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Come and explore with us the fantastic dive sites
around Phuket and we'll show you
a breathtaking underwater world.
Excerpts
from ISB (international School Bangkok) log February 2007.
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Dinner was fantastic. I
wanted to eat more and more but my stomach didn’t allow me.
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After all our dives we started to put up the sails, which is
hard to do and you appreciate the crew members for all their work they have
done for us.
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When the sails were finally up, Mick let us jump off the boat
and hold onto a float. We pulled
like crazy to get back. Never
tell me boats are slow. I was
dead tired from just hanging on the rope; that boat was crazy strong.
·
We were all sleeping on the deck… and we saw the craziest
shooting star which lasted for about 5 seconds.
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Nature is such an amazing thing.
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When I got diving underwater, I was in another world.
Corals and fish were forming a paradise.
·
….the life underwater….They all have different kinds and
groups as we all have different nationalities….the most similar point
between them and us was that we are living in a very dangerous world.
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The feeling of the rocks soaring above us, while diving,
made me feel like an ant.
·
While Mick was concentrating on the small things camouflaged in
the hard corals, I glared at the endless blue ocean hoping to see even a
shadow of such an enormous creature.
·
Even under 20m in the water... I could hear my dive
buddies screaming, and of course, I was screaming too.
I wanted to ride on the back of a manta ray but I knew it was
impossible. Anyhow, just seeing
such a marvelous creature during the dive made my day.
·
I was amazed by the fact that something that I had never seen
in my life while diving, was swimming right above me and also something that
was much larger than me was looking at me.
·
One of the octopuses I saw while I was diving by myself was
crazy! It camouflaged itself in
the corals but the eyes are what gave it away.
I never knew how they move underwater but it was so strange it made me
nervous being around it.
February 2007
Phuket Thailand
early January 2005
My
wife and I have spent the last two weeks diving aboard “The Junk”, visiting
dive sites from the Similan Islands to the Surin Islands. The dive sites visited
were excellent. We have been diving the Red Sea on several occasions, Caribbean
Islands and last Christmas we spent three weeks on Phi Phi island, diving every
day.
However,
the dives, 29 in total, were very good.
Very slight damage was observed, this was caused by the earthquake of
December 26th. We would highly recommend the dive sites we
visited, we saw so many varieties of fish, both large and small. The
negative feedback we are hearing about is “rubbish”, we strongly
recommend that you get wet and go diving to see for yourself, it’s very
beautiful, nowhere, yet, compare to these very good diving sites.
T.B.Cook ( DM #628050)
A.S.Cook ( Rescue Diver).
In
retrospect, overall the diving in Thailand on “The Junk” was impressive.
The journey began in the Similan islands on December 31st 2004.
Even though I have had dives all over the world, from the Caribbean to
Africa, the first dives I experienced after the tsunami were (on a scale of
1 to 10) at least a 7 or 8. I was the only person that did not cancel my
trip, on “The Junk”, from December 30th to January 5th.
I think that those that did cancel have missed an opportunity of a lifetime.
Through the days of diving there was talk of 0-5% to 30%, destruction of
reefs. Only isolated dives were affected with some dives being utilised,
which had been closed for years. Ko Bon and Ko Tachai did have some limited
damage, but with a few divers cleaning the area, the diving will be as it
was before the tsunami.
Marc M Girardot
We have just completed two
weeks diving aboard “The
Junk” run by the Dive Inn co. from Patong Beach, Phuket.
We boarded “The Junk” on
the 24th of December and spent Christmas day diving the sites
around the southern Similan islands. These were good dives with abundant
coral and masses of fish life.
On the 26th of
December we completed an early morning dive at “The Pinnacles” and then
made our way to Koh Bon island, where the crew and dive instructors noticed
a change in the water around the island, and then we heard, on the radio,
that the earthquake had struck in Sumatra. Needless to say, there was no
more diving that day.
We continued with the trip
and completed some wonderful dives, where the coral was still totally intact
and others where there had been slight damage.
The following week we were
unable to go to Phi Phi island to continue our holiday and decided to remain
on “The Junk” for another trip.
This trip was extremely
interesting as the dive crew and divers did not know what to expect on each
dive. We were relieved to find that there had been very little major damage
to any of the dive sites that were dived.
The main dive site that we
found had sustained major damage was “The Hideaway” on Similan island
number 9.
The rest of the dives
(totalling 19) were excellent, with many areas still intact and very little
damage. The fish life appears to have not been affected and we saw leopard
sharks, rays of various sorts and fish of many species, which do not seem to
have been affected at all.
