Hello again fellow travelers! Today i’d like to show you another great part of Thailand - Similan Islands. To get here you take a boat from Khao Lak and it takes about 1.5-2 hours to reach. We were staying at Phuket so it took additional 2 hours to get to Khao Lak in the first place. We had to leave our hotel at 6AM and left for Similan Islands at 9:00 after our tour guide explained everything and we had a small breakfast.

Similan Islands

The first thing that caught my eye here was the color of the water. Everywhere else we’ve been to in Thailand, the water is more green than blue. Around Similan Islands though, the water is vivid sky blue. I guess White Sand beach near Koh Lipe was similar but in Similan it was way more prominent.

Our first stop was for some Snorkeling. The underwater world of Similan is very pretty, full of lively corals and a lot of fish. Unfortunately there were a ton of people too. I expected it to be a lot emptier - given we came a few days before the big holiday starts and there are no international tourists. There were literally hundreds of people at almost every snorkeling spot we went to. It seemed they synchronized all the tours to go to the same places at the same time and that’s the one thing I don’t like at all. (can’t say I feel too bad for it though. These people must’ve been happy to finally get some full tours.)

We were swimming all around this area. You could see these rocks under the water as well with lots of corals growing on them.

When I first dived in I was welcomed by these massive pools of fishes, swimming by in all directions. Our boat was one of the first to get here so there weren't as many people to scare them off yet.

After exploring the underwater world for awhile, we went to the nearby beach area for lunch. It was a national park that used to let visitors stay on the island overnight. Unfortunately we just don’t deserve nice things.. Tourists used to torture the wildlife around and it got forbidden to stay here. There is a river crab that lives in the national park and goes out on the beach to lay its eggs. It is a rare creature from what the locals said and tourists that stayed on the island before used to break the crabs shells, tear their legs out and do all sorts of cruelties. Can’t believe people travel to the most beautiful places on Earth to do the most ugly things possible.

The trees were massive on this beach. They were super tall so the creatures living up there were at a pretty safe distance from the visitors. :)

The river crabs weren’t the only wildlife here. This was the first place I saw so many bats of the Large Flying Fox breed. These bats eat fruits and can become massive in size. There were hundreds of them above our heads while we had lunch. They were so far up that even with my zoom lens it was hard to get a nice close up. I did still take a lot of photos of them though.

This last one was a lonely bat that was sleeping a bit closer on a smaller tree. He was pretty far from all the rest, maybe he's a bit of an introvert.

This island reminded me so much of White Sand beach island near Koh Lipe. Same type of national park signs, tables and scenery. The only difference were the big rocks on the side of the beach. The beach was fairly long but there were quite a lot of people on it. I can’t even think of how much more crowded it would be with international tourists here.

Next stop were a couple of snorkeling places. The second one we went to was probably the most beautiful place for snorkeling around here. It rivals the best Koh Lipe place for sure. I’d still pick Koh Lipe over it any day though. On our last trip there, there was no one else in the water but us. Even at peak hours with other tours it wasn’t that bad. Similan was a different story.. It was so hard to take photos that didn’t have anyone's feet in them.

This is how our next stop looked like above water. It was definitely the prettiest spot for snorkeling we stopped at.

I haven't even had the time to go through all the videos yet. Hope they are good and that we manage to make a bigger clip out of them this time around, because there's a lot to be seen.

After the snorkeling bit we stopped at the second National Park in Similan. This one was amazing - the water was so clear and vivid and after a short hike - you could get to a really nice viewpoint overlooking the island from all sides.

See the people up on the rock? That's where we are headed.

So they took our shoes when we first stepped on the boat and left them at the pier. It is a common thing to do because they don’t want the boat to get extra messy and people to lose their shoes in the sea. The thing is I never thought there would be a hike through rocks I’d need to do, bearfoot, carrying 2 cameras and a gimbal.. 😀

I did manage to get to the top safe and sound (both me and the cameras). It was well worth it because the view from the top was amazing. Again a lot of people but here you could queue up a bit and take your photos in peace. Could even give the equipment on me to people from the tour while they take photos of us.

If you are wondering who is this with us. It's Nat's dad. :) He's also quite the adventurer.

We didn’t have much time for the beach here and we were quite tired so we decided to sit down for a bit. The peace was quickly disturbed by a massive monitor lizard. He popped up from underneath one of the tables and quickly emptied the sitting area. Everyone around slowly took their stuff and left.. And here I was, taking photos of him as he was slowly walking my way. Eventually we left as well only to find an even bigger one laying down right next to the locals operating the local store.

Similan Islands are definitely worth seeing. The Islands are nicely looked after, the waters are vivid, corals and sea life is rich. There is one place left in Thailand we havevn't been to and people say is the best for diving - Surin Island. Hope to go there soon as well but with how covid is spreading in here lately - it may not be anytime soon.

I couldn’t fly the drone in here - all the national parks had signs saying ‘no drones’. We even asked the tour guide and he said that we could’ve asked for permission a few weeks prior and maybe they would’ve allowed us. Thing is we booked the whole thing less than a week ago so we wouldn’t have had the chance at all. Shame - since it would’ve been amazing to see from above. Maybe next time we’ll be more prepared for it.

Thanks for reading everyone! I wish you an amazing weekend and I hope you enjoyed the photo spam. I'll see you in the next one! :)