Decompression – Thai style.

SAS-2025 is already long gone, but a tale from the Thai side still needs to be told!…

So, after the business part of the event (which, it goes without saying, was great), we needed to unwind and hang out with SAS participants in a more relaxed atmosphere – I call it “decompression”. And that’s why our whole group headed out to the Similan Islands in the Andaman Sea – about 65km west of the Thai coast (not far to the north of Phuket). And I couldn’t have been happier, since I’m fast approaching a full 200 islands visited in my life, and I hadn’t been to this particular one (rather – this particular grouping of islands)!…

So what can I say? I’ll say that the Similan Islands are really great: they’re rather unusual, really picturesque granite formations. However, the islands in the bay just east of Phuket are even better for contemplative sightseeing, IMHO. Never mind; these granite islands still have a special charm of their own…

The famous Sail Rock ->

The shapes of the granite islands here are striking, and kind of reminded me of Seychelles… which also have granite origin. I reckon there must have been some global tectonic processes that went on here – splitting up lithospheric plates and letting pure magma spill out; especially since the junction of the Eurasian and Australian plates is right nearby.

But enough geology already. What’s it like for tourists here? First, on the northern island, people get to go snorkeling. And for those who don’t feel comfortable or confident swimming on their own, they give out life jackets:

But honestly, the corals and fish underwater aren’t all that great compared to other locations I know of. Not bad, but kind of boring… (this is what my colleagues told me, since I got stuck with a leaky mask that kept flooding!).

A bit farther south there’s another island with the above-mentioned Sail Rock as the main attraction ->

But by the time we got there, the rock and all the nearby flat spaces were swarming with crowds of tourists (something I have an allergy/phobia to, grrr) ->

Tourists are brought in these long boats. And I write “long” as that’s key…

And it’s key since the surf here is really rough and strong: a short boat could easily get tossed onto the shore or even flipped over. Longer boats can withstand this no problem:

So, we just so happened to arrive on a small (albeit very comfortable) motor yacht, which really wasn’t meant for this kind of coastal adventure. They wouldn’t take us ashore on a dinghy either, since a single big wave would have capsized us. As a result, we had to jump right into the water before the waves broke into whitewater. You had to get your timing just right so you wouldn’t get spun around by the next breaker. And on the way back, we had to push through the surf in the opposite direction until we finally reached calmer water. Honestly, it’s not that hard… but I had my dry bag (with my beloved camera inside) in one hand. So yeah, it was a bit extreme. Obviously I’ve no photos of these shenanigans.

Aaaanyway. We made it. And here we are on the island. By the way, it seems to be called simply “Island Eight” (that’s how they say it in Thai):

We climb up onto the Sail – which is easy to do as there are wooden steps:

A few minutes were all it took and we were up there ->

Fortunately, all the tourists had promptly left so we had the place completely to ourselves:

Next up – Island No. 4 ->

And here it is!

Rope swing! ->

For other senior bosses – it’s also a day off:

Wow! ->

Time for my usual – a stroll! Ooh – turns out there’s a military outpost here! ->

We cross through the jungle to the beach on the other side of the island:

Almost there…

Whenever I see birds like this, my inner birdwatcher-photographer comes to the fore…

The beach is protected from the roughest waves by a granite headland so you can swim here! So that’s two new islands checked off, making 198 on my list. Just two more to hit 200!…

But it’s getting late, time to turn the boat back toward the mainland. And that’s when things got really interesting!…

Yeah, Phuket and its surroundings have really spectacular sunsets:

And they’re even better than in… Khabarovsk!

The suspense is building:

And then – wooooaaahhhh! ->

Later – the only light came from the spotlights from the squid-fishing boats ->

The following day, and for the next 48 hours solid, Phuket gave us nothing but rain. Still, I was so exhausted – I slept most of that time.

For there was plenty of reason to be tired! Hopping across the planet with eastbound jet-lag this time happened to coincide with unexpected trouble with flights and scrambling for alternative ways to get around. Hanoi and Phuket are only about 1600km apart, but… there’s just no easy, comfortable, and timely way to get between the two! So to get to SAS-2025 in time, we chartered a jet, but then fate went full-pear-shaped: still in Vietnam our plane broke down! Then they brought another – but it broke down too! EH?! I had to get my brain in gear and plan the route myself. In the end, it was doable, not too rough, but just nowhere near timely. We flew Hanoi to Bangkok on a commercial flight, and then found a taxi-jet like this that got us to Phuket:

Bu noon on our last day we finally got some sun:

But don’t believe the photo – the surf was so powerful that I didn’t dare get in the water…

They did the elephant show as usual. It’s not the first time I’ve seen these little elephants – I’ve been coming here since 2012, and this is my fourth visit! For 100 baht, you get a bag of veggies, which the elephant happily devours. And only on those terms can you have photos taken with said happy elephant!…

A farewell hotel photo – and it’s time to head home!

The best hi-res photos from Thailand are here.