The diving, both before and
after the earthquake has been excellent, divers should not be put off by the
media reports of devastation throughout the islands.
We would recommend that you
come and see for yourself and not to cancel any liveaboard holidays.
Steve Kell (Assistant Instructor #609585)
My
wife and I have spent the last two weeks aboard “The Junk”, visiting
dive sites from the Similan Islands to the Surin Islands. The dive sites
visited were excellent. We have dived the Red Sea on several occasions,
Caribbean Islands and last Christmas we spent three weeks on Phi Phi island,
diving every day.
However,
the dives, 29 in total, were very good.
Very slight damage was observed, this was caused by the earthquake of
December 26th. We would highly recommend the dive sites we
visited, we saw so many varieties of fish, both large and small. The
negative feedback we are hearing about is “rubbish”, we strongly
recommend that you get wet and see for yourself, it’s very beautiful,
nowhere, yet, compare to these very good dive sites.
T.B.Cook ( DM #628050)
A.S.Cook ( Rescue Diver).
We
are not very experienced divers and only passed our Advanced Open Water
course on the 20th of December 2004, with 9 dives under our
belts. We left with “The Junk” on our first liveaboard trip on Christmas
Eve 2004, and received news of the earthquake in the afternoon of Boxing
Day.
Although
we had only made 5 dives before the tsunami, we still found the diving, the
condition of the corals and the marine life ( post tsunami) absolutely
fantastic, okay, you can see evidence of damaged corals, at certain sites,
more than others, but it was only the prospect of aftershocks and tidal
conditions that made an effect upon subsequent dives. This was totally
appreciated from a safety point of view and we would expect the same amount
of caution to be exercised with any professional crew worth their salt !
We
enjoyed the trip so much that we decided to come straight out for the
following one (that in itself should speak volumes).
To
sum up, money permitting, we would have no hesitation in booking another
dive trip to the Similan islands, and will rave about the marine life
experienced , as we continue to travel the world. Most of the diving
happened post-tsunami and still produced an opportunity of a lifetime to
observe what we can only imagine to be some of the best diving in the world.
Yours
sincerely,
Ivana & Alan Kulas-Reid.
| Appeared in Diver April 2004 |
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| Junk
Male |
The Junk, groaning under the weight of the food
supplies it carries, provides a unique way of exploring Thailand's
underwater world - eat a meal, dive it off, eat a meal, dive it
off... But it's far from junk food, and
Andy Blackford was happy |
A
LITTLE WAY OFFSHORE AT PATONG IN PHUKET,
there runs a coral reef of extraordinary colour and
complexity. A bewildering number of species is packed
into this narrow fringe, each fighting for its survival
in a viciously competitive environment.
Here, the ugly vies incessantly
with the beautiful. Like an alternating current, the
atmosphere of the reef flickers between urgent desire
and cold, murderous cupidity.
A few yards behind the
shoreline, there lies a reef even more vividly colourful,
and infinitely more diverse. Here, too, a bewildering
number of species is packed into a tiny area, each
fighting for its survival in a viciously competitive
environment.
Drama is seldom more than an
arm's length away. Male "great whites",
cruising in from Europe and Australia, snap up the
exotic little creatures who seem almost to hurl
themselves into the jaws of their predators.
Smaller, younger specimens swim
in the wake of these great whites, hoping to pick up
discarded morsels - but, being inexperienced, they
quickly get into deep water.
Sadly, little is being done to
protect this fragile environment and its vulnerable
inhabitants. Already, most of the morals are damaged or
dead.
Nevertheless, to the diver, it
still affords a fascinating glimpse of another world - a
world so incredibly shallow that it is difficult to
surface without at least a hundred bars.
So there we were,
30 miles off the mainland and 30m off one of the densely
wooded islands that pepper the Andaman Sea. l was the
sad old gooseberry in a group of love-struck couples, so
it fell to me to dive with Jerome, our guide.
We were surrounded by clouds of
tiny reef fish when we came across a brace of leopard
sharks lying prone on the sandy seabed. They resembled
nothing more than a pair of strange and exotic stringed
instruments that might have been jettisoned by the
members of a private slave orchestra when the pleasure
barge of a fabulously wealthy oriental potentate was
boarded by swarthy, cutlass-wielding pirates, and the
entire ship's complement slaughtered like pigs.
In addition, I couldn't help
noticing that the fish were very similar in shade and
pattern to a thong worn by Kylie Minogue in a recent
photo session for Loaded.
