TRAVEL

This island bears a lot of resemblance to the Similans under the surface, the highlights are a ridge or plateau to the south and a pinnacle to the north. The ridge is covered in soft coral and sea fans and also homes batfish, groupers and several nurse sharks. A reef along the west coast of North Twin makes a great spot for night dives where crustaceans and Spanish dancers are common.

This spot is also called Shark Cave Island and has three rocks rising from 40 metres deep to above the surface, it offers some of the best marine life in the Archipelago and cannot all be seen in one single dive. Huge shoals of snappers and fusiliers swirl around you as you begin the descent down the coral covered walls, it is one of the better spots to find harlequin shrimp and harlequin ghost pipefish.

For the thrill seekers there is a huge canyon to the north of the middle island and leads to a cave at around 16 metres, the entrance is usually guarded by several grey reef sharks that may lose their shyness and swim upto you if you stay quiet and motionless. The tunnel is around 20 metres long and has many cup corals and sponges along its walls, take care of possible surge within the tunnel.

A dramatic underwater terrain greets you at this divesite. It includes a long underwater arch and tunnel where large tawny nurse sharks are often seen resting or even guarding. The tunnel leads from one side of the island to the other and is completely dark in the middle. The soft limestone island is more like a series of pinnacles than one rock, this creates crevaces for other marine life to hide and a playground for reef sharks and some large triggerfish and stingrays.

Western Rocky Pinnacle
This is around 20 km north of the island and has many huge seafans at depth, also home to larger visiting pelagics who hang out along the ridges and canyons. Currents can be strong out here so tides must be observed.

Following several years of negotiations the Burmese (Myanmar) government finally opened up access to its waters in 1997 thus opening the door to countless unexplored and pristine dive sites. It truly is one of the last remaining diving frontiers on the planet. The Mergui Archipelago consists of over 800 islands, some of them the size of Singapore or Phuket and most of them uninhabited, the only dwellers on these waters are a few local sea gypsies. Despite the governments pressure to protect the archipelago evidence of dynamite fishing can still be found. However the authorities have finally awoken to the power of the tourist dollar and have consequently outlawed dynamite and shark fishing in the area. There is also an entrance fee to the area and all boats enter and depart via Kawthaung (Ko Song or Victoria Point are other names for it), just west of Ranong, Thailand.

Diving here is simply awesome with great visibility, sharks and manta rays, and pristine coral reefs it offers only the best.

See this article for more info on diving in Mergui.

The Burma Banks are a series of submerged sea mounts in remote waters around 180km northwest of the Similans. Their name derives from the fact that they lie within the Exclusive Economic Zone of Burma. While there is good hard coral growth here, this is not the main attraction, big animals are what divers are looking for when they travel this far out into the ocean. Waters surrounding the Banks drop to 350 metres deep and they are considered one of the best places in the world to dive with sharks. With local populations of silvertip and nurse sharks that are not afraid of divers sightings are pretty much guaraunteed.

Drift diving is very popular here as currents can be strong and unpredictable. As it is oceanic diving and very remote dive operators are often stricter on their safety procedures.