Off to a good start! Just look at the clarity of that water!

Photos look so much better without particles in the water that scatter the light

Aargh, this one again. The ‘white-striped-but-also-spotted-yellow-lipped-black-tailed-fish’

I’m going to miss these views

There’s a prize for the first person to tell me the exact amount of fish in this photo

Close to the shot I wanted

I’ve seen photos like this on the cover of diving magazines and my goal was to be able to recreate such a photo. Mission accomplished!

So colourful

I could dive an entire month just here at Richelieu Rock (not without surfacing though)

Just look at that!

I think I’ve learned a lot in the past few days when it comes to underwater photography

WTH is that blue thing!? Stunning!

What could it be? Not sure I’ve seen these before

Yeah, nah, I’m at a loss, no clue about this fish

So. Many. Fish.

Christian right where I need him in this photo

Another Lionfish. How they can stay vertical without falling I don’t understand

Magnificent fish

Lots of opportunities here to try to get shots with a bright colourful foreground and nice blue background with hopefully something interesting like a diver

Oooh, I love this shot!

The dive is almost over. Bye bye Pink Skunk Clownfish!

Best time of day (around 07:30) to take photos here I think, water still dark enough and fishies fungry

Breakfast, salad, egg, sausage, fries, bacon

The ‘Western’ table

The ‘Asian’ table. Zero interaction between the two groups

Lots of aircos on the boat, one for every cabin

Our guide, who’s Thai, can dive, finds interesting stuff underwater to look at but doesn’t speak a word of English, which severely limits the interaction with him as well. There was another Thai guide also didn’t speak any English and looked like a Geisha because he always had some white powder or lotion on his face, it wasn’t sunblock, strange dude. There was only one guide who did speak English (but wasn’t very talkative) and another one who spoke Chinese. Room for improvement here

Me

Dive #2 and last dive of the trip. These things here are once again something rather special but I utterly forgot what they are called. And what were they doing? Eating what I think is an arm/leg of a starfish?

You can see how much brighter the blue is now compared to dive #1

Three in a row

You again, I had already said goodbye!

Bye to you as well worms

Back to the mainland, Thap Lamu Pier to be precise

Thai Navy vessels

Fishing boat going out

That was it! Thank you Gentle Giant for a nice trip!

Ok, now comes the difficult part. I’ve booked a room at a hotel in Khao Lak via booking.com, that’s 20 km away from here. I had asked the hotel owener to arrange some transport for me but he’s not replied. So I was hoping to find something here at the pier, there’s lots of taxis here, problem is that they’re all booked. I am left with no alternative but to walk the 20 km!

Luckily after walking maybe 10 minutes a lovely thai lady who was coming from the opposite direction did a U-turn and asked me where I was going. I explained the situation and she offered me a ride to Khao Lak, which was totally out of the way for her! She is one of the people that make Thailand so special, that smile, that willingness to help. Awesome! It took some convincing from me but eventually she excepted a monetary thank-you from me. Win-win. Thank you Thai lady, much appreciated!

My hotel

Today’s schedule

Heeey! A Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray (we just called them blue spotted stingray), haven’t seen one of those in ages

They’re so elegant

Since they are so underrepresented in my photos, this one deserves a second photo

And even a third

Close up of some coral

I think this is the best dive site so far here in the Similan Islands. Visibility is awesome. It’s teeming with life and all very colourful

I mean, look at that!

Stunning here at ‘3 Tree’

Beautiful fish this one, an Orangespined Unicornfish, and boy are there many surgeonfishes!

I just love the dark blue, red, green, purple and white combination

I think it’s the Common Bluestripe Snapper (or is it a Bluestriped Grunt?)

Nah, it’s got to be the snapper

These fish often swim in big (loooong) schools

Another octopus

They’re very smart animals

I don’t remember now what kind of fish this is but what I wanted to point out was the two cleaner fish, one of them is actually cleaning in the big fish’s gills

Oh come on, what are these called again?

