I swim by

Tom Grundy's Thailand Swimming Travels Page

Perhaps this should have been called snorkelling, but since I usually didn't have a snorkel, I'll just go with swimming. (I left the snorkel in the USA because I was close to my weight limit - I could have taken it though). The last time I was in Thailand in the wet season, the water was rarely clear enough to see much, but this trip as long as it wasn't too windy (waves), the visibility was pretty good. Still, it was usually best to go in the morning at lower tide levels so that you were closer to things on the bottom (and further out where the reef was in better shape). One afternoon I went out but the water was too cloudy so I just swam for a bit.

I went off the left side of Tonsai Beach, on the Railay side of the divider between the two beaches, just off the Princess Cave , by Happy Island, and near the back side of the Thaiwand wall on Phra Nang beach. I tried to stay out of the sun, but that wasn't always possible and the light was better in the sun anyway, so I wore a long underwear top. I shoved an old pair of glasses into my mask so that I could actually see things, but then I had 3 surfaces to fog up or get drops on. I have an underwater bag to put my camera in, which worked fairly well, but sometimes it was hard to aim the camera and other times the edge of the lens housing would get in the picture. Still, it was fun to try to get photos of stuff, and I think at least a few were pretty good. The clown fish and anenome one is probably my favorite.

clown fish and anenome

my setup

Julie - the water magnifies

Julie does an underwater smile-by

the top of a big underwater boulder

fish

coral

bright green coral

sea urchins

more coral

fish

butterfly fish

chiton

fish

butterfly fish

fish school

above and below the water

a school of fish fry

here comes Julie

there goes Julie

fish

Julie up close

butterfly fish and another fish

tridacnid (of the burrowing variety?)

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