Another sunrise at day 4 of the liveaboard

Program for today, looking forward to those snacks!

Shark Fin Reef, you’d think there’s an abundance of sharks here with such a name but alas

Coral Grouper and Cleaner Fish

Nice coral fan

This (Dutch) dude in the foreground is becoming a real pain. Whenever the guide points out something interesting this dude races over to it, lies on the coral if he has to and starts filming for minutes on end, others will have to wait till he’s finally done. Oh, and he’s not used to looking around him so he’s constantly bumping in to others

An Octopus

Fishes doing their thing

Divers doing their thing

Titan Triggerfish doing its thing

Octopus swimming away, it’s of no use, I’ll follow it anyway

It stopped swimming and is willing to pose for a photo

Lots of small fish here

Our dive guide, guiding our dive

Some huge stones

Me

Guide getting ready for safety stop and sending up his ‘sausage‘

Mike, one of ze Germans in our group

Christian, ze other German

Fishing boat

I thought this was hilarious because this mop looks exactly like an Octopus

On our way to dive site #2: West of Eden

Again lots of coral

And divers

And small fish, but still no shark or manta

But heeey! Two octopuses (or octopi, both are correct), that’s cool!

It’s amazing how they keep changing their colours

The have the same rectangular shaped eyes as sheep do

A bit of colour in a dark world

I really like how the strobe brings colour and life back to the otherwise rather dull coloured underwater world

I’d say this is another grouper, they look funny

Lovely big fan corals on the steep vertical walls here

Lots of Crinoids on the coral again. It’s so easy to regard them as a plant when it really is an animal

Whenever you get too close to these fish they rush back to the coral and hide in there

Christian being German

What I find funny here is that it looks as if the octopus is having a cigar in its mouth, when it’s really its siphon (funnel) which is used for respiration, waste disposal and discharging ink

Fish checking out the octopus

Amazing creatures, I’ve never seen so many of them in one dive

Oh, we’re at Elephant Head Rock here, cool diving with those gigantic boulders

This is once again something very special that you only rarely see: the (male) Ribbon Eel

See through in the coral

The snacks! Om nom nom

Ko Ba Ngo (No. 9)

Same, looks like a nice little beach there

Christian beat me to it but I too swam from the boat to the beach

Let’s hope the boat stays there or we’re screwed

Tadaaaa!

Soon the sun will set again

Last dive of the day at Numchai Bay, coral with gras

I think this is another Christmas Tree Worm again but I haven’t seen it shaped like this before

These are definitely Christmas Tree Worms

A Parrotfish

More Christmas trees

That’s the prettiest worm I’ve ever seen

Is this another Crinoid?

…like this one?

Lionfish

A shell. The kind of shell you’d find on the beach. Now I’ve been wondering about this for a while but as you know beaches are littered with small white shells… I’ve never seen one while diving! I honestly don’t know where they come from

Dinner! A fondue! It’s supposed to be one of the highlights of the trip (dinner wise)

Unfortunately they put the meat that I do eat (some beef and chicken) right next to some sea food (disgusting looking shrimps) which I would never, ever eat. Just having them on the same plate and/or going in the same fondue pot is enough for me to completely skip this ‘highlight’, hence the white bread with Nutella in the photo above, that’s my dinner