Diving and Snorkelling Thailand with Friends!

We tried to steer clear of the snorkelling areas which are bombarded with tourist and went off to explore the caves and swim-throughs – Dwayne, Nikola and Luka affectionally know this,  as, cave hunting! There are some magnificent caves to explore on the west coast of Phi Phi Don. It does get busy in the area with boats bringing out tourists, but the tourists do not venture far from the beach. To the north of the beach, the cliffs have a warren of caves to explore. Some do not go too far in, others are huge, and at least one is an interesting swim-through with several openings, a lot of light and spectacular scenery. The first thing we noticed was a blowhole that was gushing out water and air. It was not just the kids excited by this. We motored the dinghy in to have a look and to get a bit of video footage on the GoPro.

As we snorkelled this area, all of us following Dwayne blindly, into cave after cave, we entered a large cave that had several openings, unbeknownst to us at the time a wave set was about to hit. As I was filming our exploration of this cave I was a little apart from everyone else… but not so far that I didn’t hear the urgency in Dwayne’s voice when he told everyone to dive deep and swim out of the cave. I was a few seconds behind the others and too late to withstand the onrush of water. I was tossed over and over as I was pushed along with the water rushing into the cave. Luckily for me, it is a large cave, and I was able to get my fins out in front of me before being thrown into the oyster encrusted wall. I survived unscathed, and when I managed to vacate the cave, I found the others from our exploration team, were similarly so. Nikola was the only casualty with minor grazes on his knees, which he coped with like a man. I wasn’t all that surprised when everyone just followed Dwayne into the next cave he found, as though they had already forgotten the potentially dangerous close call we had all just experienced! One thing about Dwayne, I’m not sure why, or how, but he has the ability to instil complete confidence in him to all that will follow!

We left early the next morning and sailed to Koh Ha Yai where we picked up a mooring and went for a snorkel. It was lovely—lots of fish and other marine life. After the snorkelling Dwayne, Ilija, Anka and Nikola went for a dive while Luka and I snorkelled around a tiny island waiting for the others to surface.

We then headed off to Koh Rok. Koh Rok – I know I have said it before – is one of my favourites. We picked up a mooring and went to grab a spot on the beach before all the tourist arrived. We put our gear down on the beach, spread out our towels and went for a snorkel. When we finally headed back to the beach, we found that the tourists had already arrived by the boatload and had made themselves at home in our little spot of shade.

We picked up our gear and found another shady spot and within seconds were joined by more tourists. Oh well… we had some lunch and went swimming and soon enough the beach cleared, and it was once again our little paradise.

Once the tourists were gone, and we had the place to ourselves again Ilija, Anka and Nikola went for a dive, while the rest of us snorkelled. Later that night Dwayne, Ilija and the boys went for a night snorkel.

The next day we motor-sailed to Koh Racha Yai where we could once again feast on seafood and Ilija organised three ATV’s as a surprise for the boys.

It was a lot of fun but, as Dwayne drives like a maniac, I ended up with a bit of whiplash! LOL! Nikola and Luka, after some instructions were able to ride their own ATV so they, as you can imagine, had a blast.

After breakfast the next morning at a gorgeous little spot overlooking the bay we headed back to Ao Chalong and from there into Patong… just enough time for a massage and yet another seafood feast!

Dwayne and I treated ourselves to a hotel room for the night and ended up staying there for three days just relaxing and doing nothing… then we headed back to Thorfinn it was time to get some work done!

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