Richelieu Rock is one of the best places in the world to dive with whale sharks and is easily the best site in Thailand diving for this amazing activity. Here divers will encounter the largest fish in the ocean which are rare almost everywhere in the world. With nothing else for miles around, the whale sharks are attracted to the rock to feed on the rich plank tonic blooms that occur here.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Novice Diver - 20 + Dives
• Max Depth: 40m

Koh Tachai is located in Tachai Island and lies about halfway between the Surin and Similan Islands and is rated as one of the best sites for Thailand scuba liveaboards as it's normally visited on the way to Richelieu Rock from the Similans. There are several dive sites around the island but the most famous is Koh Tachai Plateau which lies southeast of the island, about one kilometre offshore. The plateau is a submerged crowned reef of hard sheet corals, and scattered boulders. These boulders provide great swim-throughs and cut-through opportunities.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Advanced Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 35m

This dive site is one of the best places in Thailand to see manta rays, especially from April to May.
Koh Bon Island lies an hour or so north of the Similan Islands. It has a 33 metre wall on its south side, facing a small cove, with a stepped edge pointing west and down to over 40m.

Here divers will have the opportunity to see leopard sharks, white tip sharks; soft corals the colours of turquoise, yellow and green dominate. If you listen carefully you'll hear the warning clicks of hundreds of nervous damselfish, and the coral crunching of hungry titan triggerfish.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Novice Diver - 20 + Dives
• Max Depth: 40m

Boulder city is a submerged site about one kilometre off the east coast of island number 3 and about 400 m south east of Shark Fin Reef. Due to its exposed location, divers will have the opportunity to see almost anything on this Similan dive including whale sharks and manta rays.

There is very little coral growth here except for green branching cup corals and orange sea fans, but the algae growth here is substantial, meaning a prolific amount of nudibranchs, including the twin magnificent sea slug and Spanish dancers. Leopard sharks are frequently seen as well as white-tip and black-tip reef sharks.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Advanced Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 35m

Koh Racha Yai Island (literally "Big King Island") lies 10 km south of Phuket and provides a wealth of dive sites is a beautiful tropical island with plenty of good hard coral reefs, colourful shallow water coral gardens, and a great opportunity for some enjoyable drift diving. There are several excellent dive sites suitable for the beginner and for snorkeling, with depths from 2 - 20m, making these islands a favourite destination for everyone.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Advanced Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 20m

Shark Point (Hin Musang), a small rock outcropping about 1½ hours East of Phuket, is a famous marine sanctuary due to its tremendous variety of marine life. The dive Shark Point site consists of 3 pinnacles. "Shark Point 1" is the northern-most, the one that breaks the surface. Next comes "Shark Point 2", rising to a depth of 7 meters, and further south lies "Shark Point 3", rising to 10 meters. All three scuba diving Thailand dive Shark Point pinnacles can be explored within the same dive.
Particular attractions you should look out for are the colourful soft corals, gorgonians and sea fans decorating the limestone pinnacle, the great range of tropical fish and the famous leopard sharks, often to be found resting on the sandy bottom. This site and the neighbouring Anemone Reef are also good for macro life.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Open Water Diver
• Max Depth:

At 85m in length, King Cruiser is a large wreck as she had previously been a car ferry, and now she is a wonderful artificial reef offering best scuba diving Thailand wreck diving, and with each passing year more and more different varieties of marine life make the King Cruiser wreck their home. The King Cruiser wreck lies on the seabed at 31m, yet the top is just 14m deep, so the King Cruiser wreck caters for all levels of diver.
Lionfish, scorpionfish and porcupinefish are other notable residents. With it's multiple decks, great open passages and depths between 15 and 30 meters (50 to 100 feet) the King Cruiser used to be a fairly easy dive. In the last 2 years however the condition of the wreck has deteriorated and it has collapsed in places. There is now very little shelter from the currents in shallow parts and we recommend this site only for Advanced certified divers.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Advanced Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 30m

Racha Noi, another 45 minutes South of Koh Racha Yai, offers some truly spectacular dive sites with giant underwater boulders, great visibility and scenery almost like the Similan Islands. Currents here can be strong, and the dives are recommended for advanced divers only. There is deep water around the island, so you often see large pelagic visitors such as barracudas, eagle rays, marbled stingrays and there is a chance of encounters with manta rays

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Open Water Diver
• Max Depth:

