At Kings Cup regatta I met some fantastic people – many of whom I hope to continue friendships with in the future. One of those was Andy, a pommy bloke, who wrote to me after hearing I had made the decision to jump ship and asked if I wanted to join him on his boat ‘Shah’ and the crew of ‘Albert II’ (who I had met previously in Bali) on a cruise out to the Similan Islands off the coast of Thailand for a week of diving, snorkelling and general frivolity. Naturally I jumped at the chance.
Andy’s boat Shah was a beautiful Hylas 44 that had been lovingly rejuvenated and was now home to Andy and his gorgeous black cat Inda. After being shown around I moved into the front cabin and we headed off at 6:30am for a day sail to the Similans. Andy was a sailing instructor and was eager to show me how the boat ran and let me pull sails, steer and navigate on our little jaunt.
The Similan islands are one of the world’s top dive spots and are a group of nine islands forming a marine national park about 60nm off the coast of Thailand. We made it to Ko Similan in the afternoon which was heaven with clear blue water and we joined Albert II for a sunset drink on the white sand beach. We then returned to Shah for a BBQ. The next few days followed a similar pattern with at least two snorkel/dives a day and then lunch and dinner over a few wines on one or other of the boats as we pooled food resources. Albert II had five people on board – Jim and Ged (the owners), Liz and Mike (pommy friends over for Kings Cup) and Christina (swiss backpacker who crewed Kings Cup and whom I also met briefly in Bali.)
Albert II had to head back to Phuket after a few days for Mike and Liz to catch a plane so Christina jumped over to Shah and we stayed a few extra nights. We spent these last few days being very lazy and diving off the boat to snorkel during the day and relaxing on the poop deck of a night. The snorkelling in the Similans was incredible. The coral was not quite as good as the Great Barrier Reef but the fish and natural life were amazing. I saw hordes of parrot fish, turtles, puffer fish and even the odd seasnake.
Our last night at the Similans we decided to have a Christmas party. We celebrated by making fresh pasta and dancing around in Christmas hats. By the time we finally poked our head out of the hatch however we noticed that all the other boats in our bay had decided to head around the corner to a different cove – did they know something we didn’t? We decided to join them but the only mooring left was right in the path of the surf surge and we made the decision to go back to where we were. Unfortunately this put us on a lee shore and when the breeze blew up in the early evening we rolled, and rolled and rolled and rolled. At about 2am I decided enough was enough and emerged on deck to find Andy had thought the same thing and we made the decision to pack up and head back to Phuket – at least we were punching into the swell instead of rolling with it.
We had a great days sail with a strong trade wind breeze and we made it back to anchor off Patong that afternoon. We were all stuffed from the night sail and after an early dinner ashore we retired back to the boat. The next morning we hired a car and headed to the other end of the peninsula in order to collect my things from Verena who had finally arrived. It was a tearful farewell to the kids but we returned to Patong and celebrated the beginning of a new stage with a few drinks and a night out on the town. It was a fantastic night as I caught up with Aaron and we drank in the ice bar, marvelled at the ladyboys and danced the night away in various clubs.
My last two days in Phuket were spent fairly quietly as I organised my things to go home. How on earth had I managed to accumulate so much stuff? I made time for lunch at a beachside restaurant and then went back to work sorting out items to send home. I ended up posting 16 kilos of clothes, souvenirs and miscellaneous crap home from Thailand in a box and still had a 20kg backpack and a huge carry on bag full of Christmas presents.
So it’s home sweet home for Christmas and then back to Phuket to continue the next few months travelling in Asia before who knows what? So keep an eye on this blog... because it could get entertaining!
