This week was something new for us as we welcomed 8 tech divers + 3 tech guides onboard going on 2 hours long dives on Thailand's best dive sites. Our itinerary changed slightly this week and we started on the stunning Richelieu Rock for a days, spent a second day at Koh Bon, a full day at Koh Tachai and a dive at Richelieu before heading back. 

What was neither new, nor a surprise was the quality of the dives. Diving conditions are at their best this time of the year and  over 30 m viz is becoming the norm!​

Richelieu was the highlight for macro life seekers, there are many ghost pipe fish and tiger egg cowries to be found on the seafans at the moment, the harlequin shrimps were posing for us and we met a new baby seahorse, isn't he sooo cute!

We were also delighted to find again the Giant frog fish which lives at the bottom of Thailand's best dive site since the beginning of the season. Let's hope he stay there until the end!
We also found 3 red Freckled Frogfishes camouflaging so well in the crack they hide in!

Koh Tachai was the highlight for those loving big schools of fishes. In particular the baraccudas who formed a giant tornado around us!

We had 2 rebreather onboard, 10 divers in side mounts and 12 divers in single tanks. With 4 tech and 4 recreational drop of and pick up per day, we kept well busy!

Time onboard was also well appreciated: we dived, we ate (4 delicious meals per day!) and we slept! And that's the recipe for a fantastic long diving gateway!
And on the way back we were welcomed back into Ranong province by a great pod of dolphin!

Thank you all for coming from Bangkok, Koh Tao and Lipe and we look forward to seeing you again very soon!
You can find all the photos from this trip in this facebook album.

Wow, what a trip! 
Thailand has experienced a new covid wave this last month so we had to cancel all our cruises. But we were able to return to the sea last week to superb conditions in the Surin and Similan Islands. We also had to the pleasure to welcome back 6 return guests and made 9 new friends which made it even more exciting to go back to these beautiful sites with a bunch of fun people for an amazing trip!
And we were so lucky! Mother Nature provided wonderful gifts to us on this cruise. 

Our second dive was special as we spotted a wonderpus octopus poking out of its sand burrow. We didn't think these cute creatures lived in Thailand so it was a great surprise!
PS: we unfortunately didn't get the photo of the rare critter and the bellow is a photo of the less rare but always charming reef octopus we encountered in Koh Bon :)​

We had an amazing trip with new and return friends!
A big thank you to Chris, Pook, Andrew, Mike and Gabriela for coming back!
A special congratulations to four new Open Water and Adventure Deep Diver students David, Gerard, Laura, and Arnaud.
And Congratulations as well to Lena on becoming an Enriched Air Diver and to Nikita and Rianne for their Adventure Deep Dive Certifications.

​We hope to see you all again soon for new underwater adventures! ​

6D Thailand: Manta and whale shark expedition
​2021 Manta and Whale Shark Diving expedition in Thailand
​A special 6 days/ 5 nights cruise to learn more about Manta and whale sharks in Thailand from 25th to 30th of March 2021

This article is going to teach you how to differentiate the 3 most common species of  Scorpionfish we encounter in the Andaman sea: Bearded Scorpionfish, Devil Scorpionfish and Stonefish.

These three species are often mistaken because they are quite similar (indeed they belong to the same family), but below are some simple tips to tell them appart during your next dive trip.

Let’s start with their similarities:
- these members of the Scorpaenidae family live on to the ocean floor, often hiding among the coral reef and swim about as well as a chicken can fly...
- They have large heads with strong bony cheek and a surprisingly wide mouth which can capture large preys.
- They are not aggressive but their back spines are highly poisonous. They are not agressive but under attack, they expand their spines to protect themselves and quickly escape to a nearby hideout. 
- They are all sedentary prey-stalkers using the same passive strategy as a gecko. You will rarely see them moving something other than their eyes except when they are swallowing whole a prey that passed a bit too close...

A little infographic to help you differentiate visually the 3 species

 That’s it for today, let’s hope that you learned how to differentiate these 3 species and that you will observe them in our company on The Smiling Seahorse’s boat!

​Our second day was filled with some of our favorite locations in Similan as we explored Ko Tachai, Ko Bon, West of Eden and Deep Six. The bright soft fan corals and giant foam corals painted a beautiful underwater landscape as we floated through massive schools of fish in excellent visibility. Nudibranchs were everywhere, including some of our favorite slugs: psychedelic batwing slug (sagaminopteron psychedelicum) and piccachu (Thecacera pacifica)! 

​ The most exciting sighting of our trip happened at Shark Fin Reef : Not only did we see some white tip reef sharks sleeping under coral heads, but we also had a tiger shark saying hello at the safety stop!! Safety stops can really get thrilling with such a special guest visitor! Again no photo of this special guest who tend to show up only in front of divers when they don't have their camera!

Tuna Wreck at Anita’s Reef sent us into our deepest dive as we descended to catch a glipse of the unique ship tipped on its side at the bottom of the sea at around 30 meters.