Jerome poked and pestered them
until they rose grudgingly from the bottom and swam
slowly away - but not before I noticed a long piece of
fishing line trailing from the mouth of the larger
specimen.
I pointed this out to Jerome,
who finned smartly after them and grabbed the line. I
fully expected him to lose his fingers - the fish was a
good 2m long, and gloves are banned on The Junk. But,
inexorably, he reeled it in, thrashing and squirming.
Then, to my horror, he threw his arms about it in a
passionate embrace.
I stared, transfixed, as he
grappled with the shark, finally wrenching it onto its
back and grabbing its exposed fins with both hands. It
lapsed instantly into a state of docile acquiescence. My
heart rate was already pushing 180. But now Jerome
nodded frantically at me and I realised that he wanted
me to remove the hook from the fish's lip.
This proved difficult: the hook
was big and rusty, and shark lip has roughly the same
consistency as Kevlar.
Eventually, however, I prised
it out and Jerome released his captive, who righted
himself and swam tetchily away without so much as a
thank-you.
Later, back on The Junk, I
asked him how long it had taken him to master the art of
subduing huge fish with his bare hands.
"Hmm?" he replied
absently. "Actually, I've never tried it before. I
once saw someone do it on the telly."
The ornate bronze bell
in The Junk's saloon was rung to announce mealtimes and
dive briefings. In practice, this meant that it sounded
once every 10 minutes. The food was big, beautiful and
frequent. First Breakfast at 7am consisted chiefly of
toast and coffee. But Second Breakfast (which awaited us
on our return from the First Dive) was a tour de force
of eggs, crispy bacon, sausage, pancakes and syrup,
fruit and yoghurt.
During the brief interval
between lunch and dinner, each a mouth-watering,
sometimes mouth-scorching, buffet of Thai specialities,
we were bombarded with banana cake and biscuits. It lent
a whole new meaning to the term "junk food".
Be warned - you could become
seriously obese on this boat. In the list of emergency
contact numbers on the saloon bulkhead, Weightwatchers
came second only to the Patong recompression facility.
The briefings were thorough and
intelligent. Jerome put each dive in the context of a
lovingly drawn plan of the island in question and its
reef system, outlining the topography and the currents,
often strong, that we were likely to encounter.
Then he would describe the
resident fauna, illustrating each species from the
boat's exhaustive library of reference books on local
marine ecology. "Look out for the Fat-Arsed
Grumble. The juveniles devour their parents immediately
after hatching and the adults have been known to swap
dorsal fins to confuse predators."
Then we would try to kit up
before the piratical-looking but infinitely-obliging
crew did it for us. As we sat on the tubes of the little
inflatable, the intricately tattooed cox'n would run
through his check list: "Fins! Weighbelt! Camela!"
And then we were off. I
discovered early on that my air consumption was
appalling. I can't imagine why. I had just completed a
180-mile ultra-marathon and was as fit as Paula
Radcliffe's whippet. Nevertheless, I regularly had to
come up a good 10 minutes before even the most
hard-smoking, jittery novice.
It was humiliating at first,
but I soon discovered the upside. Hanging on a buoy line
during a 6m safety stop, I suddenly found myself at the
centre of a shoal of around 200 chevron barracuda. They
ignored me. I affected the sort of nonchalance
cultivated by bomb disposal experts in the line of duty.
The Similan Islands are a
designated national park, which means
that fishing is prohibited within their waters.
Designating, of course, is one thing - policing another.
But although we met a number of squid boats just
hanging, er, innocently around, the situation on the
islands is apparently improving.
Three years ago, the government
appointed a new chief ranger. Until then, the park had
fallen under the jurisdiction of the Forestry
Department. The new bloke is a passionate diver and
marine biologist. He fired all the existing rangers -
they were taking bribes from fishermen - and for his
troubles, someone tried to shoot him. But he persevered
and personally trained up his new recruits to Dive
Master standard.
As a result, the turtles are
back. We came across a group of three hawksbills - never
seen that before - not to mention dozens of individuals.
The reef fish are clearly
prospering. The caves in the granite cliffs were teeming
with fry and there were times when I couldn't see my
buddy through clouds of fusiliers, grunts and snappers.
Jerome turned out to be a
splendid guide. He was incredibly knowledgeable and
possessed the eyes of an eagle. He would point out a
whitetip reef shark, then abruptly shift his attention
to some tiny worm-like thing, wriggling about on a coral
head, and frantically scribble out on his slate:
"juvenile harlequin ghost pipefish"!
