THAILAND - NORTHERN ISLANDS

Similan Islands

Northwest of Phuket on a small 100 km to the Similan Islands. This archipelago, a protected area is a divers paradise. With an average temperature around 28 ° C and an underwater visibility usually exceeds the 25 meters was a pleasant dive. The diving conditions are best with beautiful coral reefs and high numbers of smaller reef fish. With luck, the occasional leopard sharks and white tip reef shark also be observed.

The Similan Islands are excellent for photographing and filming underwater views and ideal for macro photography and videography. Hard to find fish that can be detected include hengelaarvissen and ghost pipefish.

RICHELIEU ROCK

The absolute highlight of a trip is visiting Similan Richelieu Rock. This rocky outcrop in the open sea is a focal point for large schools trevallies, barracuda and snapper, is sometimes also a manta or whale shark observed. But Richelieu Rock is more than this alone.

Nudibranchs, seahorses, hengelaarvissen, ghost pipefish are frequently seen.

Many types of soft and hard corals captured a spot on this unique rock formation.

Each dive again there will be surprised by the enormous diversity of marine life.

This is a top dive site for photographers and videographers.

* After the tsunami after the tsunami of December 26, 2006 I made over 100 dives around the Similan Islands and Richelieu Rock. It is a fact that the tsunami was devastating in some reefs. So are some dive sites around Koh Bangu (Island # 9) completely destroyed.

The other dive sites but were miraculously spared!

There was minor damage to some reefs in the main table corals.

But the damage is such that only a very experienced diver would notice this.

Further north was completely spared Koh Bon. The 'plateau' reef of Koh Tachai was partially damaged.

Richelieu Rock remained entirely unaffected. During my stay I also made a documentary in collaboration with Steve Chao for CTV (Canadian Television). This to a neutral and truthful portrayal of the real situation under water after the tsunami. Unfortunately spent most media sources reporting a false image of total destruction of the reefs around Thailand. The dive centers also took a wrong image by concur that there was absolutely no damage. The truth is that there is actual damage (obviously) but this damage is not that level that wonderful dive trips impossible. That some reefs were severely affected are clearly not present in the dive schedule of organized diving trips.

Thailand - Phuket - Southern Islands

PHI PHI ISLANDS

Just south of Phuket are the Phi Phi islands. The two islands, Phi Phi Le and Phi Phi Don have some very interesting dive sites.

Well known are Koh Bida Nai and Koh Bida Nok. These two small islands at the extreme tip of the Phi Phi islands are known for the presence of leopard sharks (20m + depth, soil).

The highlight of the dive sites are very lush walls with a nice variety of sea fans, soft corals and sponges huge bowl that can be found. The walls are a paradise for macro photography and videography macro. For panoramas, the visibility is usually too small (10 to 15 meters) because of the generally high levels of small particles in the water. During a reconnaissance trip to new dive sites around Phi Phi Islands, I made the discovery of an exceptionally beautiful dive site for macro photography and videography macro. This site, unmitigated "muckdiving", I revealed some of its wonderful secrets. Beautiful overhangs, a cave with long connecting tube, the residence of numerous ghost pipefish, seahorses, beautiful nudibranchs, several juvenile fish, my first spotvin hengelaarvissen (Antennarius nummifer) and my first 'Gorgonian shrimps' (Tozeuma armatum). This dive site is not known at the numerous dive shops is definitely worth a visit.

Koh Ha

"Five Islands" is the literal translation of Koh Ha. This archipelago is located south of Phi Phi islands. These uninhabited islands are characterized by a magnificent panorama of the water and beautiful coral gardens, underwater. Some small caves embellish the whole. The visibility is usually better than around the Phi Phi islands and making beautiful videos and photos of the underwater panorama here are possible. For night dives, this is a great place with beautiful eroded rock overhangs in shallow water where very nice things there.

Hin Daeng & Hin Muang

A small rocky outcrop that breaks the surface betraying the presence of Hin Daeng (Thai for red cliff). A few hundred yards away is Hin Muang (Thai purple rock), a dive site which rises beneath the water surface to about 5 meters deep. These dive sites are slightly more experienced divers because of their possible exposure to currents and the depth to which the soft coral overgrown rocks slipping to more than 60 meters deep.

These dive sites are sometimes visited by mantas and whale sharks.

The dive sites are unique because of the huge amount of soft corals than those who gave their names. Hin Daeng and Hin Muang are located approximately 2 hours sailing south of Koh Ha.