Ah the Liveaboard Life!

Anxious to book a liveaboard dive trip out of Khao Lak, we hopped aboard a crowded local bus, where we found ourselves seated on a lovely pile of rice bags. After looking at just 2 dive operators we decided to suck it up and pay for a 3 day/3 night stay on a dive boat -- one of our best decisions in Thailand!  Our destinations: Ko Bon, Ko Tachai, Prem Chai wreck, and the world-famous Richelieu Rock.  

Welcome aboard the Manta Queen IV, our home on the sea!  Great sunsets, buffet food served 4 times a day (+ snack) and, of course, world class diving. As Khao Lak Adventures motto goes, Eat, Dive, Sleep, Repeat. Who could ask for more? 

Rudely awakened from our slumber at 6am to the sound of "wakey, wakey!" (thanks, dive master Judith), we reluctantly climbed out of our bunks. Below, our first glimpse of Ko Bon with the sunrise. 

Everyone attentively listens to our dive briefing. After the 10th time everyone was a little less enthusiastic, just a little... 

Better view of the Koh Bon water archway.

 Now for a quick tour of our floating abode: 

Nick relaxing on the sun deck between dives. Oh my god, where is the beard??

Kaitlin getting some R&R as well.

Magnificent view of the crystal blue water and the bow of the boat. Remember, no touchy the Buddha spirit!

Designated drying area.

Here's the dive deck, where we prepare to jump in for the wreck dive.

Time to dive!  

Here we have a sampling of some of the excellent sea life we saw below the surface, pictures a courtesy of Judith, our dive master.  Have a look at this spotted moray eel! Isn't she(?) gorgeous!

 A particularly stunning nudibranch, part of the sea slug family.

Getting certified for deep water water diving (30 m) or 100ft. Kaitlin is playing with the yolk of an egg. The yolk has neutral buoyancy, and can be moved around without breaking.

Angelfish!

 Wassup, fellow sea compadres?

Without Judith we would have never spotted these ghost pipefish. Behind you can see some of the soft coral Thailand is famous for; although the pictured specimen is yellow, we saw purple and red varieties as well.  In fact, the purple variety blankets Richelieu Rock.  

A peacock mantis shrimp. Something that can only be seen in its natural habitat since it has the ability to break glass with its feet -- Imagine that in an aquarium. The eyes can also swivel 360 degrees. 

One of the many clown fish varieties we saw, hanging out in its anemone. They can be aggressive if little ones are around -- pretty sure this guy bit Judith. 

More anenomes swayin' with the currents.  

Seal Pufferfish

Big Trevally

Schoolin with some batfish

Some kinda sea slug

Nemo!

Good shot of a scorpionfish.  These critters can be hard to see due to their excellent camoflouge.  But don't get too close, they are covered with a venomous mucus!

Two scorpionfish hiding amongst the rocks

 A sea horse living at Richelieu

The purple gardens of soft coral have made the diving at Richelieu Rock famous

A pack of large barracuda!

A lone barracuda with a diver in pursuit.

A pair of harlequin shrimp hiding under a rock

 An angry spotted eel

Banded boxer shrimp

Rock-borer urchin

A large pack of durban hinge-beak shrimp

The whole crew posing for a shot before departure. It was a great trip, and we couldn't have asked for anything better!

Karsts and Caves of Khao Sok

Enter Khao Sok, one of Thailand's most beautiful national parks.  The rainforest here is believed to be one the oldest in the world, and the limestone karsts among the tallest.  We arrived at the Jungle Hut Guesthouse late in the evening after traveling all day on a ferry, a bus, and a minivan.  The travel agency sold us a cheap room at their guesthouse while we were in tranist, although they forgot to verify availability for said cheap rooms.  As a result, we received a free upgrade -- a room with AC and hot water for just $13! Our room was located off this elevated walkway, where we caught our first glimpse of the lush rainforest the next morning.  

Anxious to see it all, we booked a 2-day longtail trip on Chiaw Lan reservoir, which featured an overnight stay on a bamboo raft.  What could this possibly mean??  We could only ponder the nature of this unusual accommodation as we rode the taxi out to the dam, where our boat would pick us up.

Our longtail began the journey in the heart of the reservoir...

Here we spy another tour group on the fly

It was not the driest of rides, as water droplets would frequently saturate our sunglasses, soak our shirts, and  splotch our pictures... 

We finally arrived at the basecamp of our exploration, the bamboo raft itself! It was not actually mobile, but it held our cozy bungalows afloat.  

The resident family would feed the fish our leftovers, amassing large schools of hungry fish.  

As we trekked into the jungle of Khao Sok, we became immersed in a setting reminiscent of a scene from Jurassic Park.

Our destination was Nam Talu Cave, where we followed a subterranean stream, and (much to our surprise) swam through several deep sections. During the wet season, this cave is impassable.

A surprisingly large variety of animals live in Nam Talu cave, including catfish, shrimp, bats, spiders, and crickets. Here we find a crab.

Our adventurous tour guide grabbed this li'l spider

This gigantic tree is actually dead.  Our tour guides explained that when communists insurgents hid out in the Nam Talu cave area between 1975-1982, they used to tree to signal approaching danger by beating the trunk with a stick, eliciting a drum-like noise. 

During our stay at the raft house, we went on both a night safari and a morning safari in the longtail to spot wildlife on the banks of the lake.  At night we saw hornbills perched in the trees, and in the morning we spotted macaque monkeys.  Somehow the tiger and the Asiatic bear eluded us.  We viewed this glorious sunrise from the boat.

As we departed the rafthouse on our second day, we toured the reservoir for some excellent karst scenery.

For our last adventure, we went ashore for one more hike in the jungle.  

...and yet again, our final destination was a cave!

Creepy crab-spider bug eh?

Simply put, this national park was one of our favorite places in Thailand.  As we headed back to the guesthouse our minds remained imprinted with images of the majestic karsts and mysterious caves that are Khao Sok.