Similan Islands

By John Bonar

From a jetty crowded with speed boats we piled into two fibre glass monsters and in a stomach-churning,  wild, bouncing ride we bucked the waves for 70 minutes to the fabled Similan Islands, a protected national park and one of the world’s top ten diving spots.  While dolphins jumped in the background we donned snorkeling masks and rubber fins, rolling off the boat into a boat and found sea turtles close enough to touch while myriad schools of brightly coloured tropical fish swam around us.