Thailand boasts some of the finest dive sites in the world – there are islands with stretches of coral reef teeming with tropical fish, walls that drop from hundreds of metres in the bleep of a depth-sounder, wrecks and caves and coral-clad pinnacles to explore. The water is clear and sea life plentiful.
The Andaman Sea
Thailand offers over 2.000 km of coastline with hundreds of offshore islands. The Andaman Sea is part of the Indian Ocean and it extends from north of Surin Islands, close to the Myanmar border, down along the west coast of Thailand to beyond the Tarutao Archipelago as far as Koh Lipe close to the Malaysian border. Only a few of the 155 islands in the Andaman Sea are inhabited.
The challenging coral life is phenomenal, encompassing everything from extensive fringing reefs to deep drop-offs, dramatic granite walls, caves, tunnels, coral-covered pinnacles, and open ocean sea mounts. Spectacular hard and soft corals abound, and the marine life is prolific, ranging from minute and colourful reef dwellers to manta rays, different shark species and other pelagic visitors like barracudas and tunas. Occasionally, impressive whale sharks migrate to the Andaman Sea.
There are plenty of dive shops at either coast. If you are not a diver yet, an ‘open water course’ will allow you to learn the basics of scuba diving. Higher instruction are readily available, too. Diving in Thailand is comparatively cheap, and once you have obtained your dive certificate you can use it to go scuba diving all over the world. All over Thailand you can expect modern amenities, international standard boats and professional facilities. Thailand offers some of the finest scuba diving in the world.
There are several dive centers along the Andaman Sea coastline, the majority of them located in the areas of Khao Lak, Phuket, Ao Nang, Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta. TDA Diving Association (Thailand) is an internationally recognized diving association and full voting member of the world underwater federation CMAS together with PADI, NAUI, DIWA and SSI, the the main certification agencies in recreational and technical diving activities. Most dive operators offer a wide variety of training and day trips. Most of the live-aboard cruises are organized from the popular holiday island destination of Phuket.
The Gulf of Thailand
The Gulf of Siam or Gulf of Thailand has a surface of 305.000 km2 and belongs to the western Central Pacific. It borders with the southern Chinese Sea in the south , the southwest coast of Vietnam and Cambodia and it follows the coast of Thailand down to Malaysia in the southwest. The Gulf of Thailand is a rather shallow ocean with average depths of 20 and 30 meters at the dive spots. The reefs are mostly part of national parks and fishing, let alone fishing with dynamite is prohibited.
The dive spots are located around the islands in the Gulf of Thailand. The best known island is Koh Samui. But Koh Tao and Koh Phangan have excellent dive spots as well. And the diving industry has boomed on these islands during the last years. At the Koh Chang Archipelago, the diving tourism started to develop in the early 1990s. Until today new reefs and unknown dive spots are discovered. Best known in this area is Pattaya with its reefs and shipwrecks. The beautiful islands close to the Cambodian border have been declared a Marine National Park in 1982. This is one of the best dive spots in the Gulf of Siam with visibility up to 30 meters. Lately, Chumphon has been discovered as a dive destination. The boats go to small islands off the coast.
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