The queen of Manta Queen I.

      Khao Lak Scuba Adventures is very proud to introduce you our trip leader on MV Manta Queen I, Victoria Hodson. She is a great photographer and an excellent trip leader.

Hi my name is Victoria Hodson, I am the trip leader of Manta Queen I and have been working for Khao Lak Scuba Adventures for six years. I am originally from New Zealand but much prefer the warm waters of the Andamen Sea. I have an amazing Thai crew and dive staff from all corners of the world. Our trips last 4 days and 4 nights, starting in the Similans and heading right up to Richelieu Rock. Having this many years experience in the Similans ensures great diving and great fun....I hope to see you soon!

    To join Vicky and her crews on MV Manta Queen I, check our website www.khaolakscubaadventures.com 

Congratulations to Jo and Mario.

Ladies and gentleman...

Khao Lak Scuba Adventures is honored to introduce you the new "luckiest on earth" Dive Masters... Jo and Mario!!!!

Yuhuuuu!!! We made it!!!

Yesssss!! It´s been 6 full weeks of fun work, great experiences, amazing dives, and... awesome people around us!!!! 

Customers, Stuff, intructors, crews....We keep a little piece of all of them inside of us, for sharing with us their knowledge, patience, time, hard and fun moments... A whole lot of experiences that we keep in our hearts and will never forget.

Last couple of weeks have been crazy. 

Tons of diving, Tons of breafings, Tons of learning skills... (some studying too, of course;-)) and finally we´re here. We are Divecons!! (or divemasters as you like:-)

Jo is leaving home with the idea of working on her old job and managing to dive on everyplace her job takes her, and Mario will stay on Khao Lak and work here for the rest of the season...

From now on we will go on with our lives on a different way. 

Seeing Oceans as a part of ourselves that we must love and take good care of.

Keeping in mind that is on the seas and oceans, where our future is being played...

We are now here, to take the responsability for loving them even more.

And, as Divemasters, show other divers, new open waters and people in general, how concern we have to be with the health of our oceans...from the shark killing to the warming seas, from the massive oil spills to the danger of brainless abussive fishing...

Is our new duty ,wherever we are, to make people open their eyes and warn them about the huge damage that we are doing to our oceans...

And to show people how we love them, remembering that oceans have not being given to us from earlier generations... it has only be borrowed to us to give them back to our children.

 

Jo and Mario want to Thank to every single one of the KSA´s family, for what has been, with NO DOUBT one of the biggest experiences our lifetime.

Thanks to all of you!

Jo and Mario - New Divecons.

Our day-trip leader.

     Christopher Paesbrugge is an experienced diving instructor who works for Khao Lak Scuba Adventures as a day trip leader. He has live in Thailand for more than 10 years. He has a Thai wife who is a very good cook, they have a very cute son.
      "If a 4day/4 night trip sounds too long for you, then join me, papa Chris, and my team on a day trip or an overnight stay. we will show you the best of Similan and make sure you have the time of your life. And since yesterday we know that angler fish can travel far in a very short time!!  We found a frog fish at West of Eden  and few days later we saw the same one 100meters away." said Chris
     Chris Knows the dive sites around the Similans very well. You can dive with Chris from November until May, he can take you to the best part of the dive site and show you all the nice things underwater.
     

OUR FIRST LIVE-ABOARD AS DMT.

For those who don't know, Khao Lak Scuba Adventures, has 3 boats working on Similans.

The first of them, the Manam, stays permanently at Similans. So if you are planning to stay for one or two days, that´s the perfect choice.

Everyday at 8:00 am, the speedboat will pick us up at the pier, and...head to Manam!!

There, Chris, Dave, or

  Neal will take care of us. And

we will enjoy great company and perfect dives, for as long as we decided to stay at Similans.

  The other Khao Lak Scuba Adventure´s boats have the beautiful name of “Manta Queen” I and II.