Blue Surgeonfish, they’re called surgeonfish because of the (allegedly very sharp) ‘scalpels’ they have where the body becomes the tail (bright yellow within blue in the photo)

Surface interval at Koh Bon, we’re not the only boat there

I’m practising my ‘coral foreground blue background’ photos

Moray Eel with Cleaner Fish

Puffer

Parrotfish

Ginormous Clam

Emperor Angelfish

Approaching Tachai Island

The staits leading to the sun deck

Blue Surgeonfish again

Batfish

Lovely undamaged corals here

Like this one; closer to Phuket (eg at the Phi Phi Islands) there are a lot more inexperienced divers who at some point will accidentally damage the coral, it’s much more pristine here. Also because if I’m not mistaken the national park here is always closed for half of the year (to limit the exposure to humans). Not sure if just for diving or even just to visit the islands

What is this? It looks like someone took a Spiny Cushion Star and told it to act up and put some effort into looking like an actual star, I mean it has the colouring of some of the cushion stars I have seen but also some arms (legs?)

Another Crinoid

Ooh, I love the shape and colour of this coral!

Close up, it looks like some upside down purple broccoli

Mr Titan is triggered again

Big fan coral

Crinoid, still haven’t seen one swim

Batfish getting a proper clean

Soaking up the last rays of sunshine

Isn’t it funny how we still say ‘The Sun goes down’ when it’s really more a matter of Earth turning it’s back on the poor Sun?

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

We are still at the Phi Phi Islands

Our schedule for today

Scorpionfish napping

That’s the first time I see one of these shells

Orange-spotted Spinefoot (aka Golden Rabbitfish)

Giant Clam

I would never have guessed but these too are sea cucumbers, the Synaptula Lamperti

Batfish

Yellow Snappers?

Argh, the yellow fish again

The Pink Skunk Clownfish

Nudibranch

At first I thought these are Red Snappers, then Bigeyes but I’m still not sure

Soft coral, I suddenly realize I don’t know anything about these apart from that they’re soft

First time I see these being green, maybe they’re angry!

Crinoids

Sea Urchin

We’re now at our second dive site, the King Cruiser Wreck. Unfortunately the visibility sucks big time and there are more and more jellyfish popping up, seemingly out of nowhere. I hate them with a passion, it takes all the joy out of diving because you are constantly trying to avoid bumping into one

Soft coral growing on the wreck, very shortly after this photo it just got completely out of hand with the jellyfish, they were everywhere. I ended my dive and went to the surface (after safety stop), everybody was scrambling to get out of the water

Dinghies frantically picking up divers and bringing them back to their boats

I mean look at that! There were soooo many of them. Some of the divers got stung by them

And they’re big!

Third dive, at Shark Point, soft coral dancing with the currents

I find these fascinating to look at

I wonder what determines the colour of these corals, I’ve seen them in red/pink/purple/yellow and they all seem identical bar their colour

This one kept watching my every move, I wonder if she was defending her territory?

Sea Cucumber again

Boxfish

Some fishes in red coral

Longsnout Butterflyfish

Big purple anemone

Scorpionfish

Moray Eel

Bye Shark Point!

Nudibranch at Koh Doc Mai

So, diving again. The day starts with this Butterflyfish, this might be the best photo of one I’ve taken so far, they are very camera shy and normally face away from you the moment you look at them

Scorpionfish

If this was painting I’d call it “Coral with green fish”

And this one “Yellow fish”

I wish I had a macro lens (well I do, but not for this camera and not for underwater use) to capture this in more detail

Looks like a bright orange Christmas tree to me

Coral Grouper

I need a second strobe, to get rid of that shadow

If you don’t pay attention for too long you can easily lose the group

What a clown this fish

Diving under arches

And in caves

This HUGE fish was at the entrance of the cave

Golden Puffer

It’s still pretty dark, which makes it hard to take decent photos of things outside of the strobe’s reach

Sea Krait (a snake)

Cleaner Fish cleaning the (I think) Snapper

That was the first dive, now it’s time for our surface interval and in 2 hours or so we can do the next dive

After every dive we always hang up our swimwear to dry and put on some dry clothing (but not in that order)

Koh Haa

Tentacles of the Sea Cucumber’s mouth

Yellow boxfish

Lots of Christmas Tree Worms in the foreground, a bunch of divers in the background

Found him!

