The Quinn Family Excellent Adventure: Kamala beach to Khao Lak

So we wanted to do some diving here. A little Googling revealed some impressive dive locations around the Similan Islands. http://www.phuket.com/island/similans.htm

More Googling revealed some excellent dive information offered by the the dive company Sea Bee's. Sea Bee's offered well reviewed dive options from Phuket or Khao Lak. https://sea-bees.com/diving-khao-lak/

We decided to take the 1.5 hour taxi ride to Khao Lak, stay in another hostel and dive the next day. The taxi driver was nuts. 120 KM/h in a 60 most of the way. Luckily the roads are good here. The Hostel, Khaolak Mind Home Hostel was newish and really clean. https://www.facebook.com/Khaolak-Mind-Home-Hostel-718753148322452/

Our good friend Jacob from Indonesia was nearby so we planned a get together for dinner. The girls slept and I walked around. Khao Lak was hit extraordinarily hard by the 2004 Tsunami. https://www.khaolakexplorer.com/khaolak-guide/2004-khao-lak-tsunami/

Nearby is a memorial that I visited. It was hard to see but a good reminder of who is boss on this planet.

We met Jacob at the beach and found a nice random place to share diving stories. We walked Jacob back to his hostel and took the back of the pickup truck type taxi back home.

Up early the next day for the dive taxi pickup and soon we were at the dock. The sea bee's boat is much larger than anything we have used yet. Lot's of people diving with different levels of experience. We met Theo our instructor, and Michael a marine biologist who was also on our team. On this dive boat, we are expected to put together our gear. I prefer that. We mounted our BCD's, regulators and prepped out weights. Then we sat back for a 1.5 hour journey to the first of two stops. Our boat was quick. I sat beside the captain and got to know the route, engines speed and depth. The boat could easily do 25 knots but 17 kept the engines happy heat wise. Theo was great with our dive reviews. We were the first to jump in and the diving was excellent. We may not have had a tremendous amount of large fish to see but the visibility was amazing at 25 metres. Lunch between dives was epic and spicy. The boat ride back was filled with new friend conversations and we were all soon returning home. We had a slight taxi mix up for our return trip but whatever, we made it home safe. Amazing day.

Walking the beach again. This place is nice