 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeArticlesDiving DestinationsLearning Scuba DivingMarine LifeMiscellaneousDiscussion GroupsGeneralScuba EquipmentScuba LocationsAustralian ScubaUK ScubaDirectoryScuba Clubs |
Scuba Forum / General / April 2006m/y Anggun/Thailand liveaboard
Does anyone have any recent experience with this liveaboard? > Does anyone have any recent experience with this liveaboard? I was on it during the tsunami. The boat is nice enough, but the diving was a bit disappointing. Cabins were fine, food was decent. Salon is a bit cramped. What do you want to know? How many dives were you actually able to do each day? Why was the diving disappointing? Did you use a US travel agent to book the trip? > How many dives were you actually able to do each day? Average of five, same as most liveaboards. IIRC, we did night dives just about every night, which was surprising given the currents at some sites. I recall one dive, probably one of the hairiest night dives I've ever done, where the current kept switching back and forth every few minutes, making us drift back and forth on the same wall much faster than we could possibly kick against. Fortunately most of the substrate in the Andaman Sea is rocky, not coralline, so there are plenty of places to hold on without causing too much damage. > Why was the diving disappointing? Actually the night dives were the highlight of the trip, perhaps the best (though certainly not the easiest) night diving I've ever done anywhere. Unfortunately the day diving didn't measure up to the amazing video I saw of the trip the guys who chartered my boat had done the previous year. They had gone at the exact same time, over Christmas, and had twice the viz and at least ten times the sharks. If this were a Caribbean trip, where we had merely traveled a day or so to get there, I would have been pleased. But since we spent 18 hours in the air, plus several hours in Taipei, and six hours in Bangkok after I missed my flight out, and an overnight in Phuket, I was a bit miffed to find that all the sharks that live on the Burma Banks had apparently gone south for the winter. We saw a trio of huge nurse sharks in a crevice, and one leopard shark, and that's about it. Yes, there were lots of small critters to see: exotic Indo-Pacific reef fish, plenty of beautiful nudibranchs, an amazing diversity of crustaceans on the night dives, but we hadn't gone all that way for the little stuff. The reefs were absolutely littered with scorpion fish, and hingebox shrimp carpeted many of the shallow rocks, and we saw several species of moray, a few rays, and a couple very colorful mantis shrimp. But I know we could have done much better after traveling so far. And I'm awfully spoiled. Still, Bangkok was interesting, I met some nice folks hailing from all over the world, and it's not every day you get to survive a tsunami. We didn't go at the optimum time (February), but I'd still want to dive plenty of spots in Indonesia and Malaysia and elsewhere before ever returning to the Andaman. > Did you use a US travel agent to book the trip? A friend of a friend chartered the boat, and we booked our air and hotel stays online. http://www.worldfilmsandtravel.com/guestbook.php?tripname=thailand-2004 I'm the one pointing (at what, I have no idea) fourth from the left in the top row of pics at the bottom of the page. Hello, be aware that the Similans have only about 20+ dive sites and there are more then a hundred boats in Phuket and Kao Lak that have a license for the Similans. And the government closes some of the sites for studies and to allow the reefs to recover. If you read older (5 to 10 year) stories or see pictures or videos of that time you will be seriously disappointed. Don't expect to see many sharks and forget mantas and whale sharks. There are way too may boats. They are gone. You will see turtles, groupers, schools of snapper, barracuda and bat fishes and many smaller but beautifully fishes you will only find there but not many sharks. Even now the Similans are a good dive area and if you want to have some (we did only four a day) nice relaxing dives and see quite different species as in the caribian then a liveabord in the Similans is good choice. Often the reefs are covered with glass fishes where many jacks are hunting through. They make a very pretty landscape. Behind you can find may critters which are much more coming out of there hide aways when they are protected by the glass fishes. You have nice deep areas to the west with granite rocks where you may nurse and leopard sharks and rays. The corals were never much on the granite rocks, but the landscape is great. Look for deep six, the boulders, bolder city and Hin Pusa. The corals are better on the east side with its slope reefs. There you have may smaller fishes but also schools of snapper, turtles, see snakes, critters like