Thailand - Khao Lak, Similan islands - part 2

After lunch we visited the second snorkelling spot, this time there were less boats around and less people in the water. Again we saw some very pretty things under water.

This one is Oriental sweetlips (Plectorhinchtus vittatus).

These are the Singular bannerfish (Heniochus singularius).

Finally we also saw a Giant moray (Gymnothorax javanicus).

There were plenty of Cornetfish (Fistularia commersonii), but they kept the distance.

This bright fish is a Coral rabbitfish (Siganus corallinus).

And this is the least colourful butterflyfish, the Black pyramid butterflyfish (Hemitaurichthys zoster), all in black and white but still pretty.

We also saw this Barred thicklip wrasse (Hemigymnus fasciatus).

When I first saw this guy I thought it was a Picasso triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus), just in less bright colours that the ones we saw in Maldives so many times.  But by searching through my books and internet I discovered that it must be a Reef triggerfish (Rhinecanthus rectangulus). And I'm happy to have found something new!

These are Humpback unicornfish (Nasa brachycentron), quite a rare sight for me.

Unfortunately the time for snorkelling was much shorter than the beach time and we were brought to another beach soon. This one is the famous beach where everybody is hiking up to the rock to make some selfies. If you look closely you can see how many people are up there. We of course didn't go, but found ourselves some shade and waited there for the ride back.

But all in all it was a very nice day, and a first opportunity for proper snorkelling in this holiday. 

In our bay the water visibility was not suited for snorkelling, there was way too much sand in the water, as you can see in the photo. But we were observing wildlife while we were sitting on our terrace and eating fruits, without even having to swim or go anywhere. The rocks down there were very popular with herons...

...and we often saw one or more Pacific Reef Herons (Egretta sacra) resting there.

Many times we also saw a turtle down by the rocks, it is the brownish speck on the left upper side of the rock. I don't know which kind of turtle it was.

Sometimes an Indian Pond-Heron (Ardeola grayii) also sat on these rocks, but this one was photographed on our way to the village. The funny thing is that this heron looks completely white when flying, I first thought it was a Great white egret, but then it landed and it was almost completely brown.

In the trees around our terrace were many squirrels, this one is a Northern Gray-bellied Squirrel (Callosciurus caniceps).

They were moving very fast and I was really happy to have managed some good photos.

When we were too lazy to go to the beach, we visited the hotel pool and most of the time we were alone there.

Most of the evenings we ate in the village in different restaurant, and it was mostly very good. But what I noticed was that obviously tourists have trained the Thai cooks to cook very mild food. If you don't ask and say you like it spicy, you usually get a very mild food, but also with less flavour. We often had to ask for chilli flakes or prik nam pla (fish sauce with chilli). Pity!

On our way to the village we were often wandering how on earth these tangles of power wires even manage to work. It all looks so random and so unstable.

This giant plant is the Giant Elephant Ear (velika alokazija or Colocasia gigantea 'Thailand Giant' ).

Some of these plants were also in our resort, with many other ones. It was really green and lush and well kept.

There were plenty of birds in the trees, but with trees so high and dense it was very difficult to spot them. Luckily this pretty guy sat on the palm right next to the path and was so busy singing it didn't pay much attention to us. It is a Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier).

This is the neighbouring bungalow, ours was just like this one.

And this is the same butterfly as in part 1, just showing its wings from the underside - the Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina).

I found these Red sealing wax palms (Cyrtostachys renda) very pretty.

Most of our days ended with cool beer from our fridge on our terrace, but sometimes they ended with cocktail on hotel terrace above the pool.

To be continued...