← Part of Chuck and Lijie's scuba diving trips
essay
Thailand — Similan Islands liveaboard, 2023
Chuck and Lijie's December 2023 scuba liveaboard through Thailand's Similan Islands — the Andaman Sea archipelago off the west coast of southern Thailand, one of Southeast Asia's premier dive destinations. The Similans are famous for hard-coral reefs, dramatic granite-boulder topography, and proximity to Richelieu Rock. Specific operator, dive sites, photographs and video to come.
The Similan Islands
The Similan Islands are a chain of eleven granite islands in the Andaman Sea about 70 km off the west coast of Phang Nga Province in southern Thailand, designated a marine national park in 1982. Their underwater topography is unusual for Southeast Asia: massive granite boulders that the dive sites work along like canyons and amphitheaters, interspersed with hard-coral gardens and sand channels. The combination produces some of the most photogenic dive sites in the region.
Diveable wildlife the Similans are known for includes whale sharks (occasionally), manta rays, leopard sharks, schools of barracuda and jacks, large groupers, octopuses, frogfish, and unusually colorful coral grouper. The northern islands sit closer to Richelieu Rock — Thailand’s most famous dive site, a horseshoe-shaped pinnacle that Jacques Cousteau named as one of the world’s top ten — which most Similan-area liveaboards include in their itinerary.
The park is closed half the year (May through mid-October) for the southwest monsoon. The standard liveaboard season runs roughly 15 October through 15 May.
The trip — December 2023 liveaboard
Chuck and Lijie’s December 2023 Similan Islands liveaboard. Five-minute YouTube recap:
Direct link: youtu.be/lbRc6fp2K-Y