​" I can't wait for Burma in 2019! "

​" Thank you so much for the trip! "

​Not fluent in Italian sorry ;)

And back to amazing Richelieu Rock :-)
But to begin, dolphins :

​On this trip we've been pleased to receive 11 person from all over the world, Isabelle, our favorite snorkeler, and Jean-Philippe, both were on the last trip and they decided to stay for some more adventures with us, Jen and Nuno from Canada, Romain from France, Mauro and Roberta from Italy, Christian and Claus from Germany, Kittima from Thailand, and Claudio from Argentina, and Camille was with us too.

As always the atmosphere onboard was good!

And we had good times underwater too...

Never seen Richelieu Rock with so many fish !
But  the same little guys were at the same place last season :-).

To be continued ...

 
We have been looking for them for a long time, but now they are back!!!
How lucky on the last cruise to spot them in three different places ;)

And as if it was not enough ... we had plenty of amazing stuff under water ...
But first, let's keep the suspense and introduce the happy divers who were on board: Don & Tom from the USA; Filippo from Italy and Petra from Denmark; Isabelle, Jean-Philippe, Pierre, Sophie and Sylvain from France; Markus, Monika and Valérie from Switzerland; Neel from England, and Sofia from Sweden.

One more time, the conditions were great and the dive sites looked fantastic with astonishing corals and seafans.

 Huge schools of fishes all around...

And in the middle of that, magical encounters ...

​Some of which had been expected for a long time ;)

And some others, we would have never dreamed of ... ghost pipefishes soup!

​Spanish dancers were back!

Let's not forget our usual ones ...

​Nudis and sea slugs ...

And our favorites:

​Juveniles were in the place too ...

​Everybody was very excited about the dives, and also very hard-working!

But still, we had time to enjoy relaxing and sharing a drink all together!

Kayaking and discovering isolated islands...

The sceneries were amazing during the day with a fantastic weather!

​Crazy skies ...

​And our famous breathtaking sunsets...

​And to finish a splendid trip, what's better than this on our way back to the mainland?!!!

Lots of courses on this last cruise ... so congratulations to : Tom, Don, Sophie and Valérie for their Nitrox certifications; Pierre, Sophie for their Advanced Open Water; Valérie again for her Deep Specialty; Jean-Philippe for his Rescue.

And the palm goes to Petra and Filippo for their Open Water, Advanced Open Water and Nitrox! Good job guys!

Marine life in the Andaman Sea...
Ultimate Marine Life guide to Mergui Archipelago...

Myanmar has a large area of the Andaman Sea, made up by Mergui Archipelago and the Burma Banks is also very rich in Marine life.

We have been diving in Burma since 2012 and I wrote quite a few blogposts about the critters we encountered here.
​
I wanted to share on this page the Ultimate Marine Life guide to Mergui Archipelago ​linking to the articles we wrote about all these wonderful critters!

SEE THIS ARTICLE HERE!

" Lots of excitement and new experiences under water plus warm friendly, fun people above water! "

 
​" The staff are this business's greatest asset, and made this trip a highlight of our 3 month adventure. "

​" Our journey just started with this highlight, we don't know what is gonna be better than this! "

" ... trip can be categorized as gourmet-trip with excellent food. " 

  
​" High quality from first contact, nice website, friendly and professional team. "

 
​" ... crew fantastique, sans parler de la nourriture, la meilleure de Thaïlande for sure! "

" ... fantastic crew, and the best food of Thailand for sure! "

 
​" La Birmanie et la Thaïlande à la file et si on s'écoutait on repartirait bien pour les deux suivantes."

" Burma and Thailand in a row and if we listened to ourselves we would go for two more. "

​" Best crew! Best dives! Best food! Best instructors! Best experience ! "

​" Every word of the reviews was true ... This will be a trip to remember. "

" It was an epic adventure. "​

​ " ... staff did everything possible to make it an awesome experience! "

​" The cook made great vegetarian food. "

​" Great dives and night dives in Burma. " 

​" ... et le moment magique de la croisière : nager au milieu de raies mantas, une première pour moi! "

" ... and the magic moment of the cruise : swimming in the middle of manta rays, a first time for me! "

​" This is the best dives I ever had. You guys are the best ... "

" Des mantas aux crevettes harlequin: du pur bonheur. " 

​" From the mantas to the harlequin shrimps: pure happiness. "

" Plongées magnifiques ... des vacances inoubliables!!! " 

​" Wonderful dives ... unforgettable holidays!!! "

Sorry my Russian is a little bit rusty at the moment ;) 

" So posso dizer que essa viagem foi maravilhosa, tode a equipe e fantastica ... "

​" I can just say that this trip has been wonderful, all the team is fantastic ... "

​" Thanks again for a spectacular Burma dive cruise. There is a reason why I keep coming back ... " 

​" Underwater world gave its best ... I have loved each second, and can't wait to be back! "

" Excellent planning, good food, friendly & helpful dive guides & staff ... Best liveaboard to date. "

​" Many thanks to all of you guys from The Smiling Seahorse Team to make this trip an unforgettable time. "

​" Your staff excels at making us happy, making sure that everything is prepared in time for meals, dives and relaxing. "

​" We think you have kindled for us a lifelong passion ... " 

" Thanks for some unforgettable crazy fairy dives ... "

" Han sido unas vacaciones preciosas gracias al maravilloso equipo atento y muy eficiente, los buceos maravillosos ..."

