PADI - THE UNDERSEAJOURNAL 2 Q 2 0 1 4
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Manta Ray at Similan Islands Thailand - Koh Bon |
On the western side of Thailand, the Andaman Sea is home to some of the country’s most popular destinations. Of those, Phuket is far and away the most visited island in the country, and the perfect jumping-off point for a wide array of dive adventures.
“Phuket has all the modern conveniences, services and facilities for diving,” explains PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer Philippe Entremont, general manager of the PADI Five Star Career Development Center All 4 Diving Academy in Phuket. “We offer everything from day trips
on our purpose-built dive boat to liveaboard diving in the Similan Islands National Park.” If your dive group is interested in day diving from Phuket, they’ll have lots of dive sites to explore within a short boat ride of the pier. “The Racha Yai and Noi islands offer some of the best conditions,” says Entremont. “And the nearby
Phi Phi islands are rich in marine life.” But for experienced divers, a liveaboard trip to the north of Phuket is the surest way to experience the best the Andaman Sea has to offer. Here the uninhabited Similan Islands are famed for their beauty above and below the water.
Home to nearly 20 world-class dive sites, the Similan Islands are a national marine park and arguably the most sought-after dive hotspot in Thailand. The must-see dives that everyone in your group will be clamoring for are sea-mounts like Elephant Head and Richelieu Rock, a horseshoe-shaped pinnacle where fast currents attract batfish, trevallies and barracuda in droves. But the marquee attractions of these pinnacles are whale sharks — the ocean’s largest fish — and acrobatic manta rays that cruise in from the open ocean to do their dance in the nutrient-rich currents. The Similans also host some of Thailand’s richest reefs, on which your group can get lots of bottom time exploring at sites like East of Eden, a calm, aquarium-like dive site loaded with sea turtles and reef fish.
Do not miss our official scuba diving Phuket website.
Do not miss our official scuba diving Phuket website.
