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