Big fan coral, I tried to get the fan coral itself lit so that it would contrast nicely with the dark blue background, this is the best I could do

Nudibranch

Close up of those things, their surface isn’t smooth, they have lines on them, like fingerprints

We need to ascend through this ‘chimney’

And that’s where you come out again (the bright light, that’s the torch of the diver that was behind me)

End of the second dive. Back on the boat again. It always amazes me how trees can grow on a surface like these rocks at Koh Haa

Third dive, more Nemos

Amazing that the current doesn’t rip the coral away from the rock

Puffer, with their cute huge eyes

I think these are Common Bluestripe Snappers

Damn, even an easily recognizable fish like this I just can’t seem to Google! I will therefore refer to it as “White Striped Behind The Eye Brown Fish With A White Tail”

Yellow Tail Snapper?

Lionfish

On our way north (we’re heading to the Similan Islands) we make another dive (and will spend the night) at the Phi Phi Islands

Koh Phi Phi Lee on the left, Koh Phi Phi Don on the right

Fourth dive, at some wreck, the visibility isn’t great

As you can see

The rope tying the buoy (that our boat in turn is attached to) to the wreck, not much fun holding on to this rope for 3 minutes while doing a safety stop in strong current

Koh Phi Phi Lee and boat full of tourists

Dinner!

I always like these views of all the air bubbles rising up from below

Looking for things to look at

Like this

Not spectacular this dive

A Titan Triggerfish

The odd bit of coral

Ok, that’s out of the way, now off to more interesting dive sites, hopefully

Breakfast

Lovely morning, sunny but with a nice breeze

Our schedule for today, so we’ve done dive #1 and are on our way to Hin Muang for dive #2

A Blue Surgeonfish

I see these a lot and have as usual no idea what they are. Is it some egg? Is it a jellyfish with a tiny brain?

At least this I know: it’s coral

Emperor Angelfish

Pretty sure this is a Coral Grouper

Butterflyfish, with a very long dorsal fin

This fish seems interested in those ‘things’

Starfish

More colourful coral

Moray Eel

Some kind of clam (?) with a distinctive zig zag opening

A Crinoid on some coral

Another Coral Grouper

Moray Eel

Looks like grass

Sea Cucumber

Coral

This dive site is indeed a lot more interesting than the first one from today

The water hear is very clear, making the coral colours really pop

A bit of a lazy fish these groupers, always just lying on something

A Spiny Cushion Star

Worthy of its name

Yellow coral

Tentacles of the Sea Cucumber’s mouth

I wish I could make a timelapse of Starfish, to see their movevement

Not sure. Shrimp? Crab? Lobster?

Occasionally you see another group of divers

Some fishes I can Google but I’m out of luck with this one

A Honeycomb Moray

A four (!?) legged Starfish. I wonder if it’s lost one or if I just discovered a new species!

I just can’t get enough of the colours of these soft corals

Pink Skunk Clownfish

Love the contrast

Christmas Tree Worm, I think these things are beautiful and if you move some water over them then jump back into the hole they live in, the entire fan disappears

Aren’t they beautiful?

They come in many colours, like these blue ones

We also saw a turtle but it didn’t want to pose for a photo

End of another day of diving. In the distance is a fishing boat, I guess the light is to attract fish?

Beautiful sky

Moray Eel

Puffer

Ghost Pipefishes, now these are special

I’m pretty sure that’s a Trumpetfish

And another Scorpionfish trying to go unnoticed

Butterflyfish

Lionfish

Red Snapper, I think, but don’t know what variety

Soft corals that dance in the currents

These Scorpionfish would be beautiful if they weren’t so ugly

Are they eggs of some kind?

Now what movie does this remind me of?

Crown-of-thorns Starfish, a very nasty thing

Just nice looking corals

Once again, no idea what kind of fish this is, the colour pattern reminds me of a Giraffe

I was a-maze-d by this coral

We’re doing our safety stop again

End of the first dive

The Phi Phi Islands

Second dive, we stay in the shallows for a bit, hoping to see some small sharks but didn’t see much

A Longfin Batfish

Could this be a Grouper?

This Mortay Eel looked kind of surprised

But it was more than happy to pose for a photo

Another Nudibranch

Lobster, trying to whack me with its tentacles

And what is this!? Some parasite? Or is this what comes out of these egss (if that’s what they are)?

Young Lionfish

Lovely coloured coral

LionFish, this one seems to have all its spines interconnected via some kind of webbing?