Last week, we had the honor of staying four days and four nights on the first of them, Manta Queen I, where Victoria, Manta Queen´s dive leader and the rest of the crew, made our experience, simply unforgettable.

On Manta Queen, life is simple.

  Dive... eat... dive.... make new friends... dive... eat some more... dive... share experiences....sleep...and the next day....Same, same...;-))) Tough! Huh? ;-)))

  At 6:30am every morning, we got up and set things for the customers.Half and hour later, Vic´s melodic voice will wake them up with a “good morning!!! ” and maybe a “soft” knock on the room door.

7:30am everybody is on the water for the first dive of the day.

Elephant Head rock, East and West of Eden, North point, Deep six, Koh Bon, Ko Tachai are only some, of the dives that we did on Manta Queen I,

And of course...Richelieu´s rock.

Richelieu´s rock is placed 4 miles north-east from the Similans and for those who don´t know, Richelieu´s rock was named for the famous oceanographer, Jaques Cousteau.

He decided to name it that way,

after seeing the incredible amount of purple soft coral that live on the rock. Those huge extensions of purple color made him think of the suit of the famous French bishop, Richelieu ;-)

Diving and thinking that Jaques Cousteau was once on these waters made us have “goose-flesh” Ha,ha,ha!

Every day, during four days, we dive 4 times on some of the most beautiful dive spots of Asia, ending with a sunset or a night dive...like Mario´s friends “lovely” like to say to him:

“You lucky bastard!!;-))”

Uppps...and the food!

OMG the food. Manta Queen I have 2 great Thai chefs on the kitchen, and everyday meal was unbelievable better than the day before...Awesome!! We are really... really worry... of not being able to fit on our wet-suits at the end of the year!!!;-))

Staying at Manta Queen I for four days have been for us an amazing and wonderful gift!!!

Vic´s leadership and sense of humor, Don´s great advices, Tik´s amazing instinct to find the sea-creatures that we were looking for, Julian´s great drawings and love for “nudes”, Lianne´s wonderful smile... and every single one of the great customers we had from all around the world -Germany, Russia, Switzerland, USA, Australia, Austria-.. made our staying at Manta Queen another huge experience at Khao Lak Scuba Adventures.

                                                      Story and Photos by: Jo, Mario
                                                      Post by: Khao Lak Scuba Adventures

Snorkeling at Koh Bon.

     We start to pick customers up at 7:00am and bring all of them to our shop in Khao Lak. We've got 3 snorkelers with us today. It's 10 minutes from Khao Lak Scuba Adventures to Tap Lamu pier. All the customers get on our speedboat, the trip leader give boat briefing while the rest of the staff is giving drinking water to the customers. It takes 1hr 30 minutes to get to Koh Bon. Everybody disembarks the speedboat to the big boat MV Seahorse to get some food and drink, the divers get dive briefing and the snorkelers get to go with the speedboat to the bay at the south of Koh Bon to do some snorkeling.
     The snorkelers start to swim with mask, snorkel, fins and life jacket (if they want) from the bay to the ridge where the water is deeper and a mild current starts to be present. Our snorkeling guide tells the customers that we get to stay close to the island and  don't swim away from the group. The snorkeling guide said look Manta below us. Everybody look down in the water and start to follow the Manta at the surface. The visibility is very good so we can see the giant "bird" very clear. It swims slowly up close to the surface until one of the wings breaks the water at the surface and then it disappears to the deep water after that.
     After 1 hour snorkeling, everybody gets back on the big boat that is moored to the buoy line in the bay to have lunch. Everybody starts to chat about what they saw, the divers saw a few Mantas while they dive at the ridge too. Lunch break is about 2 hours, just when everyone has settled down to digest the food, one of the girls scream followed by the sound of a big thing falling into the water. Many people on the boat saw the the Manta jumping above the surface and disappearing in to the blue.
     The snorkelers then go back into the water again for a second time after lunch and head back to Tap Lamu pier in the afternoon. The car is waiting at the pier and brings everybody back to the hotel by 4:30pm. This is another good day with Khao Lak Scuba Adventures.