" It has been beautiful holidays thanks to the great staff careful and very efficient, the dives were incredible ... " 

" Vous êtes une équipe super et complémentaire. " 

" You are a great and complementary team. " 

" Dream come true! "

" Des vacances liveaboard inoubliables! The Smiling seahorse porte bien son nom. It was smily ... " 

" Unforgettable liveaboard holidays! The Smiling Seahorse name fits well. It was smily ..."

​ Sorry my German is also a little bit rusty ;)

" Une organisation au top pour des plongées inoubliables ... "

" A top level organization for unforgettable dives ... " 

" 2015, 2017, 2018 ... et toujours le même charme ... Etre sur et le Thaï Sea, et sous le Thaï Sea, est un plaisir incomparable. "

" 2015, 2017, 2018 ... and always the same charm ... Being on, and under the Thaï Sea, is an unrivalled pleasure. " 

" There was nothing I missed during this trip and now leaving with one eye crying and the other one smiling. " 

" We come on board as total new-beginners ... and now we're totally hooked! ... Thanks for making us safe and challenged at the same time! "

The best dive sites in Myanmar...
Burma top diving spots and dive sites in Mergui Archipelago...

Burma being opened to tourism only since 1997, it is still a very novel destination for divers of this world. While less known than its neighboring country, Thailand, Burma has some of the best dive sites of the Andaman Sea.
What we love most about Burma Dive sites is that its the only diving destination of this quality where you can be alone on every dive site. But of course we also love what we see there. Below is a snapshot of our favorite dive sites.
SEE HERE!

For this trip we were in the south of the archipelago and we have been pleased to receive 14 great peoples : François the frenchie, Patricia from Switzerland, Claes and Ponthus from Sweden, Veebeke and Henrietta from Norway, Pam from the U.S., David and Krista from Australia, and a really funny team from Spain, Gregorio, Luis,  Rosa and our favorite snorkeler with her bathing cap, Mercedes.
There was a great atmosphere on board for our traditional barbecue and ti punch.

We had very good conditions the sea was very quiet, flat and a very very very good visibility, that made our dives even more beautiful.

And nice encounters...

And more...

Not only the seahorses were smiling. 

​

To sum up, it was just awesome!

To be continued...

Diving the remote Burma banks: a shark enthusiast's paradise...
Would you like to explore the unexplored? 

Join one of our 9 days exploratory cruise and dive the Burma banks!              
125 km offshore from the southern town of Kawthaung, the secrets of the Burma banks are waiting to be discovered. On the edge of the central myanmar continental shelf and hidden in the depths of international waters (in an economic zone claimed by Myanmar), lie a collection of undersea mountains little known to humans. Starting at depths of over 300m, these massive sand dunes rise all the way up to a dive-able zone 15-30 meters below the surface of this unassuming sector of the open ocean. There are 6 documented peaks - Big, Coral, Heckford, Rainbow, Roe, and Silvertip banks- and countless unnamed peaks that start even deeper than 300m and rise to depths that are too deep for recreational divers. Thankfully the visibility is so good that you can usually still see them from above even if they are too deep to actually get up close and personal. Being so tricky to access they are veritable unchartered territory, yours to discover.

The smiles on everybody's face is the best reward for this incredible last trip of 2017!

An international group again with: Boris and Elena from Russia; Christina from Brasil; Tommy from Germany; Jo Ong from Singapour; Jeff from USA; Maria from Finland; Benjamin, Pascaline, Coralie, Cyriaque, François, Elsa and Gilles from France.

Without a doubt, the highlight of this cruise has been the mantas in Black Rock!
Three entire dives surrounded by these majestic creatures, so close ...
Have a look!

Magical, isn't it?
The second best news was to finally meet these cuties again:

How lucky we were! Especially Gilles, his dream came true picturing these beautiful harlequin shrimps!

And as if it was not enough, ghostpipe fishes were all over the place!
A lot of juvenile ones, for the delight of all!

Can you see this one?

As usual, the underwater sceneries were mind-blowing ...

Plenty of fishes everywhere!

Fancy portraits ;)

And extraordinary patterns ...

We could see our favourite nurse shark resting in its cave ...

Sponge crabs trying to hide, well done guys!

Mantis party in Shark Cave!

​So many seahorses, with juvenile ones!

​Colourful nudis and flat worms ...

A pinky stonefish not really happy to be discovered!

And a peacock tail anemone shrimp...

At the surface, lots of activities for our customers: snorkeling, swimming, kayaking ...

​Meeting the locals along the way!

Leisure time on the boat ...

It was full moon and the sky views were astonishing!

Even if we were all tired, we all succeeded to stay awake until midnight for the fireworks and the champagne!

The team was in the mood too!

Congratulations to Jo Ong for her Deep Specialty certification!

And to Boris with his 12 years, who saw his first mantas and practiced his first night dives!

Let's finish with the sunsets and sunrises as always!
Happy New Year everybody, we wish you all the best for 2018 and mostly: health and happiness ;)

Western Rocky dive site in Burma...
At the South Western border of Mergui Archipelago, Western rocky might be the most well known dive site in Myanmar.
Western Rocky is one of the archipelago’s southernmost dive sites in Myanmar and perhaps one of its most exciting in terms of the breadth of diving on offer. Western Rocky itself is a small island, sporting a dive passage right through its heart that just manages to be lit by daylight all the way through...