swimmingpooldivein
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Overview
Dive Report: Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, Richelieu Rock, and Surin Island
Liveaboard: MV Bavaria (7D/6N; route is called "Trip C")
Booking company: liveaboard.com
When: October, 2022
(Thank you, as always, to the entire community for helping me research what I had wanted to dive and how!)
Review of travel month, October
The Similan Islands National Park only opens up for diving mid-October. The dry season, which is the dive season, starts in October and ends in March. Before the dry season is the wet season, with October receiving the most rainfall in the year. There are pros and cons to going this early in the season.
Pros: There are lots of liveaboard boats that go to these sites during peak season (about Dec to Feb). It can feel pretty crowded above water with all the boats, and it can definitely get crowded underwater. I got a small taste of that during one of our dives: the dive site had divers from 3 other boats as well, and there were just too many people underwater. And so going early, like I did, helps with more peaceful dives.
Cons: For the first half of our trip, it was very rainy and a bit cold getting out of the wetsuit. And the choppy water required us to cancel one of our night dives. Although this was my first time going, there was not as much marine life as I anticipated at most dive sites, which made the experience slightly disappointing. One of the dive guides (10+ year tenure) believed it was due to the bad weather the week before, which temporarily pushed a lot of fish away from the dive sites. Lastly, whale sharks & manta rays come later in the season, but they're rare to see, and I've already seen them, so this was not a priority for me.
If I went again, I would go on/after November, but definitely not during holidays, so I can avoid crowds.
Review of dive sites
Although these dive sites are listed as some of the best in the world, they were a bit underwhelming. As stated above, it could be attributes to arriving too early in the season (as one dive guide said). Another reason, as I heard from others when back on land, is the overfishing of the area. But I still did enjoy my dives as much as I could! In my opinion, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, Richelieu Rock, and Surin Island are strictly better dive sites than Similan Islands. I do recommend visiting both, but if you are strapped for time, skip Similan Islands. (MV Bavaria has a trip specific to just those sites I recommended.)
Biggest fish highlights were several blacktip sharks (during both daytime and night dives); tigertail seahorse; pharaoh cuttlefish; schools of giant trevally; school of chevron barracuda; two big eye jacks mating; banded sea kraits (sea snakes); mantis shrimp; nudibranchs; worms; and wonderful night dives.
Review of dive operator, MV Bavaria
The crew were all fantastic people. I believe the ratio was about 2 passengers to 1 employee. They were extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and accommodating, to the point that the dive helpers remembered who's fins belonged to who! Food was delicious with a different meal every single time. The boat itself (rooms, common area, dive deck, sun deck) was fine. No problems with the rental equipment, except for the wetsuits which were very worn.
Once during the trip, there was a power spike to the outlets, and some people's power cords got fried. I did not hear of anyone's actual equipment getting fried [if equipment was even plugged in during that power spike].
I felt mostly safe throughout all the dives, but there are a few things I should mention. First, when the dive site's entry requires jumping from the boat, there's a ladder on the left & right side, but there's also this big grate in between that's attached to the boat that swings up & down. The choppier the water, the more it swings (i.e. not tied down). (This picture https://thailandliveaboards.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/peterpan-stern-1030x686.jpeg is of a different boat, but it kinda shows what I'm talking about.) Jumping in and getting your leg or foot stuck in there would've hurt a lot. Basically, there was no fully safe way to enter the water.
Second, during our 5 meter safety stop, even though the guide's SMB was on the surface, a dinghy that belonged to another liveaboard drove right over us - not safe at all. Additionally, the SMB got attached to their dinghy, and we had to use a knife to cut the rope. Our guide did visit their boat afterwards via our own dinghy, and the other boat apologized and replaced his SMB.
Lastly, the operators never explained Man Overboard procedures. And I later discovered that at least 1 passenger on the trip did not know the procedures.
Regarding price point, I didn't look at the price of other similar liveaboards, but I would say this was priced fairly.
Review of booking company, liveaboard.com
I actually prefer booking directly with the liveaboard operator, but as I couldn't find MV Bavaria's official homepage, I booked through liveaboard.com. (I eventually found the official page: Loma Diving Adventure Khao Lak - Tauchen und Tauchsafaris in Thailand und Myanmar (Burma) .) To my surprise, it was totally fine working with liveaboard.com. They were (mostly) replying within a day to all requests. I did need to call once due to lack of response - an operator picked up straight away, found my emails, and either answered my questions them on the spot or followed up later with the answers. I believe the price difference between the official page and liveaboard.com was either the same or negligible.
Happy diving!!!
