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After an amazing adventure in the primary forest of Khao Sok, it was time to dive into the underwater world. We took a local bus and headed south to Phuket where we stayed in a small guesthouse in the old Phuket district for the night and while waiting for the next evening to embark on a 4 day-4 night liveaboard trip (Diving boat where you dive, sleep and eat)  Our adventure ship: My Gentle Giant
We woke up with a day to spend exploring before the pick-up from the liveabord team. We explored a local market, bought some fresh mango and pineapple and found a quiet spot for some home schooling. The journey than began with the team of "My Gentle Giant". We made it abord the ship around 8pm and met with the other guests and crew members. Covid was to our advantage here since the boat can usually accommodate 40 guests, we were 12! There were 2 dive masters, Fabien (from France) and Guai (From Thailand and owner of the ship), both were great hosts. We also had several conversations with a couple from the Philippines that gave us great tips for our travel there in April! Another girl was from Vietnam so we reminisced about our trip there in 2020. She is a passionate diver and had plenty of recommendations of where we should dive in our upcoming destinations. An interesting girl but also quite particular if you get my drift ;) We explored the boat and our cabin. We were all super excited and it promised to be an extraordinary experience!  We were attributed the master cabin to fit our family. We were then served a delicious meal as the crew went over the onboard safety rules and plan for our days to come. We were exploring 11 dive sites in the south Andeman region. The daily routine on board was as so:
The children were allowed to stay on board with the crew while Alex and I were diving which was great since we could enjoy all the dives together rather than alternating and missing out on half the dives  With Fabien, our dive master
Some of the dive sites were fit for some snorkeling as well and the crew went out with the kids for some snorkeling while we were diving. In between dives, when the boat was not cruising between dive sites, we enjoyed some water fun as family jumping of the rear platform and just splashing around the boat.  The diving was better than expected which was a nice surprise! There is still tons of soft corals in this area, more so than in many places we have dived before. More specifically some lovely and plentiful purple soft coral as well as some red soft coral in some areas.  Notice here the beautiful blue soft coral  A batfish. It doesn't look it from the photo but they spand at least 50cm in length
 Exploring a small underwater cave during one of the dives There were plenty of big schools of fish and we got to see several animals we had not seen before such as huge schools of Batfish, many sea snakes and even a really nice sea horse. Several huge sea fans and finally the more usual encounters such as trivalries, trigger fish, puffer fish, Murray eels, sweet lips, parrot fish, etc. One morning we encountered several blacktip reef sharks in the shallows. The children were out snorkeling during this dive also hoping to encounter the sharks which then did. Olivier states he saw 8 and Éloïse 6. I would say they were more or less 4-5 feet long and about 5-6 meters deep, so they got to have a really good look :) We don't usually care much for wreck dives and this trip had 2 on the planned. One of them was actually quite nice as it was covered in soft corals and surrounded by massive schools of yellow snappers.
The last evening, we enjoyed a festive meal of fish and seafood cooked on BBQ hot pot style. Words are not enough to express how good everything was!   Evenings on the boat are also a great occasion to observe the stars, away from all the light pollution of the cities, enjoy the sun rise and sunset onto and into the azure waters and witness the moon rise as well before letting the ocean rock you to sleep. This was definitely a highlight of the trip for all 4 of us.  
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En quittant Koh Tao, pour Koh Phangan, on nous avait bien avertît que le meilleur du snorkeling était derrière nous. Têtu comme vous nous connaissez, on a quand mis nos masques et sommes partit à la découverte des fonds marin. En gros, la mise en garde était plutôt juste mais est-ce que tous les coraux sont mort? Non, un petit récif situé à la pointe nord ouest de l’île résiste encore et toujours par Toutatis et nous avons eu la chance d’y voir les plus grandes anémones à ce jours. Elles étaient immense et paraissaient recouvrir de grande partie du récif et qui dit anémone dit aussi Némos bien sûr. Que de plaisir à embêter ces petits poissons territoriaux ;-) 
 En route vers le sommet 
 John, le gérant français de notre petit regroupement de bungalows, est vite tombé sous le charme des enfants et est rapidement devenu le meilleur ami d’Oli. John et sa conjointe Thai nous ont même introduit à la chasse à la micro crevettes et aux crabes. On parle ici de crevettes d’environs 1 cm de long qui une fois séché au soleil servent à rehausser les fameux Pad Thai et de petits crabes que nous attrapions à mains nus ou à l’aide de petits fillets destinés à la salade de papaye. Ce fut bien sympathique de voir ces petites crevettes sauter hors de l’eau alors que nous arpentions, en pleine nuit, eau à mis cuisse les rebords de la baie avec nos lampes frontales. Sinon, pas grand chose d’autre à faire à Koh Phangan que de profiter de la vie, un apéro à la main dans les hamacs du bungalow en regardant le soleil se coucher sur l’horizon, en laissant les enfants être des enfants et jouer pendant des heures dans la piscine ou en allant déguster poulet grillé sur charbon de bois, smoothies à la mangue ou autres délices. 
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AuteurKarine et Alex, amoureux de la vie et de leurs 2 magnifiques enfants! Archives
Août 2022
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