Khao Lak and Similan Islands Thailand

When we got back from Boracay we were in Kuala Lumpur for three days before leaving for another trip. While the company and client try to negotiate another contract, we were encouraged to take vacation while it is quiet. They didn't have to tell us twice. We made arrangements to stay in Khao Lak (the place in Thailand that was hit the heaviest by the tsunami in 2004) for five days before getting on the MV Nautica for a six day, six night liveaboard cruise to the Similan Islands, Surin Islands, and Richelieu Rock, Thailand.

After the small troubles we had on our last trip to Boracay, we were looking forward to a nice uneventful vacation. Sadly, that wasn't meant to be. On day 4 of our liveaboard, Van came down with an undeserved hit of decompression sickness and had to be evacuated by speedboat (1.5 hours), taken by ambulance to the hospital in Phuket (1.5 hours), and had a five-hour session in the decompression chamber. Thankfully, it was a mild case and he recovered nicely after having oxygen and just one session in the chamber. Others are not so lucky and require more than one visit to the chamber. Unfortunately, he couldn't fly for 72-hours after his last chamber treatment and had to stay for a couple more days. I had to go home as planned without him to get us moved into our new KL apartment.

While we were diving, we saw some really incredible things. It was hard for both of us to cut our trip short, but we were both glad nothing worse happened - smile. We are both very glad to be back in KL, moved in, and back to work!















Great visibility and a big school of glass fish on the reef.















Seeing one of these giant mantas (25' wing span) is like seeing a big grizzly bear in Yellowstone Park. Just amazing! We got to see the two very friendly mantas on two separate dives to the same place. They are just incredible to watch. So big and graceful.















Beautiful fish on the way up.




















Steve was our Tour Director and Master Diver. He was wonderful. I can't tell you how safe we felt under his care when Van got decompression sickness. Steve was amazing. A great dive master and friend. Here he is blowing air rings while we pass the time at our safety stop. I call them halos as he really is an angel.















Sunset as we come up from one of our later dives.




















Coming up the buoy line.















A file fish.















Another view of the manta and the remoras hanging on for dear life.















He went that close right over the top of me - no zoom.




















Another view. Magnificent!




















You can kind of get an idea of his size in comparison to the divers below.




















A lion fish under a rock that bounced my in-camera flash. The colors are amazing. It makes me wish I had more external light for underwater photography.















The colors and textures are wonderful. It's brilliant!















My first sea snake. It was hanging around the entrance to one of the swim throughs.




















Sea fan. Awesome graduated colors.















This was my favorite coral. The colors were hot pink and purple. Truly the brightest colors of coral I have seen so far.














A rockmover wrasse. Gerard held his flashlight on it at just the right time to show the colors and detail. Beautiful.

A clown trigger fish. The patterns and colors are a incredible.

This eel seems to be very photogenic with his buddies the cleaner shrimp. Funny!

First adult box fish I've seen. It said, she you later alligator, I'm out of here!

A pregnant giant puffer. Check out the little lumps on her stomach.

Titan Trigger fish getting cleaned. It lays on the rocks while "things" clean it. It looked like it was dead. I came up behind it and snuck around the front to get a photo of it's teeth. They have been known to attack divers when they are nesting.

Beautiful reef formations.

Diver through a giant Georgonian Sea Fan.

Those things sticking up out of the sand are eels. They hide in their holes when you get close. Otherwise, they are sticking up like blades of grass.

See through.

Beautiful colorful anemone.

Nice coral grouper.

Beautiful juvenial box fish.

Van in the Phuket decompression chamber jsut before they closed the door for 5 hours. Lee was the outside attendant making sure he was comfortable.

The outside of the decompression chamber - looks just like the photo in the PADI diver's manual.

The lounge area of the MV Nautica liveaboard boat we were on. It was great! Highly recommend the boat and diving with them! Most excellent!

You can get a more realistic color closer to the surface. These soft corals were stunning!

Coral!

Giant moray eel. They come out at night and hunt and if you are on a night dive, they smart ones will eat the fish that you blind with your flashlights. Sneaky!

Is she looking at me? I don't know. Don't make eye contact. Soldier Fish.

Donald Duck Bay, Similan Islands. One of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen.

Water Donald Duck Bay, Similan Islands. WOW!

Sunset, Khao Lak, Beach at Bangsak Village Resort.

This great bug loved me. I was getting a foot massage and it landed on me. I put it on my hand and it crawled around. When the store owner grabbed it and held it, it made a screaming sound. It was awful.

Nature's Etch-A-Sketch. The sand on the right was after a rain storm. The sand on the right, smooth from the waves washing on shore.

Van having his second (or third) beachside massage in Khao Lak. They were the equivalent of $20 USD for a 90 minute massage. No wonder!

