The Similan Islands

The Similan Islands are situated about 100 km northwest of Phuket.This group of islands, a national marine park, is a diver's paradise.With an average water temperature around 28° C and a visibility which often exceeds 25 meters, diving is always very enjoyable.Diving conditions are almost always excellent. Beautiful hard coral gardens en huge amounts of small reef fishes welcome divers. When lucky a leopard shark or whitetip reef shark can be seen. The Similan Islands are perfect for photographers and videographers and offer beautiful underwater panoramas. These islands are also an ideal place for macro video & photography.Unusual fishes that can be found are different kinds of anglerfish and ghost pipefish.

RICHELIEU ROCK

The absolute highlight on a Similan trip is a visit to Richelieu Rock.This rocky outcrop in open sea is a gathering point for huge schools of trevallies (Jacks), barracuda's and snappers. Sometimes a manta ray or whale shark visits this marvellous dive spot.But Richelieu Rock is much more then this. Many nudibranchs, tigertail seahorses, anglerfish, ghostpipefish are frequently seen.Many species of soft and hard corals conquered a spot on this unique rock formation.Every dive again you get surprised about the enormous diversity of marine life. This is a top spot for every photographer and videographer.

After the tsunami

After the tsunami of 26th of December 2004 I made more then 100 dives around the Similan islands. It's a fact that the tsunami was very destructive and some coral reefs were destroyed.Around the Similan islands only island nr 9 (Koh Bangu) was very heavily hit and pristine dive sites like Snapper Alley and Christmas point suffered huge damage. However even here is the east side of the island still very beautiful.All the other divesites in the Similans escaped, at some spots there was some damage to the table corals and the seafans but not of this level that making very nice dives was impossible.Further north Koh Bon escaped and is untouched. The plateau reef at Koh Tachai is partially damaged. Richelieu Rock is pristine as ever before, no damage visible at all.During my stay I also worked on a TV-report together with Steve Chao for CTV (Canadian Television), this to bring a neutral view telling the truth about the situation underwater after the tsunami. Sadly many news agencies spread reports and rumours about complete underwater devastation of the coral reefs after the tsunami. Also the different dive centres brought a wrong view by telling there wasn't any damage at all.The truth is that of course there is damage but this damage isn't of a level that beautiful live aboard trips aren't possible. Those few reefs which were hit extremely by the tsunami aren't of course anymore on the schedule of organized dive trips.

Thailand – Phuket – Southern Islands
PHI PHI ISLANDS

The Phi Phi islands are situated south of Phuket. The two islands Phi Phi Le and Phi Phi Don also have some very interesting dive sites.Very well known are Koh Bida Nai and Koh Bida Nok. These two small islands are the place to see leopard sharks. (The bottom is at around 20 m depth).The highlight however on these dive spots are the walls which are covered with a nice diversity of seafans, soft corals and huge barrel sponges.The walls are a paradise for macro video & photography.It's not a good place for shooting panorama's as visibility is often reduced (10 – 15 meters) due to the huge amount of suspended particles in the water.During a discovery trip in search for new dive sites around the Phi Phi islands I discovered an extremely beautiful place very rich on different small creatures. This place, real muck diving, is just a heaven for every keen macro photographer and videographer.Beautiful hangovers, a cave with a long connecting channel were the home of several ornate ghost pipefish, seahorses, beautiful nudibranchs, several juveniles (crocodile fish, batfish) but also my very first spotvin anglerfish ( Antennarius nummifer ) as well as my first ‘Gorgonian shrimps' ( Tozeuma armatum ). This divespot unknown to many divecenters is absolutely worth a visit.

Koh Ha

Koh Ha, meaning in english ‘Five islands' is situated south of the Phi Phi islands.These small islands are uninhabited and the panoramas above sea level are as beautiful as these below. Very nice coral gardens everywhere and some small caves make of these islands a place where you have to dive. Visibility is much better then around the Phi Phi islands so nice shots of the underwater panoramas are here possible.This spot is also extremely nice for night dives with eroded overhangs in shallow water where many fascinating small creatures can be found.

Hin Daeng & Hin Muang

A small rocky outcrop breaking the surface betrays the presence of Hin Daeng (Thai for red rock). A few hundred meters away we can find back Hin Muang (Thai for purple rock), a dive site which rises up below the water surface to approximately 5 meters depth.These dive sites are little bit more suited for experienced divers because of the exposure to currents and the depths of more then 60 meters in which the with soft coral overgrown pinnacles slide away.These dive sites are sometimes visited by manta rays and whalesharks.The divesites are unique because of the enormous amounts of soft coral which gave these places their names. Hin Daeng and Hin Muang are situated at about 2 hours by live aboard south of Koh Ha.