​We also experienced a fun filled dive at Elephant Head Rock, which led us through underwater boulders and swim throughs. We found more white tips reef sharks swimming and the trip of black, yellow, and blue ribbon eels poking out to say hello. Between dives we made a stop at Donald Duck Bay to enjoy the iconic rock formations and pristine white sand beach. 

​The journey back north toward Surin National Park held four more days of amazing sea life. We found bright tiger cowries latched on to fan corals, crabs nestled around their eggs, and nudibranchs galore! 

​Ko Tachai was so fishy this week and we spent most of a dive in a swirling school of thousands of chevron barracuda covering the reff between 10-20 meters deep. The big fish kept coming through in massive schools of giant trevallies, bluefins trevallies, jackfish as well as 10 huge tunas passing on top of us! Wow!

​We glided through schools of batfish, surgeon fish, rabbitfish and jackfish at Richelieu Rock. We found two giant frog fish this week, a bent stick pipe fish, seahorse and some ghost pipe fish. But what I loved most was an eagle ray passing less than a meter away on our night dive there!

​We celebrated not only these beautiful sites but also a new year’s arrival! As we were moored in the Bay of Ko Bon, we enjoyed our infamous barbecue night and were gifted with the lovely voice of one of our passenger: an opera singer to start the year in beauty. It made the new year truly special for everyone and after a bit of dancing, singing and laughing we made it to bed awaiting for our dives on the 1st!

Our new year began with another amazing trip through our favorite Thai islands, and we are so grateful for our new and returning friends who joined us.

Thanks to Andrew for sharing your photos of the trip! And a special congratulations goes out to Martina and Fabian for completing their Nitrox certification course!

​We just returned from a festive and exciting week of diving in Thailand. After our departure from Ranong, we picked up Gary and Lisa from Ko Phayam and had our diving group ready for an adventure into the Similan and Surin Islands!
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Our first day was spent exploring Surin National Park where we were delighted to be greeted by friendly turtles and roaming napoleon wrasses. We looked a bit closer to search out iridescent peacock mantis shrimp, ghost pipefish, and loads of vibrant nudibranchs, including the cutest little Pikatchu nudibranch. The divers were especially excited when we sited a tiger shark! As calm and cute as a teddy bear.

​The following day we cruised south to Ko Tachai and Ko Bon in Similan National Park. As we hopped into a calm sea, we were in luck and found awesome visibility. We descended into swarming schools of fishes such as batfish, goatfish, cobias and trevallies. As we peaked through corals to find colorful juvenile angelfish, groupers and parrotfish, we also spotted an eagle ray!

​Even though we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the schooling fish, we had an exciting moment of finding a rare psychedelic batwing slug. What a trip!

​In between dives, a friendly green turtle swam up for some air right next to our boat! We grabbed some snorkels and hopped in to say hello. It was so friendly that he stayed with us for some time to have a close look at us as well. 

​After a comfortable night’s rest we traveled to our southernmost destinations. Beneath the famous submerged boulders, we spotted two juvenile white tipped reef sharks at Anita Reef and Shark Fin Reef.

​Our sunset dive at Elephant Head Rock was filled with exhilarating swim throughs and lots of fish nibbling on their evening meals. The most beautiful ribbon eels in all three colours came out of their rocks to watch us swim by: yellow, blue and black, what a treat!

During this cruise we also partnered with the Similan National Park Rangers for a clean-up dive. We met the Rangers on the island and learned more about maintaining the natural beauty of these marine parks and were rewarded with awesome t-shirts to remember our time and work together in preserving the majestic homes of our underwater friends...

​Our night dive at Ko Bon was full of excitement and oddities. A funky frogfish was hanging out with a Spanish dancer nudibranch in the rocks, and we spotted eerie sea snakes and ornate ghost pipefish. 

Our festive cruise had come to an end so we headed home, dropping Wendi off at Ko Phayam.

Thank you to all the divers who made it so memorable! And a big congratulations to Gabriella for her junior advanced open water diver certification, to Sylvia and Ben for their advanced open water diver certification, and to Nici for her advanced open water diver and nitrox certifications!
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Koh Tachai was a magnificent fish soup yet again with batfish hovering in the current, unicorn surgeonfish, many sweetlips, a huge crack full of lobsters, Napoleon wrasse and even a very brave and curious octopus to name a few. ​

​Richelieu rock was rocking and rolling with many boats and divers for our last 3 dives, but despite the crowds we saw some amazing things! Ornate ghost pipefish frolicked in the fan corals while a banded sea snake bumped into a diver on its way up to the surface for a breath startling it into changing its mind and retreating back to the depths. A massive school of chevron barracudas greeted us in the bottom while huge pickhandle barracudas came within mere centimeters of our mask during the safety stop.

​Along the way we met some mantis shrimps, kinky cuttlefish and a pair of ghost pipefish and our safety stop offered the bonus of a curious eagle ray cruising by. We were also very excited to find the eggs of a spanish dancer nudibranch which sparked much excitement for future encounters with their mom!