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Overview
| Phi
Phi Islands | Coral
Island | Maiton
Island | Racha Island
| Rang Yai Island
Koh Yao Islands
| Khai Nok | Similan
Islands | Phang Nga Bay | Lanta
Island
Similan in Focus - Island dreams
 Just
52 miles northwest of the deckchairs and the bustling crowds of
Phuket's Patong Beach lies a gateway to another world. Koh Similan
is one of the best-known island groups in the Andaman Sea, largely
because of the wonders that wait beneath the clear blue waters
that surround it. Generally counted among the 10 most interesting
dive areas in the world, this little archipelago has also become
a favourite destination for yachts and tour boats.
Until the mid-1980s, the Similans were a frontier known mainly
to a small number of divers and sailors. "I've dived in a
lot of areas that are off the beaten track and... a few where
they've never even heard of the beaten track," said Carl
Roessler in a 1985 Skindiver article. "Still, my recent
adventures in Thailand's Similan Islands have redefined remoteness
in dive travel."
But the past dozen years have brought big changes. In the early
1980s, you could spend a whole week out among these islands and
encounter no one beyond the occasional longtail boat full of Sea
Gypsies. By contrast, in the winter season these days, the best
anchorages are a forest of masts, and there's a busy traffic in
diveboats and day-tours from Phuket.
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"Similan" is derived from the Malay sembilan,
and means "nine". Each of the Similan Islands has
a number as well as a name. These are, running from north
to south: Koh Ba Ngu (No. 9), Similan (No. 8), Payu (No. 7),
Miang (No. 4, No. 5 and, in some opinion, No. 6), Payan (No.
3), Payang (No. 2), and Hu Yong (No. 1). Hin Pousar, or "Elephant
Head Rock", is alternatively designated No. 6 by some.
Koh Bon, lying 17 nautical miles north of Ba Ngu, is part
of the Similan National Park and may be granted honorary status
as No. 10.
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 What is it that makes these islands
so attractive? The Similans aren't as dramatically scenic as the
limestone islands of Krabi or Phang Nga Bay which many people
have come to associate with the Andaman Sea. Instead, you find
low-lying formations covered with thick forest.
Ironwood and gum trees are among the larger trees, while jackfruit,
rattan and bamboo form part of the denser undergrowth. The islands
are home to crab-eating monkeys, dusky langurs, squirrels, bats,
lizards and a good variety of birds (though the monkeys are shy
and rarely seen by the casual observer). But the most striking
feature of these islands, at first glance, are the huge boulders
that litter the western and southern shores on several of the
islands.
Another highlight, as the visitor soon discovers, are the white
coral-sand beaches, splendidly picturesque and often deserted.
The most interesting sights, however, are to be found beneath
the waves. Some of the most spectacular coral growths in the world
can be found here - and the same boulders that scatter the shores
have turned the waters around the Similans into an adventure playground
for divers.
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At various times in the past - with sea levels fluctuating
by as much as 150m with the advance and retreat of the polar
ice-caps - these islands have been under water, battered by
storms, covered with marine growths, visited by creatures
long extinct. Think of that when you clamber up the trail
to Sailing Boat Rock, on Island No. 8, for example. As you
squeeze through the crevices and archways, imagine them covered
with colourful corals, sponges and algae. Where today you
find birds and butterflies and squirrels, at one time dense
schools, bright streams of fish instead commuted this way
and that, with bigger fish and marine dinosaurs cruising through
on the hunt.
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 A variety of forces have
given shape to these islands. To begin with, the Similans were
intrusions, upwellings of hot magma that found their way through
weak spots in the Earth's crust 100-150 million years ago, working
their way through thick layers of sedimentary rock already laid
down at least 100 million years earlier still. Then, unimaginably
powerful movements in the crust cracked the granite substratum
into blocks, preparing the way for experiments in sculptural form
by wind and wave.
Today, piles of curious stones, some of them as big as houses,
lie as though collected and later abandoned in careless heaps
by some ancient race of beachcombing giants. Even Sailing Boat
Rock, the distinctive formation teetering high above the cove
on Koh Similan (Island No.8), has been shaped in this way. And
boulders just like these spill in jumbled piles down beneath the
surface of the sea to 35m and beyond, where submarine peaks, canyons,
caves and passageways provide scuba divers with some of the most
interesting submarine prospects in the world. (On the west side
of the islands, currents have kept the formations clear of sand;
on the coral-covered sandy slopes of the east side, the boulders
have been largely buried.)
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 Underwater,
meanwhile, all sorts of marine creatures have helped establish
the reefs and the sandy beaches. When you climb up to Sailing
Boat Rock, consider the brilliant white sand below. This beach
is in large part a product of diligent scraping and nibbling away
by organisms such as the parrotfish - an average individual of
which species may excrete more than 16 kilos of sand in the course
of a year's lunching on hard corals. And there's plenty here to
eat.
The conditions for coral growth are ideal, with a minimum prevailing
sea temperature of about 28oC and exceptionally clear
waters. More than 200 species of hard coral alone have so far
been identified in this area, while these islands have the greatest
profusion of reef fish in Thai waters.
In fact, in terms of both marine life and bottom topography,
there's more variety than you'll find in most other dive destinations
around the world. The Similans has almost everything - coral walls
(if we count Koh Bon, to the north, as one of the Similans), big
rocks, huge sea fans and barrel sponges, caves, swim-throughs,
and plenty of shallows for snorkelling as well. For, although
the fringing waters around the islands average from 30-45m dropping
down to 70-80m between islands, you'll find coral gardens in as
little as six to seven metres.
 It's best known as a diving and snorkelling
destination, but the Similans' scenic moorings are also becoming
increasingly popular with the sailing fraternity. Every year more
yachts come to cruise the Similans during the northeast monsoon
(November-May, with December-February the peak of the high season),
drawn by the lovely anchorages, the beaches and forests, the clear
waters and teeming marine life. Bareboat sailing charters and
sailing-diving cruises may be booked from Phuket. If you are on
a yacht that doesn't have scuba gear or a compressor, you can
always hire what you need from the diveboats that come out from
Phuket on a regular basis. First-rate scuba instruction may also
be available right there in the Similans, although where it's
practicable, you might want to book this from Phuket.
 Aside from sailing
and diving, more and more dayboats are coming out from Phuket
and Phang Nga during the high season, bringing with them
crowds of sightseers, picnickers, and snorkellers. And Koh Similan
National Park has added to its many attractions its role as a
stopover on the way to yet newer and more distant undersea frontiers
and sailing destinations - areas such as the Andaman Islands,
the Invisible Bank and, when they reopen to sport diving, the
Burma Banks.
Overview
| Phi
Phi Islands | Coral
Island | Maiton
Island | Racha Island
| Rang Yai Island
Koh Yao Islands
| Khai Nok | Similan
Islands | Phang Nga Bay | Lanta
Island
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