The islands attract big pelagic
visitors. Mantas and whale sharks are relatively common
during their respective seasons - which, needless to
say, didn't coincide with my own trip. But the sheer
quantity and variety of the local fauna was
breath-taking (not literally, of course; that would be
dangerous).
The owner taught
English in Taiwan before he was seized
by the absurd notion of restoring a near-derelict
Chinese junk and turning it into a dive boat.
Everything was wrong with her.
Her keel was broken and her previous owner had added a
lot of green wood to the superstructure, which had
swiftly turned to cheese in the relentless heat and
humidity of the Andaman Sea.
"The good news was, she'd
carried cargoes of charcoal and salt. The charcoal had
kept the hull dry and the salt had petrified it. You had
to drill a hole to get a nail into her."
Frank paid just $10,000 for
this hulk, and actually considered sawing up the timber
and selling it to furniture manufacturers. She was made
of takien tong - a local wood that is heavier than water
and, fortunately for Frank and his shipwrights,
poisonous to insects. Instead, he invested a further
$500,000 and transformed her into one of the finest
vessels on the coast.
An ancient Chinaman came out of
retirement to supervise the renovation. He accepted just
$2 a day more than the other workers. "Except for
electric tools, he used only traditional techniques.
There were no drawings, other than a few lines in the
sand.
"When it came to working
out the optimum space between decks, they told me:
'Bring your tall friend along tomorrow'. He was the
closest thing we had to a tape measure."
The crew-members are Buddhists
and extremely respectful of the spirit of the boat.
Every sailing is accompanied by firecrackers, and gifts
of food and drink are offered at a shrine in the saloon.
"They say she has a bad
temper and can make people sick if she doesn't receive
the proper obeisance. On the other hand, all the
carpenters working on the boat enjoyed amazing success
in the National Lottery."
Chin (he of the head-to-foot
tattoo) had been a crew-member since the boat was
completed, and had special responsibility for observing
religious rites and for appeasing Macha Poh, the goddess
of the sea.
On the trip back to Patong we
were press-ganged into raising the sails. Junks are
notoriously slow, and with only the mildest of zephyrs
ruffling the canvas, the more energetic passengers were
able to swim a complete circuit of the ship without
being left behind.
I turned in early to my
air-conditioned, en-suite cabin in the bows and slept
like a baby (I woke up every hour and cried).
It was dawn as we chugged
into port, and I was faced with the
pleasant prospect of a day in town before my flight to
Bangkok.
Patong, in a weird way, is a
highly advanced society. It's where the world is
heading. Anything is possible, everything is available -
right now.
Some of it's real, most of it's
counterfeit. Pirate CDs, real gold, fool's gold, fake
Tag Heuers, pretend love, real affection,
"Armani" suits in 24 hours, false leers,
heartfelt smiles. Don't like the price? Here, take my
calculator - tell me how much you want to pay!
It's chaos, a cataract of
instant gratification, the logical and unavoidable
consequence of the digital revolution. This is a society
in which intellectual property is theft. Where anything
goes, the only alien concept is that of royalties.
Is the three-quid DVD the real
thing? Is it a high-quality copy? Or a rough knock-off,
grabbed off a cinema screen with a hand-held camera?
Is the pretty bar girl really a
bloke? You won't know until you get them home.
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June Hong Chian Lee
 The owners invited me to
join a green season or low season trip on The Junk / June Hong Chian Lee from
September, 25 to 29, 2004. The trip started with a pick up and very warm
welcome enroute to Chalong Bay where the boat was on anchor. Live-Aboard trips
at this time of year cover the normal day sites for Phuket. Koh Raya Yai, Koh
Raya Noi, Shark Point, Anemone Reef, and the surrounding sites of Koh Phi Phi,
Koh Bida Noi, Koh Bida Yai.
Once on board the familiarization tour of the boat and briefing was done by
Switzerland native Jerome. The boat familiarization tour and briefing with a
bit of unpacking was followed by the first of many delicious meals. The food
on The Junk is a mix of Thai dishes and Western cuisine. As somebody who lives
on Phuket and eats rice or noodles all the time, it was nice to not only eat
what is always wonderful Thai cuisine, but eating Western dishes was a treat
for me. Meals consist of classic Thai dishes with rice, noodles, chicken,
pork, meat, fish, fried calamari and Western classics like pepper steak, fried
chicken, french fries, and hot dogs. Lunch and Dinner was always accompanied
by salads with proper dressing options and fresh fruit. Breakfast is wonderful
with eggs, bacon, ham, toast, jam and juice. Snacks were always available as
well. The coffee/tea station is well equipped for those of us who like a bit
of coffee or tea at anytime of the day.