Dive Report: Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, Richelieu Rock, and Surin Island
Liveaboard: MV Bavaria (7D/6N; route is called "Trip C")
Booking company: liveaboard.com
When: October, 2022
(Thank you, as always, to the entire community for helping me research what I had wanted to dive and how!)
Review of travel month, October
The Similan Islands National Park only opens up for diving mid-October. The dry season, which is the dive season, starts in October and ends in March. Before the dry season is the wet season, with October receiving the most rainfall in the year. There are pros and cons to going this early in the season.
Pros: There are lots of liveaboard boats that go to these sites during peak season (about Dec to Feb). It can feel pretty crowded above water with all the boats, and it can definitely get crowded underwater. I got a small taste of that during one of our dives: the dive site had divers from 3 other boats as well, and there were just too many people underwater. And so going early, like I did, helps with more peaceful dives.
Cons: For the first half of our trip, it was very rainy and a bit cold getting out of the wetsuit. And the choppy water required us to cancel one of our night dives. Although this was my first time going, there was not as much marine life as I anticipated at most dive sites, which made the experience slightly disappointing. One of the dive guides (10+ year tenure) believed it was due to the bad weather the week before, which temporarily pushed a lot of fish away from the dive sites. Lastly, whale sharks & manta rays come later in the season, but they're rare to see, and I've already seen them, so this was not a priority for me.
If I went again, I would go on/after November, but definitely not during holidays, so I can avoid crowds.
Review of dive sites
Although these dive sites are listed as some of the best in the world, they were a bit underwhelming. As stated above, it could be attributes to arriving too early in the season (as one dive guide said). Another reason, as I heard from others when back on land, is the overfishing of the area. But I still did enjoy my dives as much as I could! In my opinion, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, Richelieu Rock, and Surin Island are strictly better dive sites than Similan Islands. I do recommend visiting both, but if you are strapped for time, skip Similan Islands. (MV Bavaria has a trip specific to just those sites I recommended.)
Biggest fish highlights were several blacktip sharks (during both daytime and night dives); tigertail seahorse; pharaoh cuttlefish; schools of giant trevally; school of chevron barracuda; two big eye jacks mating; banded sea kraits (sea snakes); mantis shrimp; nudibranchs; worms; and wonderful night dives.
Review of dive operator, MV Bavaria
The crew were all fantastic people. I believe the ratio was about 2 passengers to 1 employee. They were extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and accommodating, to the point that the dive helpers remembered who's fins belonged to who! Food was delicious with a different meal every single time. The boat itself (rooms, common area, dive deck, sun deck) was fine. No problems with the rental equipment, except for the wetsuits which were very worn.
Once during the trip, there was a power spike to the outlets, and some people's power cords got fried. I did not hear of anyone's actual equipment getting fried [if equipment was even plugged in during that power spike].
I felt mostly safe throughout all the dives, but there are a few things I should mention. First, when the dive site's entry requires jumping from the boat, there's a ladder on the left & right side, but there's also this big grate in between that's attached to the boat that swings up & down. The choppier the water, the more it swings (i.e. not tied down). (This picture https://thailandliveaboards.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/peterpan-stern-1030x686.jpeg is of a different boat, but it kinda shows what I'm talking about.) Jumping in and getting your leg or foot stuck in there would've hurt a lot. Basically, there was no fully safe way to enter the water.
Second, during our 5 meter safety stop, even though the guide's SMB was on the surface, a dinghy that belonged to another liveaboard drove right over us - not safe at all. Additionally, the SMB got attached to their dinghy, and we had to use a knife to cut the rope. Our guide did visit their boat afterwards via our own dinghy, and the other boat apologized and replaced his SMB.
Lastly, the operators never explained Man Overboard procedures. And I later discovered that at least 1 passenger on the trip did not know the procedures.
Regarding price point, I didn't look at the price of other similar liveaboards, but I would say this was priced fairly.
Review of booking company, liveaboard.com
I actually prefer booking directly with the liveaboard operator, but as I couldn't find MV Bavaria's official homepage, I booked through liveaboard.com. (I eventually found the official page: Loma Diving Adventure Khao Lak - Tauchen und Tauchsafaris in Thailand und Myanmar (Burma) .) To my surprise, it was totally fine working with liveaboard.com. They were (mostly) replying within a day to all requests. I did need to call once due to lack of response - an operator picked up straight away, found my emails, and either answered my questions them on the spot or followed up later with the answers. I believe the price difference between the official page and liveaboard.com was either the same or negligible.
Happy diving!!!
The only drawback being the low amp output from a power bank causing slow charge times.