Koh Doc Mai means Flower Island and the dive site must be named for its underwater beauty because there are no flowers above the water. Koh Dok Mai is a small limestone islet rising vertically out of the sea. The site is mainly a wall dive down to 30 metres, with a hard coral stag horn reef sloping to the west. On the east side of the island are a series of caverns and caves which are great for practising penetration techniques.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Advanced Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 30m

This is one of the area's best scuba diving day trips sites for spotting leopard sharks and octopus. This place has it all. Leopard sharks are the norm, swimming along the wall or resting on the seabed with the stingrays down at around 20-25m. Whale sharks and manta rays are occasional visitors at this daytrips site too. On our swim through the rocks and coral we'll see a plethora of tropical marine life typical of Phi Phi Island. Green turtles and octopus are regularly sighted, as are seahorses.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Advanced Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 25m

This dive site rivals its neighbor, in fact there really is no separating either site, apart from the landscape differing slightly, both sites teem with life and both make for amazing diving.

On one side there is an almost vertical wall with Gorgonian Sea Fans and soft red corals, as you swim mid water with the bottom sloping off into the deep, keep your eyes peeled for large pelagic fish that cruise these waters very frequently.

Another special feature here is the huge boulders that form swim throughs. There is also a valley that splits from part of the main island; it’s worth exploring this area too. The shallow side is around 15 meters, and then on the other side, it drops down quite deep.

Here you can find Red Tooth Trigger Fish and also Clown Trigger Fish favoring this area too. There is a mooring line which divers use to descend and ascend and usually there to greet them are the resident Bat Fish. These fascinating fish are very curios and seem to come very close to see especially if the diver rubs their fingers together.

Venturing further around the reef, it is quite visible how quickly it drops of into depth of blue; regular depth surveillance is recommended. The large pelagic fish are a common sighting in this particular part and this great spot to observe them, as they swoop in and gobble up any plankton that is in the area.

The whole rock is covered in absolutely stunning red soft corals, hence its name Hin Deang (Red Rock). The area attracts very small glass fish and bait fish, this attracts the more active Jacks and Trevally’s that come here to hunt and to terrorize the smaller fish.

If it’s possible, find a nice quite area, buoyancy permitting, and observe the show. It is fantastic. Better than any wildlife TV program. There is a huge school of Pickhandle Barracuda, also lone-wolf Great Barracuda’s, as they go lurking and quietly follow the diver, curious as to what the bubble blower is doing.

There is a huge variety of Moray Eels down there, including Honeycomb and Zebra morays, which are rarely seen elsewhere. Snake Eels have also been seen scuttling around the bottom. In fact the variety of macro life at Hin Daeng is unique to the area. Several species can only be found here.

The Harlequin box shrimp are not always easy to see, it takes a shrewd diver to realize that any four legged starfish may have been recent victims to these little critters.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 60m

The first pinnacle lies approximately 8 meters from the surface and drops down to 70 meters. Many divers have seen their first Manta Ray and or Whale Shark here, as these magnificent creatures are attracted by the deep drop-offs and plankton rich waters.

There is an abundance of soft corals, reds and particularly purples and this is where Hin Muang gets it name: Purple Rock in English, a beautiful site to see. The main feature, being the two large pinnacles you will find yourself diving in a figure of 8 as you admire the wonders around.

Again, this is a large dive site, over 200 meters in length and it’s very deep too, easy to go deeper than you planned for, so monitoring air and depth frequently is recommended.

Hin Muang is a completely submerged ridge, it is connected to Hin Deang, but it would take a foolhardy diver who would attempt this 500 meter swim, at over 70 meters depth, without a fully operational nuclear submarine.

Again, here as on its sister site, there is loads of predatory action here, huge Rainbow Runners hunting beside Giant Trevally. The attacks on the small bait fish can be relentless. Other fish life in the area: Schools of Squid, Large Red Octopus scampering across the reefs, Black Fin Barracuda and Yellow Tail barracuda too.

The amount of macro life here will have the photographer drooling, Pipefish, Blennies, Gobies all hiding among the small cracks and crevices of the rock. Searching around the huge Gorgonian Sea fans will also yield a fantastic wealth of macro life.

The only downside to this site is there is never enough time to see it all, so at least two dives are needed here. As the minimum depth is 8 meters, it is quite a deep site to tackle and the currents can be strong creating excellent drift diving.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 70m

Shark Cave A.K.A Three Islets Burma is also known to be one of Myanmars best diving sites and is on all diving Itineraries of our MV Giamani.

