Everyday Sunshine - Fishbone

Thailand Similan Dive 2 019
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4-5-07

Similan Islands, Thailand

Hmmm, four days at sea listening to the mp3 player and I can’t come up with a tune title for this amazing dive trip. Land ho! Nope, used The Doors already. Don’t Rock the Boat baby. Not a chance I’m using 70’s disco in this blog. Buffet’s ‘Sharks to the left and right’, I might’ve even though I spent most of my youth bashing the guy. No luck at all on the sharks though so I can’t. That leaves tons fish and constant sun, and thus one of my all-time favorite songs: Fishbone – Everyday Sunshine. And I don’t care that ska has been out for years.

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So the trip itself was great. 11 dives out of 13 without any ‘mojo’ issues I mentioned in the Dahab blog. I skipped the night dives because they’re cold and boring and for newbies. The trip was on the MV Andaman, out of Khao Lak, run by Sea Dragon divers to the Andaman Sea/Indian Ocean. Good diving, gorgeous scenery, good fun. The divers were a very international scene, leaning a bit heavier on ze German/Austrian/Swiss side.

‘Yu kin swim on ze left zide of ze reef, or yu kin swim on ze right zide. Boot not is ZEE MIDDLE!’

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Hee, hee. I crack myself up. That’s a ‘Hot Dog – the ski movie’ reference that probably only brother Bob will get. I’m kidding of course. The master race and the rest of the folks were great, except for a pushy Polish broad. As for the diving, amazing. Lots of pelagic fish and my absolute favorite the great Manta Ray, due to some bad visibility and crazy currents. We also dived Ko Bon, the Surin Islands and Richelieu Rock seeing some cool stuff that I’ve never caught like pipe fish, scorpions fish, ribbon eels, nudibranch, and silver side ‘bait ball’ fish. These bait balls are tens, nay hundreds of thousands of tiny fish all swimming and reacting as one. Just amazing to be surrounded by them all and see them scatter or reverse direction all at once. I now HAVE to dive the sardine run in South Africa and see the masses attacked by sharks and other biggies. Speaking of sharks, like I mentioned at the beginning, we were totally skunked on whale sharks which is a big draw for this trip. Not unusual lately the dive crew says. But what about other reef sharks and such? Nope, they’re all gone too. For big current sea mounts not to have any sharks means they’ve been severely over fished in these waters. No sharks in the Red Sea either? Bad, very bad news. All because of that dang Shark Fin soup I complained about it China so NEVER order it at home, but that’s enough preaching for one day.

Thailand Similans dive 3 baitball scatter
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Other than the diving there were the surface intervals. The Similans and Surins are these beautiful islands littered throughout the Andaman Sea. There are a few raw Thai villages that were interesting but the draw for me were the complete desolation of most of them. All with amazing boulder hewn lagoons, crystal white sand, lush coconut forests and of course perfectly azure seas. Being left by dingy on a deserted island, just me and twin sisters, is not something every guy can say. On that note, along with stunning natural scenery I have NEVER been on a dive boat, or any sports related activity for that matter, with so many hot women. Unbelievable. Oh, of course I barely noticed them being spoken for and all, but still, damn. They all had boyfriends anyway so no temptation at all. Promise. Not even any pictures for the boys back home. Okay, I’ve written myself into enough trouble for one blog.

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See ya,

Bill