Sea Bees Diving

This was my fourth time on Marco Polo after my previous trip with them in 2020. We had two guides, Maren and Thomas who did their best to guarantee good dives considering divers with different experience levels. We had some good sightings at Richelieu Rock and Similan Islands with a large diversity of marine life, from longnose emperors and trevallies hunting, to anemonefish, leopard shark, baby white tip shark and adult white tip sharks, harlequin shrimp, mantis shrimp, honeycomb morays, banded sea snake, stingrays, plenty of nudibranch, pufferfish, etc. In the past I saw whale sharks and manta rays as well. Since the last trip on Marco Polo, they did some upgrades to the rooms, which are now more spacious and have air-conditioning and private bathrooms. These are well appreciated. The captain and the staff also did their best to make the trip as comfortable as possible. The food was great, as usual, with both Thai and European meals, fruit and plenty of snacks too. Compared to the last time I’ve been with them, there have been also some other changes to this liveaboard. The trips now start and finish from the Thap Lamu Pier in Khao Lak instead of Chalong, as they used to a few years ago. Sea Bees offer included transportation to this departure/arrival port. Also, instead of 6 nights/6 days of diving trips, they have split it into separate liveaboards, one 4 nights and one 2 nights. Personally, I preferred the old format since it had more dives in the best spots in the Similan Islands and Richelieu Rock and we also had time to do an afternoon trip on island no 8 @ Donald Duck bay. Also in these shorter trips, if something unforeseen such as any kind of issue comes up, the impact on the trip is felt more, due to the limited number of dives and the long distances to get to the diving spots. Maybe from time to time they could do longer trips like before. All in all, the Sea Bees fleet is a reliable company, and besides the Marco Polo liveaboard, they also do diving daytrips from Chalong Pier with their other boat Excalibur II, to Shark Point and Phi Phi Island. I also did daytrips with them before the liveaboard just to do some more dives and test the setup for the Marco Polo liveaboard. As to Divebooker, the experience was flawless as usual. Teresa and Karina have helped with all necessary details related to the booking and I thank them for that. I would recommend booking through Divebooker, since this guarantees the best possible experience and conditions.

Both the dive and boat teams where outstanding. Safety was a priority with only 4 divers per group. There was more food than you could consume, lots of choices and worked with dietaries. Even though the water is very flat, consistent currents do bring poor vis (avg 7-15m). That being said it keeps the schools of fish happy and plenty of manta sightings. If you are a photographer be sure to bring an extension bar with that has a 2m cord. There is not a lot of places to plug in multiple chargers plus personal items in your cabin.

This was my third trip with Marco Polo and I must say, it was well worth it. The boat, crew and facilities were great, as always. The staff did all they could to make the trip a successful one. The food was fantastic and it included European - German and Thai cuisine. The room was spacious. There are some rooms with air-conditioning and some with fans but all rooms have sea view. This is the great thing about this ship. Nitrox is free on this boat if you are certified. If you are not, the dive guides can help you get certified during the trip. Since most of the dives are not deeper than 30m, nitrox is great for increasing bottom time and getting the most out of the dives. The trip usually includes 2 night dives and 2 sunset dives, as well as a few morning dives at sunrise. We were particularly lucky on this trip since we saw giant manta rays on 4-5 dives. On one dive particularly, we had 2 mantas and one of them stayed with us for 40 minutes circling very close and doing flips. It was the greatest dive. We also saw lots of marine life at Richelieu Rock, trivialise and longnose emperors hunting, mantis shrimp, guitar shark, white tip sharks and even a baby white tip shark. On previous trips with them I saw also whale sharks. Therefore, I strongly recommend diving with Marco Polo and Sea Bees at the Similan Islands!