Shark Cave lays approximately 30 kilometres North West of Stewart Island/Bo Wei, and is a small Island strutting out of the sea and with it comes 2 large rock pinnacles, all of these formations rise well above the sea level.

The island itself is in the middle of the two pinnacles, each of these are consider to be separate dive sites, so it is easy to spend the entire day diving here without seeing the same thing twice

The small island is in the middle with the rocks either side (running North West to south east and vice versa). Each can be considered a separate dive site and you can easily spend a full day diving here.

The pinnacle to the North West of the main site is at least 100 metres away and due to the potential strong currents (normally running North to South) it’s easier to do this as 1 separate dive.

The south eastern laying rock is nearest to the main Island and has a large submerged reef covered in hard corals and there are many granite boulders that are strewn around. Here the maximum depth is around 30 metres.

Some begin the dive at the main side of the island, starting on the southern end which is somewhere in the middle of the island. You can drop down here to about 25/30 metres down the side of the wall.

Check out the large granite boulders here all bundled together; here you can catch sleeping Nurse Sharks and maybe even some Stingrays relaxing on the sand.

Also, out on the sand you can find many different species of anemones with their guests (Nemo) Anemone fish and Eggshell Shrimp. Keep your eyes peeled for the large schools of Barracuda, Trevallies, Snappers and Fusiliers.

There is a natural split in the island rocks down at 18-20 metres, if you then follow it north into the small canyon and after approximately 25 metres there is a cave. The entrance is fairly small but once you are inside this is a large area.

Beware that there can be some strong currents ripping through the granite rocks here so be careful not to get cut on the rocks.

Inside the cave you can find Lobster, Crabs hiding in the rocks, Puffer Fish and others that like to lurk inside caves, including Nurse Sharks.

It is not fully dark as the natural light filters through from both ends of the cave, however we recommend taking a torch with you -as on any dive they always come in handy.

Even small caves like this are not for everyone, so if peering into black holes is not your thing, then just carry on swimming down the small canyon passing the cave. Keep your eyes open here for Black Tips Reef Sharks and if you are lucky Grey Reefs have been spitted here.

Other critters spotted here are ideal for macro hunters and included the usual and not-so-usual-suspects: Harlequin and Boxer Shrimps, Tiger Tail Sea Horses, Ornate Ghost Pipe fish and several different kinds of Frogfish and a smorgasbord of Nudibranch as well.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 30m

The Boonsung Wreck is often described as ‘Fish Soup’. The density of marine life here is often better than most dive sites in the Similan Islands. An old tin mining vessel, surrounded by sand for miles in every direction, provides the perfect protection for thousands of juvenile fish. The schools of fish are huge and the variety of Macro life is one of the best in Thailand. This is a real divers dive site and part of a fascinating history of Tin mining in the Phuket and Khao Lak area.

The Boonsung Wreck is located about 5km West of Bangsak beach, to the North of Khao Lak. Visibility is typically not as good as the Similan islands. However, the huge variety of marine life makes it well worth seeing. It is a regular final stop on many Similan Liveaboards, although it is technically not part of the Similan islands. The Boonsung wreck also makes for an excellent and speedy day trip by longtail. The Boonsung Wreck is the best value dive around Khao Lak.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 19m

Koh Bida Nok is the sister dive site of Koh Bida Nai located 2 km south of Koh Phi Phi Ley. It is regarded as one of the best diving spots of Koh Phi Phi. The Marine life is teeming and you can spot various Sharks like Blacktip, Leopard Sharks, Nurse Sharks as well as turltes and Moray Eels. It is not rare to also see a banded sea snake. From December to February, It is sometimes possible to spot a Manta ray or even a whale shark if you are very lucky! The wall is covered by superb Sea Fans dancing in the current. The maximum depth is 33 meters deep and the current can be strong, so this site is more suitable for advanced divers. The spot is also called “Outer Father”. As it is an excellent dive site it often visited by Liveaboards from Phuket or Khao Lak

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 33m

King Cruiser was a car and passenger ferry servicing the Phuket to Phi Phi Island route that sank on 4 May 1997 after hitting a submerged rock known as Anemone Reef on its way to Phi Phi Island. Fortunately, no lives were lost during the incident. Having fortunately settled in an upright position at the sandy bottom, the wreck stays relatively close to Anemone Reef and Shark Point and is 25-27 km. east of Chalong Bay with a north-south orientation. The depth is around 32m at the sand bottom and about 14-15m on top.

• Dive Type: Boat Dive
• Diver Level: Open Water Diver
• Max Depth: 15m