The boat’s air-conditioned throughout and there’s always plenty of shade
on the decks. There’s an extensive library of books, Mini Discs and DVD's
all hooked up to a proper set of Boston Acoustic speakers. Not only does the
boat have extensive entertainment options, but the crew is quite entertaining
as well. Always a Thai smile, willing to help with gear, assistance on and off
the dinghy and an overall feeling that this crew is of course working, but
enjoying the work as well.
While diving, I was truly amazed at the timing of The Junk. We dove sites
hours before day boats, when the sea life is much better. The reason for this
is the ability to moor or anchor on or near sites that allow divers to dive
while day boat divers are still being picked up or enroute to the sites. The
diving as a result of strategic placement of the boat during this low season
route was wonderful. I saw very healthy soft corals, leopard sharks, sting
rays, mantas, and even a few black tip reef sharks. During a portion of 36
hours on Koh Raya Noi, I did not see one other dive boat. In addition to that,
I was truly amazed that during a 4 day live-aboard trip the only divers I saw
underwater where the guests from The Junk. This is something that is almost
impossible to do in waters of Phuket, The Junk boat provided that. Truly
Amazing Thailand & Truly Amazing June Hong Chian Lee!
As somebody that has dove the World and been on all types of boats, I can
truly recommend this live-aboard trip in the low season of Phuket. I had a
wonderful trip and it is obvious that The Junk / June Hong Chian Lee is not
only great service, diving, accommodations, and food, but also a really good
value. I say this because, what you pay on this type of boat, during this time
of year, is a really really great value for money spent and service received.
Jamie Connor
Owner & Founder Of Diveguide.com
Guests and crew of our x-mass 2000 cruise
Lasting impressions
The best way to describe a project such as the junk ‘June Hong Chian Lee’ is as being, ‘authentically renovated’ but she is much, much, more than that. Nowadays mixing together the old and the new has become somewhat of a traditional necessity but inconspicuously blending them together creates pure magic.
Just imagine your treading the same boards as those intrepid sailors did over thirty years ago; although instead of having to carry heavy charcoal about and endure hot and cramped living quarters, its quite the opposite. The cabins are now more than ample with their own private bathrooms, and the heaviest thing you will need to lift are the pages of a book or magazine! As for sweating? forget
it, the boat’s air-conditioned throughout and there’s always plenty of shade on the decks. If however, you need to escape the sunshine (and lets face it everyone does at some point!) and the shades just not enough, there’s a selection of onboard entertainment lurking behind the hand carved facades of shelves, cabinets and draws in the salon. There’s an extensive library of books, Mini Discs and Video’s
all readily available; many a returning guest now familiar with the systems, know they are more than welcome to bring their own choices; but thankfully not everyone listens to Waylon Jennings and Motorhead!
One dreads to think what the food was like in those cheerless days but not to worry, today I found the same quality you find in top-notch hotels; a truly comprehensive menu of appetizing local and international flavours; add the panoramic splendors, a touch of nostalgia and a slight sea breeze, and alfresco is the order of the day.
The interruption between the seemingly steady flow of meals and snacks is of course, the diving, the quality of which speaks for itself, particularly as the majority of the sites visited are listed in the ‘Top Ten’ destinations in the world. The dive crew are not only well-versed in their highlights, but have a few secrets as well. Accessing these underwater treasures is done from a safe
distance, that is to say, without the boat dropping divers straight onto the site and then maneuvering slowly, and noisily away. The June Hong Chian Lee’ has the answer; dinghies, not everyone’s cup of tea I know, but when the routine is so meticulously handled by a well trained crew, any hesitations are quickly brushed aside and the benefits become quite clear, if not obvious.
On a final note, it escapes me as to why a splendid vessel such as this has to maintain a label generally associated with unsatisfactory consumables, it appears that not everything is accepted for what it is. I personally feel that the junk is setting the standards for others to follow, and follow they will, and after all they say that opposites attract!
Paul Lees writer of the book "Diving In Thailand" February 2000
February 16, 1999: Outstanding! Every aspect of this trip was fantastic and made unforgettable memories. Well done to all! Great ship, great crew, great food fantastic diving and people, wow!!
Tania & Amir
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