Rygsækrejsen 2015-2016: Phayam Divers Liveaboard - day 3 - 2 dives at Richelieu Rock and Surin Island

Last dive today and expectations a bit high especially among the experienced divers. Not having researched a lot before the trip we realised that the first spot today - Richelieu Rock - is among the top ten spots in the world. Especially if the current and visibility conditions are good. Everything from the smallest to the biggest things can be seen here. If your're lucky! Including whale sharks.

Matt was in charge of the current tables and we jumped in the water at 9:15 AM and had the most amazing dive for the next 50 minutes, enjoyed the true beauty of the submerged rocks at Richelieu. It is actually a collection of 5-6 giant boulders with lots of fish, corals and spectacular canyons. And a lot of current if you do not time it right, and the current can take you away from the rock in no time and you have to end the dive. So the timing is everything.

Our timing was perfect, so almost no current and almost 100% visibility which meant we could spend 50 minutes down there going around the outer part of the rocks once and then doing a few loops around the smaller rocks with the remaining air. It was perfect. No whale sharks this time but could only be more than happy about the dive.

Back on the surface and everybody was cheering after such a great dive. We had late breakfast and time to relax for the next couple of hours before the last dive off the coast of Surin Island. We jumped in the water at 12 and spent 45 minutes following the reef off the coast towards the far end of the island. Not as impressive as Richelieu Rock it was still a nice dive to end this amazing liveaboard trip with. Malene joined Mikkel's litlle dive group so we had a dive together.

Back on the boat for lunch and then relaxing a bit. Mikkel spent part of the afternoon doing endless multiple choice quizzes for his PADI exam and managed to pass the final test.

It was a bit later than expected when we arrived back at the beach at Koh Phayam. Everybody happy for the trip and also happy to go back to terra firma. We got our bags at the dive office, headed down the beach to our bungalow and had one in first row as requested. And then it didn't feel right, so we asked if they had one a bit more down the beach, which we got.

We headed back to the dive centre and found almost all from the liveaboard trip in the bar exchanging stories about just how big the fish had been. And they just grew bigger and bigger. Eventually we headed towards the restaurants in "town" and had dinner and went home to the bungalow to sleep.