| THAILAND
Located between Cambodia and Laos to the east and Malasia to the south, the
Andaman Sea offers divers several great dive experiences.
The Similan Islands National Park with its nine islands is the center piece
of live-aboard diving in Phuket. The dives will alternate between the
sloping hard coral reefs and shallow coral gardens on the east side of the
island and the huge boulders creating caverns and swim-throughs on the west
side. Soft corals, huge gorgonians, sea fans, and bright yellow cup
corals are everywhere. Look for the rare species, like the ghost pipefish,
blue spotted jawfish, Andaman sweetlips, ribbon eels and nudibranchs.
Surin Islands Marine National Park, just south of Burma, features hard coral
fringe reefs with hawksbill turtles, batfish, and more colorful reef fish.
Richelieu Rock, east of the Surin Islands, is the place to encounter whale
sharks and mantas. Among the soft coral you might find the shy shovel
nose ray or guitar fish. Photographers spend hours observing cuttle
fish and mantis shrimp. School or barracuda and bigeye jack will swirl
around the rocks.
The Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar consists of over a hundred islands and
visibility is usually only fair, but it has a lot of interesting marine
life. Look for ghost pipefish and tiger tail seahorses. The
mainly hard coral reefs here are home to leopard, grey reef, white tip and
even spinner sharks.
|
