THAILAND - NORTHERN ISLANDS

Similan Islands

Northwest of Phuket some 100 km away are the Similan Islands. This island group, a protected area is a divers paradise. With an average water temperature around the 28 ° C, and include a visibility under water which is usually the 25-meter exceeds, it is there is pleasant diving. The diving conditions are optimal with beautiful coral reefs and high numbers of smaller reef fish. With luck, the occasional leopard shark or white tip reef shark also be observed.

The Similan Islands are excellent for photographing and filming underwater panoramas and great for macro photography and videography. Hard to find fish that can be observed include frogfish and ghost pipefish.

RICHELIEU ROCK

The absolute highlight during a visit to the Similan trip is Richelieu Rock. This rocky outcrop in the open sea is a gathering point for large schools stekelmakrelen, barracuda and snapper, is sometimes also a manta or whale shark observed. But Richelieu Rock is more than this.

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

Many types of soft and hard corals conquered a place in this unique rock formation.

Each dive is again one is 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 26 December 2006 I made over 100 dives around the Similan Islands and Richelieu Rock. The fact that the tsunami was devastating to certain reefs. So are some dive sites around Koh Bangu (Island # 9) completely destroyed.

The other dive sites, however, remained as miraculously spared!

There was limited damage to some reefs mainly at the table corals.

The damage, however, is such that only a very experienced diver would notice this.

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

Richelieu Rock remained completely unaffected. During my stay I also made a report in collaboration with Steve Chao of CTV (Canadian Television). This to a neutral and accurate picture to bring out the real situation under water after the tsunami. Unfortunately, most media sources took a wrong impression with reports of complete destruction of the reefs around Thailand. The dive centers also took a wrong impression by agree that there was absolutely no damage. The truth is that there is actual damage (obviously) but that level of damage is not that wonderful dive trips impossible. The few reefs that were severely hit are of course 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 places.

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

The highlight of this dive spots are the richly vegetated walls with a beautiful diversity of sea fans, soft corals and huge sponges chalice which can be found. The walls are a paradise for macro photography and macro videography. For panoramas's is the visibility is usually too limited (10 to 15 meters) because of it is usually high content of small particles in the water. During a trip to scout out new dive sites around the Phi Phi islands, I have discovered an exceptionally beautiful dive site for macro photography and macro videography. This spot, outright 'muckdiving', revealed to me some of his wonderful secrets. Beautiful overhangs, a cave with long connecting tube were the home of numerous ghost pipefish, seahorses, beautiful nudibranchs, several juvenile fish, my first spotvin frogfish (Antennarius nummifer) and my first "Gorgonian shrimps' (Tozeuma armatum). This dive site is not known by the numerous dive shops is definitely worth a visit.

Koh Ha

"Five Islands" is the literal translation for Koh Ha. This archipelago is located south of the Phi Phi islands. These uninhabited islands are characterized by a wonderful panorama above the water and beautiful underwater coral gardens. Some small caves decorate the whole. The visibility is usually better than around the Phi Phi islands and creating polished video and photos of the underwater panorama belong to the possibilities here. Also for night diving, this is an excellent place with wonderful eroded rock overhangs in shallow water where beautiful things are.

Hin Daeng and Hin Muang

A small rocky outcrop breaks the surface betray the presence of Hin Daeng (Thai for red rock). A few hundred yards away is Hin Muang (purple rock for thai), a dive under the water surface which rises to about 5 meters. These dive sites are slightly more experienced divers because of their possible exposure to flow as well as the depth where the soft coral overgrown rocks to slip on over 60 meters.

These dive sites are sometimes frequented by manta rays 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 approximately 2 hours sailing south of Koh Ha.