frog fishes, pipe fishes and so on. If you finished the Similans (which is normally 4 to 5 days) you may add two ore three days on a livaboard (or some time in Koh Lanta) for the islands south of Phuket. There you have a chance to see mantas at Hin Muang and Hin Daeng. Since the area around the Similans is quite shallow the visibility depends strongly n the current. If possible try to dive mid in between the moon changes. Avoid new and full moon. Then the tide is highest and the current is strongest. And with this a lot of sediment is moved and the visibility drops. Greg wrote that the staff told him that the sharks moved south for the winter. This is plain nonsense. When we dived there 10 years ago there were plenty of sharks. The many boats chased them away. The same with the mantas which came for cleaning to Richelieu Rock and Koh Bon. Now they are gone. greetings Clemens Hoffmann >> How many dives were you actually able to do each day? > [quoted text clipped - 48 lines] > I'm the one pointing (at what, I have no idea) fourth from the left in the > top row of pics at the bottom of the page. > Greg wrote that the staff told him that the sharks moved south for the > winter. This is plain nonsense. When we dived there 10 years ago there > were plenty of sharks. The many boats chased them away. The same with the > mantas which came for cleaning to Richelieu Rock and Koh Bon. Now they are > gone. I wrote that the staff told me what? Read it again: "I was a bit miffed to find that all the sharks that live on the Burma Banks had apparently gone south for the winter." Where did I say the staff said anything? "Gone south for the winter" is an American-English phrase referring to birds or snowbirds that travel south to escape the frigid northern climes. Obviously there is a severe language barrier here. Maybe you could comment on the nonsense of posts when you understand enough English to comprehend what we're saying here. Otherwise please stick to your German language groups where you can congratulate yourself on how many Jews you guys managed to kill a ways back without any interference from Americans. Oh, I might add that were weren't in the Similans you idjit. We were north, in Burmese waters, specifically because we knew that the "many boats chased them away". And whichever staff told you that the boats chased the sharks away, that is sheer nonsense. I've never seen a dive boat chasing a shark, unless it was a whale shark. Why would the boats want to chase the sharks away if the sharks are (were) the main attraction? You silly Germans, believing such nonsense. No wonder you all deny the Holocaust. My, my, my. Me thinks he pissed you off. Relax, Greg. They only gassed your ancestors on one side. Lee >> Greg wrote that the staff told him that the sharks moved south for the >> winter. This is plain nonsense. When we dived there 10 years ago there [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > the sharks are (were) the main attraction? You silly Germans, believing > such nonsense. No wonder you all deny the Holocaust. > My, my, my. Me thinks he pissed you off. > > Relax, Greg. They only gassed your ancestors on one side. It's Eastertime. The other half of me remembers when those damn Jews killed our dear lord Jesus, which causes a major internal conflict that leads to over-aggressive tendencies against Kraut morons who dare call what I said "nonsense", especially when I meant it to be nonsense. And a little post-tsunamic stress disorder, I think. The stinkin' Nazi made me recall all the horrors, my mind blurring the devastation of the gas chambers used against half my ancestry, with the trauma of being stranded on a small boat in the middle of the Andaman Sea during the worst human tragedy of recent times, when I ran out of my cheap Burmese whisky, and the boat had run out of ice. They had run out of Singha beer as well, and I was forced to consume "Chang beer", which is Thai for "elephant piss". Talk about suffering. Jesus never had to drink lousy beer. > Oh, I might add that were weren't in the Similans you idjit. We were north, > in Burmese waters, specifically because we knew that the "many boats chased > them away". This makes even less sense. You went North looking for sharks that had gone South? No wonder you were disappointed. My guess is that you may actually have seen some of these sharks, if you've been in a Bangkok chinese restaurants. Dive boats used to feed the sharks, but other boats may have had different priorities. Cheers, Froggy <snip> > http://www.worldfilmsandtravel.com/guestbook.php?tripname=thailand-2004 > > I'm the one pointing (at what, I have no idea) fourth from the left in the > top row of pics at the bottom of the page. It looks like you're pointing at the back of the woman's head. There's no telling what she's looking at though. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.