26 Oct First snorkeling trip of the season
“Happy me”: This day is a special one for me. It is not my birthday, no, it might be even a better day than some of my birthdays: I joined the first overnight snorkeling trip with our Reggae Queen and it is a blast so far!
Why a boat trip on the Reggae Queen is different…
Our staff, enjoying a hot coffee on the boat.
At around 6:30, the Reggae Queen set out at Tamblamu Pier. With enough fuel, but also mooore than enough food and beers we started the trip to Similian Islands. I was very excited to join the trip for many reasons. I have been snorkeling before, yes, but I just joined speedboat trips so far. A trip on the boat is a totally different experience. Instead of sitting on a loud and sometimes quite uncomfortable, wavy speedboat with a bunch of people you stay on the boat with only a few guests in a quiet and familiar atmosphere. Because you move on slowly you have enough time to get to know the other guests on the boat. It is more about “take it easy and enjoy the trip” than “let us spend a day full of activities”. Everybody gets to know everybody very quickly on the boat. That’s what I like so much on a trip on with the Reggae Queen!
More snorkelling or more realxing on the beaches? It is up to you!
But let me give you a few more reasons why I liked the snorkelling tour so much. Because of fact that the trip I joined was an overnight one, we had enough time to choose about the program and the time when we want to enter the water for snorkeling. In our group we were only younger and more active people, so therefore we decided to do more snorkelling sessions and less sightseeing on the beaches. Before I went on the trip, I did not expect that the schedule can be set so individual and flexible.
Have you ever had the Donald Duck Bay for yourself? We had!
Beautiful Donald Duck Bay just all for ourselves!
A great thing is also, that we reached the “hot spots” like the Donald Duck Bay at Similian Islands at a time where nobody else was there. No speedboat, no tourist, just the Reggae Queen and our group. It was amazing to have all the beaches just for ourselves so for sure, we took the time to take great photos with nobody else in the backround 😉!
And when talking about taking photos, then I do not mean that everybody took some photos of themselves. The guests and the staff of the boat developed to a “team”, so we did many cool group photos and shared them afterwards at dinner time.
Don’t expect pre-cooked meals on the boat – it is all fresh!
Meat lovers? Watch out! Great bacon for breakfast!
Oh well, did I already tell you about the dinner or about the food on the boat in general? It is soooo good! There is one nice lady called “Mai” who prepares a kind of 5-star breakfast, lunch and dinner every day on the boat. For breakfast we had homemade, freshly baked bread (you do not find that in any Thai supermarkets) with eggs, salami, bacon, peanut butter and even Nutella! Additionally, there is free coffee, tee and water all the time on the boat. Just help yourself =)
Snorkeling at its best…
Snorkelling can turn into diving, too!
After breakfast and some nice chats, we got ready for the snorkelling session. With suitable fins and masks for everybody, we changed into the dinghy and jumped in the water. Being underwater is just such an amazing feeling – especially when you learn to “dive” underwater. If you can manage to get the pressure out of your head while pressing your nose, you can dive up to, let’s say, about 12 meters down. It took me some sessions to practise but if you know how it works, snorkeling kind of turns into diving and is so much fun!
Everbody wants to find nemo and we finally found him!
You get very close to sea stars, fishes, ales and more. As a highlight of the first day, we even saw a sea turtle on the ground! So cool! I really like snorkelling and joined every sessions that the crew offered – in case you sometimes feel like that you want to skip a session and need a rest, you can just do so. No pressure, the reggae boat in also a good place to relax 😊
Finishing the day on the “Party deck” with some freshly prepared cocktails…
We did about 2-3 snorkelling sessions per day. The number of sessions is up to the motivation of the guests and on the time we had left. Anyway, at the first day we did 3 sessions and ended up the day with nice songs from “Guns and roses” and, not to forget, with some freshly made cocktails. What I want to say is – even if you are not used to sleep in a cabin you can make yourself sleepy: With a good snorkelling workout during the day and some nice cocktails in the evening 😉
Sleeping in the cabin can be unusual for the first night…
Personally, I did not sleep that well in the cabin. But no problem – next time I will have a few more beers with Ralf and the crew and yes, this might help me to get a couple of more hours of sleep haha :D. The boat crew also told me that is quite usual that the first night on the boat is a more sleepless one than the ones that are following. If the Reggae Queen sets out for a 3-day or 4-day tour, you get used to the wavy movements in the cabin and will have a better sleep also. This is what they told me – so I keep believing that and looking forward to join the next trip =)
Less is more – the lesson of the last 2 days on the boat…
No hotel service is provided – everybody helps =)
Right now I am laying in my cabin, listening to the sound of the ocean and yes, I am just feeling happy that I was a part of the first seasonal trip and hope to have more choices to join some future tours. In the last 2 days I almost had no internet connection, so I did not spend much time on the phone. I also did not have much space for myself, so I talked to the guests and made new friends here. All in all, you live with the minimum and start to understand how much more comfortable it is to renounce some things in life…
If you like snorkelling and do not get seasick on the boat – do not miss this trip!
Back at Tablamu pier =)
We had such a great tour! I can recommend this one to everybody! It is a totally different and unique experience. If you consider about doing an overnight trip – than go for it!
This is a real-life experience that you will never forget!
