for mid to end of October because my partner happens to have booked that time period off, and although the transition period (October) can be unpredictable, we were encouraged by online reports of low tourist numbers, many sunny days, and very cheap hotels. We thought we would try our luck.

We did not get lucky.

Day 1 - Arrival

Arrived in Phuket at night after a 13 hours flight from London, and we were faced with our first obstacle on our way to hotel in Bang Tao (a posh area close to the airport) - a tree has been uprooted and blown across the road. The driver told us through Google Translate on his phone that he had just used this route 20 minutes ago. Oops!

Unbeknown to us at the time, Phuket had just been showered by the biggest tropical storm it has seen in 50 years, the day before our arrival. Many roads on the west side of the island (the beach side, where most of the hotels and resorts are) were semi-flooded, but actually most of the damage was on the east side, where the old town is.

Our liveaboard boat was supposed to leave on day 3, but as the sea conditions remained very rough in the wake of the storm, they canceled the departure last minute and rescheduled it for two days later.

Settling into the hotel, we were a bit sad with the state of things, and had to do some quick re-planning over the next day, as the downpours remained relentless.

Day 3 - Elephants

Elephant riding used to be (maybe still is?) a very popular tourist activity in Thailand, but it’s based on highly unethical treatment of the elephants - involving torturing and beating them into obedience from a young age. In Phuket there is now a new elephant tourism industry branding themselves as ethical elephant sanctuaries. We went to visit one recommended by the hotel.

It wasn’t quite what we expected, and it was clearly a zoo sort of setup with elephants in small enclosures (though the lady told us they do get more time out and about when there isn’t a storm). We fed the elephants sugar cane as treats, and washed one with mud and herbs. The elephants were very playful and we had fun learning about them and getting very muddy with them, but at the end of the day, they still lived in enclosures, so I’m not sure how ethical it actually is, or whether other “sanctuaries” do things differently. At least they aren’t beating or riding them, and they don’t seem scared of the handlers? More research needed.

We didn’t have hotels booked for these two nights as we were supposed to be on the boat. Fortunately our hotel for after the liveaboard was very nice and allowed us to change the date of the booking at no charge. We stayed in Kata beach, which is a quieter beach area compared to the more well known Patong. Not much to do in the rain, but we were able to sample some nice local restaurants. There was a lot of plastic on the beach presumably washed ashore by the storm, and we got some big bags from a coconut vendor to pick some up.

Day 5 - We Are on a Boat!

After a frustrating wait all day for a taxi to take us up to Khao Lak (coastal town about 2 hours north of Phuket, where most Similan Island trips depart), we were finally able to get on the boat at the Thap Lamu Pier, where we were told our boat would be leaving at 3am, for a 7am first dive the next morning.

This is the night I disocvered that I am actually capable of getting motion sickness. I have flown aerobatics in gliders, flown planes in some crazy turbulence with constant several feet drops, driven through some wild terrain, and taken many ferries and boat trips. I thought my vestibular system was invulnerable. It was not so.

Our boat was tilting about 20 degrees side to side every few seconds throughout the whole 3 hours trip. We had to remain perfectly still on the bed staring at the ceiling for hours just to not vomit, and only caught an hour of sleep before we were woken up at 7am for the first dive.

The first dive was on Island 4 (the Similan Islands are numbered 1 to 9 from south to north) - quiet dive site with very little current for us to get our bearings after not diving for about 6 months. We also saw an octopus during the day! They are noctournal and finding them during the day is unusual. On a liveaboard the standard is four dives a day if you want to get your money’s worth, but we decided to skip the second and third dives to catch up on some sleep, and only joined the night dive, where we… did not see an octopus.

Fortunately the sea has calmed down and the boat wasn’t moving for the next few nights, so we were able to get some good sleep and good dives in. In total we did 8 dives each over 3 days.

Dive Pictures

Overall, my first experience with a liveaboard has been mixed. On one hand, it makes diving very convenient logistically, and allows us to dive sites that aren’t very accessible otherwise. On the other hand, 4 dives a day is a lot, and there isn’t much to do the rest of the time. Maybe we will just stick to shorter liveaboards from now on. I don’t think I would be able to do more than 4 or 5 days. It has definitely been an experience though, and I’m glad we did it, despite the challenging start. Maybe the Red Sea next year?!