Diving liveaboard in Thailand and Myanmar
  • When & Where
    • Schedule and Prices
    • Destinations >
      • North Andaman Thailand >
        • Similan Islands
        • Surin Islands >
          • Richelieu Rock
        • The essential Underwater photo Guide to diving Thailand
      • South Andaman Thailand >
        • Phuket & Koh Phi Phi National Parks
        • Koh Lanta National Park
        • Koh Lipe and Tarutao National Park
      • Mergui Archipelago >
        • Liveaboard diving holiday in Myanmar
        • Burma's best dive sites
        • The Ultimate Underwater photo Guide to diving Burma
  • ABOUT
    • Our Boat >
      • DELICIOUS FOOD
    • Diving in Thailand in 2024-2025
    • Diving in Myanmar/Burma in 2024-2025
    • Blackwater diving in Thailand and Myannmar
    • Marine life in Thailand's Andaman Sea
    • Marine life in Mergui Archipelago
    • Dive Courses >
      • Learn to Dive
      • Continue diving education
      • Rescue diver
      • Professional Dive Courses
      • Hone your dive skills with a specialty course
      • Photo coaching in Thailand on the Smiling Seahorse
    • Guest Book
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  • Plan your trip
    • Our hotels recommendations
    • Khao Sok National Park
    • Taxi services >
      • Taxi services to and from Ranong
      • Taxi services to and from Phuket
      • Taxi services to Tap Lamu and Khao Lak
    • 10 things to do around Ranong
  • PROMO
    • HOT DEALS
    • Special Expeditions >
      • 8D Special Marine Bio with Gavin Miller - 10 Nov 2025
      • 8D Whale shark expedition - 20 March 2026 - North and South
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Endless blue waters...

25/4/2017

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8 days diving around the undiscovered Mergui Archipelago

Around the undiscovered Mergui Archipelago

For the last 8 days trip of the season, we have been very lucky!
The visibility has been incredible everywhere, up to 50m some days :)

We had the pleasure to see two eagle rays at North Twin and Shark Cave, and one grey reef shark at Black Rock !

Happy divers on the boat with: Marc and Franck from Netherlands; Andrea from Switzerland; Kostas from Greece; Chantal, Frédéric, Danièle, Gilbert, Jean-Jacques, Bertrand, Dominique and Alexis from France.

Look at these sceneries!
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And some more ...
Mergui Archipelago scenery

Underwater, it was a real aquarium ... unbelievable!
Wonderful underwater scenery
Giant Seafan in Burma

​Photographers were busy ;)
Happy underwater photographer

So many moments to capture!
Bubble in Mergui's waters...

So many places to record ...
Marble ray encounter...
Mergui Archipelago from the sky...

​Special ones ...
Burma underwater discovery

​So many actions to catch ...
Following a fish school...

So many portraits to shoot!
Parrot fish smiling at us...
Unbelievable colors underwater...

So close ...
Cuttlefish eye

We were lucky enough to see so many fantastic creatures ...
Unbelievable angelfish...
A marble shrimp in it's house...
This shrimp look like a skeleton...

​And the usual but still beautiful... crabs!
And the usual but still beautiful... crabs!

​Amazing ghost pipefishes!
Ghost pipefishes
Ghost pipefish

Cowries and snails!
Cowry
Sea snail

Fabulous nudibranches!
Nudibranch and pink soft coral

Seahorses ...
Seahorse in beautiful white coral

Cuttlefishes ...
Cuttlefishes in Burmese waters

Goodtimes underwater, and also at the surface! Visiting islands, meeting the locals and having fun with the kids ...
Visiting islands...
Fun with kids in Myanmar
So cute Myanmar kid!

​Nothing better than a smile !

On board, there were some "serious" studious moments... ;)
On board, there were some

​And the other funny ones ...
Funny moment on the MV Thai Sea

​And the unforgettable sunsets!
Nice smile for the sunset on Mergui Archipelago
Colorful sunset on Mergui...

Thanks Julien for the awesome drone shots!
Fishing boat drone shot in Mergui Archipelago

Thanks Franck and Frédéric also for all the other ones ... And there comes my favourite of the cruise:
Cowry on red filter...

Congratulations to Alexis for his Advanced course; and to Kostas for his Nitrox certification.

A special one also for Bertrand training for his Divemaster course and doing his 100th dive!

And the next cruise will be the last one of the season ... a special one!
We will be very happy to welcome again Andrea and Bertrand with us on board :

Making your dream diving holidays comes true!
The Smiling Seahorse runs dive cruises since 2012 to the top rating dive sites around the Andaman sea.  We operate MV Smiling Seahorse, a brand new (November 2018), comfortable liveaboard conceived by and for divers for an ultimate experience.
We have trips in Myanmar (Burma) from the Similan Islands, Surin Islands, Richelieu rock and Burma's undiscovered pinnacles (Mergui Archipelago).
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
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Eagle ray at Sea fan Forest!