What does a lucky Dive Master winner do when she is not diving?

As much as I love diving and being on the sea with KSA and our lovely customers, I unfortunately can't do it everyday. So what can a happy DMT do when she has some time off from the big blue?
Actually Khao Lak is full of adventures and hidden gems, if you know where to look. So I will share some of my favorite spots, for all of you to enjoy when you're not diving ;-)

There are lots of beautiful waterfalls in the area, and if you rent a motorbike they're all in driving range from Khao Lak. My particular favorite is the Chong Fa waterfall in Bang Niang, just a 15 minutes drive and then a little walk through a stunning rain forest and then you can enjoy the luxury in having your own little waterfall-shower!

Another favorite is a wonderful stretch on the beach, called Khuk Khak Beach - or in daily speech just called Sunset Beach. As the name indicates this is a perfect spot to enjoy the sunset, but also to learn to surf or just walk the endless beach and soak up the sun.

A bonus to Sunset beach is that you actually drive past the Khao Lak Elephant Camp, and if you drive home in the afternoon you will have the pleasure and fun of meeting the elephants on their way home to the fields where they grass freely in the evening. Last time I was there, I had a surprise "snuggle" with an elephant who took great interest in me and my yellow helmet! Fortunately I had a banana in my bag, so we quickly stroke up a friendship :-)

     So for all you coming to Khao Lak and diving with friends, Khao Lak Scuba Adventures, you will find that the rest of the little town measures up to the fantastic diving. Come and enjoy it :-)
                                                                    Story by: Jo
                                                                    Post by: Khao Lak Scuba Adventures

The lucky draw divemaster trainnees are happy in Khao Lak.

ONCE UPON THE TIME...AT KHAO LAK SCUBA ADVENTURES....

Hello everyone!!

Jo and Mario – the lucky winners ;-)- speaking to all of you.

First of all, we want to thank “everyone” at Khao Lak Scuba Adventures for making us feel like part of their family from the very first moment we arrived here. There´s no enough words to tell how thankfull and happy we feel for the welcome that everyone have give us!!

Thanks everybody!!!

We´re on the 5^th week of our DMT trainning and there´s only one thing to say, Life here is.... gggrrrrreeeeeat!!!!

We attend to our daily classes with our instructor, Jonas Holm.

Theory, reviews, pool skills, open water skills, presentations...Everyday is a new adventure here on Khao Lak. ;-)

Our intructor has become not only our teacher, but one of our closer friends, and that makes feel like home.

Diving at Similans is a free ticket to paradise and we have to say honestly that everytime we jump into the speedboat on the way to similans, we feel like little kids with new shoes. No need to speak, no need to explain, no need to espress.... Our smiles talk for ourselves!!! Our happiness is absolute and... contagious!!!!

Once there, we jump into our duties... we help the crew on their jobs, carry bags up and down, assemble equipment, assist Jonas with their open water courses...All those situations are giving us a HUGE experience and unpayble experience that is gonna be really, really helpfull for our final task...become great and responsable divemasters. ;-))

But dont feel sorry for us...;-)

not all is work and duties at Khao Lak Adventures. (Ha,ha,ha!!)

Once the sun is down, some of us get together around  and share our experiences of the day...the manta that some group saw at Koh Bon... the nudibranch that has never seen before...the last attack of the stubborn triggerfish...or Mario´s and Jo´s favourite....the happiness of the new open waters – and some old ones too ;-)- after their first dive EVER at Similans.

A life changing experience!!!

Greetings to all of you, from two lucky guys, staying at Khao Lak Scuba Adventures.

Jo and Mario. ;-)

                                                         Story by: Jo and Mario

                                                         Post by: Khao Lak Scuba Adventures