Find some real peace in Thailand's Similan Islands
by Catherine Nicol on 16 Sep 2017
Thailand – Similan Islands Asia Pacific Boating
The Similan Islands are home to incredible landscapes, spectacular diving, and not a whole lot of other people. They are numbered one through nine, going from north to south, are a chain of nine small islands about 50 miles from Phuket and form a Thai national park in the Andaman Sea. You can swim in the turquoise waters of all of them, but you can only step foot on the white sandy beaches of Number Four, which has simple bamboo bungalows, and Number Eight, the largest and the best for snorkeling. Island Two is supposed to be one of the top Scuba diving spots in the world, with lots of turtles, crabs and lobsters, plus sharks and mantas.
In places, the Similan Islands feel like the Thailand of a few decades ago. You can stroll along the squeaky white coral-sand beach, ducking under the occasional gnarled branch that stretches out from the jungle and weaving around the enormous wave and wind-smoothed boulders jutting into the crystalline Andaman Sea.
Leaves fall towards the gently sloping beach, catch the breeze and eventually set sail on the shallow waves, floating over some of Thailand’s most revered underwater seascapes. Back on land, there are no lines of lounge beds, no gaudy umbrellas interrupting the natural shades of sea, sand and jungle, no uniformed wait staff with trays of cool towels and cold water.
The most sophisticated buildings in the entire archipelago are the handful of wooden bungalows for overnight stays, a few local restaurants and the ranger stations, all set back from the beach mid-jungle. The contrast between gateways Phuket and Khao Lak, and the tranquil, undeveloped Mu Ko Similan National Park is so marked that when there’s no one else in sight you could be forgiven for thinking you’re in Thailand circa the 1980s.
But during the peak months of northeast monsoon, that kind of easy escape from Phuket is getting ever more difficult, though it is still possible. Vincent Tabuteau, managing director of Asia Marine (www.asia-marine.net) knows very well what the islands were like in the 80s. He arrived in Phuket in 1983, and has been sailing and chartering in these waters ever since. At the time, it was the end of the charter season in Greece and he was offered a six-month job as skipper based in Phuket. Although he had no idea where he was going, a simple yet powerful thought emerged: “Why not?” It is testament to the magical powers of the place that he’s never looked back. “It was a very remote, tropical place,” he remembers of Phuket back then. “There were hardly any roads or charter boats, and only two hotels. It looked like paradise.”
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a time when Phuket was off the beaten track, the only people living on Phi Phi were gypsies, and Tabuteau and his crew would rarely see another charter in the Similans. But this was the world that he and his adventurous clients wanted to explore. “Divers would come to Thailand to experience something really radically new,” he says. “In the Similans, the big fish were right under your boat. You could jump into two or three metres of water and they were right there. It was like an aquarium. But on shore, there was nothing at all – no people, no resources, and nothing to buy. Thirty years ago, there was only one dive boat, Fantasy Diver, and my charter yacht, apart from the local fishermen, the Burmese and some smugglers. There was no VHF to cover the range, and it was very isolated. You had the sense of being completely alone. It was quite exciting – a little bit of adventure.”
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