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Diving Southern ThailandThailand has offers diving in the Gulf of Thailand and, better still, in the Andaman Sea. Two dives you shouldn't miss are in the South: Hin Daeng (Red Rock) and Hin Mouang (Purple Rock). Other places to target are the Similan and Surin Islands.
The Dive Hin Mouang and Hin Daeng are feeding grounds for pelagic fish. They are fantastic dives, and worth the trip to Thailand. Hin Mouang features large underwater pinnacles, huge shoals of fish, beautiful anemone carpets, soft corals and gorgonia. Look out for the unusual bryazoan - clumps of white, straw-like things at around 8 metres.
Getting There Hin Daeng and Hin Mouang are quite far out in the Andaman Sea - the weather might be against you so plan to do them at least twice. The closest, and cheapest, place from which to do the dives is Koh Ngai. From here it is a three hour trip. However, if you prefer to do it from a liveaboard boat, Koh Lanta is a good place to start from (a five hour trip). You can also go from Krabi, Koh Phi Phi or from Phuket.
The Dive Hin Daeng is close to Hin Mouang and consists of walls, plateaus and rocks. You will might see leopard sharks, grey reef sharks, morays, barracuda, octopus, crayfish, shrimps. Nurse sharks are sometimes found in the south west cave (around 10 m) and whale sharks and manta rays also visit.
Getting There
See Hin Mouang above.
The Dive
This Japanese destroyer is off the coast of Koh Kraden Island. Many fishing nets drape over the stern of the wreck. The visibility can be poor below the thermocline at around 15-20 m. It may be difficult to make out detail of the wreck - but look at the life instead as you may see a sea horse! Check the ropes carefully for large sea horses (Hippocampus kuda). Also many soft corals, schooling fish, lionfish, giant morays.
Getting There
The Dive
Hin Nok comprises a plateau with five pinacles and lots of gullies It is north west of the Koh Kraden Wreck. You can swim right around the plateau in about an hour. A very interesting dive. Hin Nok is visited by tutles and is home to the very unusual Ghost Pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus). This feathery fish is very difficult to spot. Not only does it not look anything like a fish, to further confuse you it hangs upside down in the water. Also look out for nudibranchs like Jorunna funebris, moray eels, whip corals, barracuda, moorish idols, butterfly and angel fish.
The visibility varies here, getting worse on the side with the greatest current. However, as always, as the current increases so do the number of fish - so the worse vis is compensated for by the presence of large schools of fish.
Getting There
To the best of our knowledge, the only dive operator who goes to this site is Rainbow Divers on Koh Ngai.
The Dive
A shallow dive, nothing spectacular but several unusual fish to be seen. Look for the shrimpfish, Acoliscus strigatus, which is long and thin and hangs vertically in the water - upsidedown! It propels itself with tiny, fan-shaped fins. A fascinating fish, generally in pairs or larger groups.
Koh Ma is a very small island off Koh Ngai, opposite Koh Hai Villa
Getting There
Morning and afternoon trips from Koh Ngai (few minutes boat trip).
UpdatesThis page is regularly updated with more dives: please subscribe to our monthly newsletter to be alerted of updates. Meanwhile, we recommend the following book for details of dives in other parts of Thailand. Recommended Books
Other Diving Books
Guide BooksTwo good guidebooks for people travelling in Thailand are the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet. We'd choose the islands and beaches edition: lighter to carry and includes Bangkok.
Of the other guide books, the Insight Guides always have wonderful photographs.
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