Dive Safari Similans!
 

Thailand never ceases to amaze me. We've lived here now for a mere 8 months yet and we've really come to love what one can do here. From trekking in the foothills of the Himalaya to jungle stomping, to world class wildlife watching to amazing diving, Thailand has it all. I think we're here for awhile.... Too bad the food sucks....(Just kidding - best on the planet of course....) Here is our recent blog post on our dive safari to the similans.

http://cokesmithphototravel.com/divi...d-islands.html

Nice pictures Coke! Did you put a housing on your Canon DSLR or did you use a Nikonos?

Thanks Hanuman! Basically bought a Canon G16 with a housing. I still need some work wiht the white-balance but I 'll get there...

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing them.

My husband also got to encounter a whale shark on his dive at Richelieu Rock at around 60'. He got some pictures but not as good as yours. This was on March 20, 2014, diving with Big Blue out of Khao Lak. The sighting made his day even though he was looking for mantas!

I always enjoy your reports, cokesmith. Thanks for sharing these fabulous photos!

Fantastic pics ... Glad you are loving Thailand...

Above from bob---rhkkmk

Excellent photographs cokesmith. How was the state of the coral? We are thinking of a return trip to the Similans but had heard that the reefs had suffered damage and bleaching over the last few years

Thanks everyone. Definitely the sea warming a couple years back has bleached the heck out of many of the dive spots. But the reports I heard from our dive crew basically sounded like there was evidence of some recovery. Some of the dive spots were utterly devastated and some of the dive spots we did not visit evidently are gone, gone gone... But Richelieu Rock was in pretty good shape. We've been back since this blog and we dived the Surin Islands too and things were much better up that way... Saw ANOTHER whale shark!