Fish galore

More hard coral

A close-up

Leaving the Phi Phi Islands for Shark Point

A lot of Lionfish today!

And Moray Eels

These always look funny to me, and they’re always just lying somewhere, never swimming, unless you scare them

This is also something rather special these crabs but I forgot what they are called

They’re beautiful though, nice patterns

There’s a Flounder hiding in this photo

And this, it could just as well have been some plant living above the water but instead it’s a coral living under water, crazy

A Cuttlefish, not cuddle fish

I see these a lot as well, soft corals curled up like a fern

Yet another Lionfish

And a beautiful purple Anemone

Little coward of a Clownfish hiding in his villa

I don’t think I’ve seen so many Moray Eels in one dive before

See what I mean?

End of the dive at Shark Point

And here, hidden in plain sight, is a Scorpionfish, they are true masters of camouflage and for the non-divers: you do not want to touch them!

We’re at the King Cruiser wreck, this soft coral grows on the wreck, lots of fish here too

Nasty jellyfish, brrr, I hate them

A beautiful Lionfish, again for the non-divers: you don’t want to touch this fish!

A happy looking Moray Eel

Coral, no idea what kind, fan coral?

Same, no idea

But definitely lovely colours

These remind me of Julia sets

My dive buddy today, we are doing our 3 minutes at 5 meters safety stop here

2nd dive, I think this is another Puffer between some fan corals

And a cute baby one

Another Lionfish, lying almost vertically against the coral

No idea what this is but it looks cool

Some Long Snout Butterfly Fish

I get the Long Snout part, just not the Butterfly part

Is this a Snapper?

Anemone and what I assume has to be a Clownfish (since it lives in the Anemone), just not the usual orange/white variety

So many crazy things under water

A shrimp!

Nudibranch

Seahorse

And this kind of blistery looking stuff, WTF is that?

Some turban made out of custard is what it looks like to me

Another Scorpionfish

Another Moray Eel

My dive buddy again, he reminds me of Hugo

End of yet another dive

Koh Doc Mai

My dive buddy again, staying well hydrated, important!

…Chalong Pier, where nothing much has changed, though it does seem a little more organised than I remember

On the boat, good to be on the water again

Big Buddha high up on the mountain in the background

And we’ve made it to Racha Yai (or Racha Noi) where we’ll be making our first dive

So this is the first time I am using an underwater photo camera (previously it has always been a GoPro video camera) and the first time I’m using an external strobe, the Inon S-220

I will be going on a liveaboard to the Similan Islands in a few days so I want to have a few days of diving beforehand to learn about the best settings, there’s clearly still a lot to learn as so far the photos have rather dull/brown colours

Things like what flash power to use, where to aim it, max distance to work at, in combination with what ISO, aperture and shutter speed on the camera, it all has to be taken into account

Meanwhile the dive just continues, not much time for stopping

Some lobster (crayfish? what’s the difference?) waving it’s ‘tentacles’ (what’s the word?) at me

Some soft coral, difficult to get some colour in the photo, I don’t think the flash is doing much

Some hard coral

I never know the names of all the fishes, their descriptive name that is (like Pterophyllum), but their real names are Bob and Hank

Near the end of the first dive, surfacing at the boat

The boat

Second dive, I’ve made some changes to the settings, see what difference that makes. This is a sea cucumber, still not much effect from the flash light

That’s a little better, these are two Butterfly Fish

Ok, the flash is definitely working, it nicely lights up the foreground

Yeah, no idea what these are

A yellow fish

Some coral that looks like hands reaching out

A cute Puffer Fish (Tetraodontidae)

These cubes were tossed in the water years ago to encourage coral growth on them, not that much happening I’m afraid

A Starfish (or Sea Star)

Little fishes hiding between the coral

Another Puffer Fish

You can clearly see the light/colour falloff

Always fun, swimming through these cubes (and trying not to bump the tank into it)

There’s also this small wreck here

Also nice for a swim through

Visibility has been better, this acutally reminds me of a great television series I watched as a kid : “Duel in de Diepte”

Not much star about it but I think it’s still a Starfish

Hard coral, soft coral, a fish and even some colour

Some pink coral, at least I’m getting better at capturing the underwater colours

I mean, look at that!

It’s like paradise here

Lovely weather, lovely water, lovely diving