The pool at our hotel, Bangsak Village. Four days of lounging by the pool - heaven!

Shells littering the beach.

We had a wonderful time. Hope you enjoyed the photos. We are hoping we have many more opportunities to travel while we are in Malaysia.

Boracay, Philippines Christmas 2010

This trip didn't really start out the way we planned. Air Asia was 3 hours late leaving Kuala Lumpur so we missed our connecting flight to the islands from Manila (which happened to be the last flight of the day to the islands). Laine had to go on without us and spend her first night in Boracay alone and we had to spend the night in Manila. We took the first flight out in the morning and were met by her smiling face at the hotel. Almost the first words out of her mouth were, "can we open Christmas presents now."





















The waters of Boracay were amazing. Clear, blue, and beautiful. White Beach, the most popular on the island and where most of the hotels are located, is a long, long, stretch of the softest white sand imaginable. Besides the people, it was lovely.















Fresh spider lobster. We've seen these in the sea living, it was hard to see this one dead. :(















The sunsets were amazing from the rooftop at the hotel we stayed at, the Lingganay.












The boatman for the shuttle boat to the para-sailing boat took Laine and my photo. The para-sailing was really scary, but really fun, too. The scariest thing was that when the wind gusted it buffeted us around. I didn't like that much. Especially, after Laine commented on how high up we were and that if we fell it would be like landing on concrete!












Para-sailing - look how high we are! The boat was a tiny speck!




















I bought Laine this custom painted Nemo t-shirt. Sometimes, I forget she's not 5 any longer. Nice Nemo face, Laine!












Laine and Van reading a book on the rooftop as the sun slowly sinks into the horizon.












The view of our hotel's pool and the beautiful sea beyond. We watched kite boarders from the pool. The hotel was on a hilltop on the south end of the island, away from the busy beach, and with beautiful views in all directions.












Local map of Boracay. It's about 7 km long. Not very big, but very busy during the peak holiday season.












Laine and Van at Willy's Rock on White Beach. Willy's is a shrine to Virgin Mary. It was early in the morning our first day and if we had been there four hours later (when the island woke up after a late night of partying) you'd be hard pressed to get a photo without a bunch of people in it.












Laine talked us into opening her presents about 10 minutes after we arrived. She loves to open presents. It was fun. We opened them right away and had a blast doing it. Of course, it made Christmas morning a little anticlimactic.















Sunset and para-sailing. I bet the people on board had a beautiful view if they were afraid to turn around and look.















We rented scooters on Christmas morning. I had a wee wreck first thing and didn't get on them the rest of the trip, but Laine and Van had a fantastic time!




















The Briggs Family sand castle on Christmas Day. I didn't help too much due to the amount of Margaritas I had consumed and the pain from my scooter wreck injuries.
















Laine's most excellent bandage and the medicine that worked better than iodine.














Storm on the way, but amazingly it never rained. The colors were a beautiful contrast. White beach, blue water, and dark clouds. The island where it is raining is Caticlan (where the closest airport to Boracay is).














There was no lack of exciting activities. Here Laine smiles after her Zip Line ride. There were two lines and we were supposed to go together, but my harness got held up at the top and she went first without me. It was a screaming good time!

White Beach and a local boat. Beautiful.

Another beautiful sunset from the rooftop of our hotel looking towards White Beach.

This local boy gave Van the "thumbs up" on his curly locks - much like his, only a little lighter in color.

A local sailboat on Puka Beach. Laine and Van took a short sail on it. Puka Beach is on the north end of the island, more remote, and certainly not as crowded.

The view from our hotel balcony looking towards the kite surfing beach and the north part of the island.

White Beach from the boardwalk looking towards the water.

View from our hotel balcony looking south towards Caticlan Island. The small island with the white sand beach is called Crystal Cove and you can rent it for weddings and special events.

White Beach at sunset.

We took a day excursion to Ariel's Point. About an hour's rough sail from White Beach. It's a cliff diving/jumping paradise. Laine and Van were the jumpers of the day. I took the day off from screaming!

Christmas decorations at the Shangri-La Resort. We ate there for Christmas dinner and the buffet was amazing. We also tried their Italian restaurant one night and it was really good, too. It was an amazing resort. I wished we could have stayed there, but they were full when I was making reservations.

Van and I at the end of the Zip Line.

During the trip, both Laine and Van came down with food poisoning or some kind of virus and both had a doctor house call complete with IVs. That kept us pretty low key for a couple of days, but we made up for it when they were both feeling better.

It was so good to see Laine for Christmas, but we all wished Joe and Blair could have been with us. Family at Christmas is a really wonderful thing. It really made me miss my own family. I hope you and your families had as much fun as we did. After almost two and a half years in tropical climates, a little snow and a fireplace have a certain appeal to me.