Back to Thailand...

26/1/2018

Best of Thailand Dive Cruise: Surin and Similan National parks

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...

Happy divers in Richelieu Rock, Thailand

The Smiling Seahorse dive cruises, always big fun!

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

Cuttlefish and pink coral in Thailand's waters...

To be continued ...

Diving in Thailand
Best of Thailand Dive Cruise: Surin and Similan National parks...

5Days/4 Nights, 11 dives: Surin Islands, Richelieu Rock, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, North Similans

Thailand still counts some of the best dive sites in the world and this trip offers just the best Thailand has to offer!

SEE THE DETAIL OF THIS CRUISE HERE!

0 Comments

Amazing ... the harlequin shrimps!

23/1/2018

0 Comments

Meet Harlequin shrimps with us!

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 ;)

See the dance of the Harlequin Shrimp...

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 ...

A nudibranch, guess where is it's head...

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?!!!

A dolphin take us 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!

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!

0 Comments

Back to Mac Leod's Islands

10/1/2018

0 Comments

South of Mergui Archipelago dive cruise

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.

Great atmosphere and good food on the Smiling Seahorse cruises

Great barbecue on the Smiling Seahorse cruise

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.

A whirlpool of fish... Mergui Archipalago

Mergui Archipelago, a paradise for underwater photography

Dive Mergui Archipelago with The smiling Seahorse

And nice encounters...

And more...

Not only the seahorses were smiling.

To sum up, it was just awesome!

To be continued...

Our Liveaboard trips

Thailand 5 days: Thailand: Surin Island, Koh Tachai, Koh Bon and Richelieu Rock..
Burma 6 days: Myanmar: Western Rocky, Seafan Forrest, Shark Point, Bird Cave...
Burma 7 days: High Rock, Shark Cave, North Twin, Macleod Island, Western Rocky, Seafan Forrest
Burma 8 days: all of this + Black Rock

Burma 9 days: All of this + a day of exploration of the north + Burma banks

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.

0 Comments

Manta Madness to celebrate the end of 2017!

4/1/2018

0 Comments

New year 2018 with Manta on the MV Smiling Seahorse

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 ...

Underwater life 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 ...

Everything's ok on The Smiling Seahorse dive cruise!

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!

Happy New Year on the MV Smiling Seahorse

Celebrating New Year on the MV Smiling Seahorse

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...

0 Comments

Back to Thailand...

Best of Thailand Dive Cruise: Surin and Similan National parks

Amazing ... the harlequin shrimps!

Meet Harlequin shrimps with us!

Back to Mac Leod's Islands

South of Mergui Archipelago dive cruise

Manta Madness to celebrate the end of 2017!

New year 2018 with Manta on the MV Smiling Seahorse

The Smiling Seahorse Diving Blog

Authors

Categories

Archives

See also...

The Smiling Seahorse

Our dive cruises

More information