Phuket town fair

This weekend is the end of the Chinese New Year celebration. The year of the Dragon. Year 2555
Phuket holds a street festival at this time in the old area of Phuket town. We wandered through the streets last night taking in the sites of food stalls and then the parade.  A few streets are blocked to traffic for the stalls and parade. Of course there was the big Dragon followed by children dressed in various costumes.

These three looked so pretty and were loving the attention. (note the mandatory cell phone)

This group were dancing a traditional Thai dance, very graceful.

This company was advertising its car stereo systems. Two huge speakers encased in the clear box.

The ultimate in sound!

Children had fun drawing on the street!

Similan islands, no 8

The next day we moved north to the East side of Island 8. We had this tranquil beach all to ourselves. There are so many tourist speed boats here, it was great to be alone on this beach. The tour boats all leave to go back to the main land at 3pm, so then its all quiet again.

After lunch on the boat we headed to Donald duck bay and climbed up the rocks to Sail rock. You can see the enormity of the rocks, we are standing on the beach.

From the top you have a wonderful view of the bay. The last speed boat transporting day tourists was just leaving and the bay was quiet. The sea was very bumpy though as its open to the swells so we returned to island 4 and slept there before returning to the Royal Phuket Marina the next day.

The Similans are really a piece of heaven!!

The parks chap came over and charged us 400 Baht (R100) each and 100 Baht for the boat.

 Thats for 5 days, worth it!

Clear water

The water here is so clear!
It was time for our first sea dive and what wonderful conditions. 30C, no current, clear water. I put my stinger suit on to try it out. Natasha went through all the safety points and then we were under. It took me awhile to equalize my ears, but we eventually got to 4m and knelt on the floor to do a mask clear. This is when you let water into your face mask and then blow out through your nose to blow air into the mask and so clear the water out. A bit daunting but we both did it.
It was so wonderful down under, so many different fish varieties. We saw a Banded Sea snake, highly venomous. Interesting that they still have to surface to breath air so are seen at shallow depths. We saw one on the surface and then on the reef at 6m. Natasha pointed out a Stone fish. So amazing, just looking at the rock we could see nothing, them Malcolm pointed his camera light on it and his eyes moved and we could make out its shape. It was moulded to the rock.
My underwater camera has stopped working so I will get a photo from Malcolm later.

Great experience, kit off. Very happy!

Similan Islands. 8,28.794N 97,38.769E

The Similan Islands are a National Park and consist of 9 granitic, islands. Islands 1,2 and 3 are off limits without a special permit. We are heading to no 4 (Ko Miang), a beach under the arrow called Honeymoon Bay. 40 miles away, 6 hours traveling at 7 knots.

On the way Rob taught Malcolm how to operate the auto pilot and controls and we had a new skipper on board!

We reached the beach, picked up a buoy (no anchoring unless in 25m of water) and went ashore.

The island is dense with forrest and a strange noise above us turned out to be bats fighting! Black blobs hanging high up in the trees. 

Learning to dive!

My brother and family have arrived. My niece Natasha is a dive master and enjoyed in teaching Rob and I the basics in a swimming pool. So nice to be taught in a relaxed spot, 1 on 1. Managed this lesson, more to come!

Russ, Barbara and children Natasha and Malcolm, have dived in various wonderful sites in the world so were very happy when we suggested a visit to the Similan Islands NW of Phuket. We departed our marina and spent the first night off Layan Beach, in the north west of Phuket island. On the way we anchored in Ao Chalong to collect more dive tanks and we tested the compressor and pumped up our dive tanks.

We went ashore and ate dinner on Layan Beach. The beach is lined with restaurants on the sand. Sitting there is so relaxing.  

Back on the boat we taught Natasha and Malcolm how to light a 'lucky/happy' lantern. This is the second one and it flew up up and away. (the first one went nowhere)

Ko Phanak

Ko means island. Ko Phanak is in the Ao Phang Nga. Ao means bay.
This is a National Park and is filled with islands of Lime stone. They come straight out of the water with magnificent cliffs.
Some have caves in them as we found in Ko Phanak. Its a large deep cave which must be very slippery in the rainy season. I shot the blog photo from this cave.

Many of the islands have 'hongs' which is where the roof of the cave has fallen in. This creates a little paradise inside the island. Here Rob and Anthony are walking into the hong at low tide. At high tide you can row your dingy into the hong.

Me inside the hong with the cliffs around me.

Rowing into a hong.

Boat Braai

We invited a number of people from the marina for a braai and Rob was at home again behind the grill.
The special guest was Bubba a month old puppy from the pound who was recovering from an absess on his neck. Tina who volunteers at the pound was nursing him back to health.

Bang Tao Beach

After New year we headed north to anchor off Bang Tao beach. This is a very long beach with restaurants scattered along the waterline. We drove the dingy to shore, got off with out getting too wet and had a lazy dinner at the Reggae bar and restaurant.

The next day this chap came past with his dogs.

New Year in Patong

New year in Patong was amazing. We anchored off Patong beach, which is the main tourist area on the island. The fireworks started at 8pm and built up to a climax at midnight. We stood on the deck and gazed in awe as the sky exploded from one end of the beach to the other. Every hotel has there own display and then lots of folk set them off on the beach. That continued for about 20 min and then the odd one continued to go off till about 4am.
We had friends from Cape Town with us and Rob showed them how to light a lantern (happy balloon). Not so easy when its windy. The sky is full of them by midnight. Its a thin paper sleeve with a simple candle at the base. Once lit the heat floats it up and away.

With the nice breeze there were no mosquitos, so we slept out on the deck. Two blow up mattress is all you need! Here the one mattress is left as our friends had a late lie in. Rob even served us coffee in bed!

Enjoying the islands of Phuket

This is Ko Khai Nok, (Ko means island) a group of 2 islands this being the smaller one with a restaurant on it.

We anchored off shore and some swam in, others used the dingy to go ashore for lunch.

As you enter your given a cold wet cloth to freshen up, a nice treat. 

We could see the colourful tropical fish from the boat.  Snorkeling around the boat we could see them up close, its like being in a fish tank!