Thailand:
Thailand is a country located at the centre of the Indochina Peninsula in South East Asia and is in fact the 21st most populous country in the world with over 64 million people crammed into its small area of 513,000km².
Tourism is currently one of the countries largest economical sectors with many tourist destinations including the capital Bangkok, it is also well known for its the locations and quality of its SCUBA diving sites.
I have in fact, had a small glimpse of the capital and the countryside through a plane window as i visited the airport on my way to Sydney, Bangkok is very industrialised whereas the country side consists mainly of rice fields.
Mnay of the best diving opportunities in Thailand are found in the Andaman Sea just North-West of Phuket Island, the Sea features dramatic underwater topography and an abundance of marine life.
It is a ~14 hour flight from the UK to Thailand, although my flight to Australia managed to get to Bangkok in about 11.5 hours, so i guess it varies, either way from personal experience I can say this is a pretty short flight considering the distance!
Water temperatures are generally between 24°C and 28°C, so very pleasant indeed, with temperatures like these you will not feel cold at any point during your dive, which is a massive plus when enjoying the amazing marine life the Andaman Sea has to offer.
Generally, divers head to the Similan and Surin Islands or reefs off Phuket and Krabi Island.
Just off Phuket Island there is a reef called 'Anemone Reef', this is a very popular dive site with marine sanctuary status, it is also a great site for new divers (like myself haha).
The Similan and Surin islands are a must for divers visiting Thailand, they host a great variety of marine life and contain over 500 species of soft and hard corals set into gullies and granite boulders creating an amazing underwater world for divers to explore. Large schools of oriental sweet lips and yellow snappers patrol the reefs and leopard sharks and guitar rays are often found at the reef drop offs.
Here are some images of the great things you can see whilst diving Thailand:
Thailand is a country located at the centre of the Indochina Peninsula in South East Asia and is in fact the 21st most populous country in the world with over 64 million people crammed into its small area of 513,000km².
Tourism is currently one of the countries largest economical sectors with many tourist destinations including the capital Bangkok, it is also well known for its the locations and quality of its SCUBA diving sites.
I have in fact, had a small glimpse of the capital and the countryside through a plane window as i visited the airport on my way to Sydney, Bangkok is very industrialised whereas the country side consists mainly of rice fields.
Thailand (Centre-left) from Google Earth.
Mnay of the best diving opportunities in Thailand are found in the Andaman Sea just North-West of Phuket Island, the Sea features dramatic underwater topography and an abundance of marine life.
It is a ~14 hour flight from the UK to Thailand, although my flight to Australia managed to get to Bangkok in about 11.5 hours, so i guess it varies, either way from personal experience I can say this is a pretty short flight considering the distance!
Water temperatures are generally between 24°C and 28°C, so very pleasant indeed, with temperatures like these you will not feel cold at any point during your dive, which is a massive plus when enjoying the amazing marine life the Andaman Sea has to offer.
Generally, divers head to the Similan and Surin Islands or reefs off Phuket and Krabi Island.
Just off Phuket Island there is a reef called 'Anemone Reef', this is a very popular dive site with marine sanctuary status, it is also a great site for new divers (like myself haha).
The Similan and Surin islands are a must for divers visiting Thailand, they host a great variety of marine life and contain over 500 species of soft and hard corals set into gullies and granite boulders creating an amazing underwater world for divers to explore. Large schools of oriental sweet lips and yellow snappers patrol the reefs and leopard sharks and guitar rays are often found at the reef drop offs.
Here are some images of the great things you can see whilst diving Thailand:
An image of the infamous yellow snapper fish that patrol the reefs of the Smilan Islands.
Original picture source.
An image of two leopard sharks just off Phuket Island.
Original picture source.
An image of the weird and wonderful guitar ray.
Original picture source.
An image of various soft and hard corals at Anemone reef just off Phuket Island.
Original picture source.
An image of yet another species of the amazing sweet Anemone fish.
Original picture source.
The legendary lionfish returns!
Original picture source.
An image of the beautiful green turtle on Phuket Island reef.
Original picture source.
An image of Similan reef.
Original picture source.
These images only begin to scratch the surface of the underwater diversity available to divers in Thailand, not only are there reefs such as Anemone reef for beginners but there are also a wide variety of liveaboard boats for more experiencd divers. Thailand also has the advantage of being fairly priced and even cheap in some respects, travel to Thailand is often more expensive than decent accommodation.
Disclaimer: I do not claim to own the rights to any of the images used in this blog post, links to the original image sources have been given where necessary.
No comments:
Post a Comment