Koh Similan
Following on from yesterday’s post that showed how busy Koh Miang (island number 4) can get with day trippers I want to post some photos taken on the same day at island number 8 (Koh Similan) in a place where the day trippers don’t go. If you only do a day trip to the Similan Islands you’ll leave feeling that it’s a very crowded place but if you stay on a liveaboard you’ll get a completely different view. The day trip speedboats all go to the same three or four places, the liveaboards can avoid them easily by going elsewhere. As the photos below show, much of the Similan islands is virtually deserted.
Similan Island number 8 (called Koh Similan) is the largest of the nine Similan Islands. It’s long and thin from north to south. On the east side is a long beach called beacon beach and just to the north of that is a smaller bay, called beacon bay. Both are almost empty of other boats all day long, you have to charter your own speedboat or join a liveaboard trip to get there.
Just outside the bay we saw a small pod of dolphins.
The fringing reef has some lovely coral.
Day trip speedboats do visit the beach in the bay at the northern end of Similan island number 8, it’s called Donald Duck bay because the rock formations look like Donald Duck’s bill. There is a nice viewpoint called sail rock. Donald Duck bay is also where many of the liveaboard boats moor at night so the bay always has boats in.
This beach at Donald Duck bay gets busy in the day. This photo was taken from our liveaboard after the day trippers have left.
Donald Duck bay also always has turtles in who approach the boat looking for banana handouts. There are plenty of other fish in the bay including milk fish, trigger fish, parrot fish and the usual rabbit fish and sergeant majors feeding off any food scraps.