16/4/2017

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It was our last trip 3 of the season and what an adventure!
​With a multinational group on board: Alex  and Matthew from England; Ute from Germany; Alaitz from Spain; Jeff from the USA; Patrizia from Italy; Nicolas, Jean-Marc and Marie-France from Switzerland; Hugo and Xavier from Belgium; and Fabien and Audrey from France.

The weather was hot, the sky was blue and the water was flat ... from the first day at Dragon Island and Tower Rock ...
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​To the last day at Horseshoe Island ...
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The visibility was amazing as you can see here at Submarine!
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The highlights of this trip were a eagle ray at Seafan Forest and nurse sharks at Tower Rock!
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​The scenaries were magical ...

Nice schools of fishes ...

Plenty of colourful nudibranches ...

​Spanish dancers ...
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Funny crabs ...

​And other ones ...

​Ghost pipefishes ...

​Portraits session ...

A smiling seahorse ...
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​Three remoras stucked together ...
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And juveniles along the way ...

​Happy divers ...
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Besides the diving, let's do some island hopping ...

And meet some locals ...

​Refresh ourselves in the water ...
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Beautiful views from above ...
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Unforgettable sunsets ...

​And a mysterious moon ...
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It has been a very nice cruise with  warm people!
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Congratulations to Hugo, only 15 years old, who succeeded his Advanced Open Water and fought his fears from sharks and morays!
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And also to Alaitz for her Advanced Open Water and Nitrox certifications!

It was a pleasure to welcome Patrizia and Jeff on board again!
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Special dedication to our favourite swiss couple who spend the 3 last cruises with us! We will miss you, your outfits and your humour!
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Mantas' magic...

9/4/2017

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It was our last trip of the season in Thailand ... and it was the most unforgettable one! A 60 minutes dive surrounded by mantas all around, no words can describe this magical moment! 

Our customers were in heaven of course!
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Happy happy faces!
We were very pleased to welcome on board: Bertrand, Ghislaine, Gilles and Marie Annick from France; Jean-Marc and Marie-France from Switzerland; and Team Poland composed of Anna, Monika O.,  Michal, Aleksandra, Hubert and Monika W.

The conditions have been fantastic ... Turquoise, clear and hot waters, no current and fishes everywhere!
A giant aquarium!
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For the pleasure of the photographers ...
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Huge variety of corals ...
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​Pleasure for the eye ...
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​A colourful kaleidoscope ...
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Let's not forget the shiny angelfishes ...
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Portrait session!
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Can you resist this smile?!
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Turtle, snake, barracudas ...
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​Some new encounters ...
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And Franck's favourite : the juvenile shaded batfish!

Skeleton shrimps ...
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And thousands of these little ones ...
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Sparkling glassfish everywhere ...

Schools of trevallies hunting ...
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And a school of Polish diving!
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​Let's keep the best for the end, never enough!
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​And as always!
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It was the second time for Ghislaine this season, it was a pleasure to have you again on the boat!
Jean-Marc and Marie-France are joining us for their third cruise in a row!
And congratulations to Bertrand for his Rescue course and welcome again for the Divemaster one!
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Exploring the Burma Banks...

4/4/2017

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It was our last trip 5 of the season, and we went to explore the amazing Burma Banks!
With great people on board: Gabor and Nikki from Hungary; Michael from Australia; Jean-Marc, Marie-France, Michel and Olivia from Switzerland; Nicolas and Serge from Belgium; and Christophe, Valérie, Michel and Gilles from France!
​
We also had a new toy as Julian brought his new drone and took some wonderful pictures of the dive sites, have a look ... 

North Twin ...
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​Black Rock ...
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Horseshoe Island ...
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Black Rock was invaded by a massive school of trevallies, diving in the middle was just unbelievable!
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And elsewhere, it was fishy too!

In Black Rock, we spotted a group sharks hunting ...
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And on the way to the Burma banks, we were followed by dolphins ...
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Burma Banks was awesome! Great viz, beautiful corals and black tip sharks !
We were alone in the middle of the blue ...
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Alone in the middle of the Mergui Archipelago ...
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​We made some great encounters down there ...
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​Nice portraits ...

​During the night dives too!

​And some black and white shots!
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It was a festival of crabs !
Big ones ...

Medium ones ...

​Smally ones ...

And lots of decorator crabs!

Some Zanzibar shrimps were found ;)
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And some amazing nudibranches again!

​Our beloved seahorses!

​And our favourite ghost pipefish!
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​Enjoying the local villages ...
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​Having fun with the kids :)

Enjoying good moments on the boat all together!

And always the astonishing sunsets!

Thanks to Nicolas, Serge, Michael and Julien for sharing their pictures!

Hope to see you again soon!
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    The Smiling Seahorse Diving Blog

    A blog about our diving adventures in Burma and Thailand. Diving trip reports, guest reviews, fishy stories, wildlife fun facts and much more...
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    ​The Smiling Seahorse has been running dive cruises from Ranong since 2012.
    Our team of instructors are reporting with a short blogpost after every trip.
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The Smiling Seahorse

Our dive cruises

170 Ruangrat Rd, Tambon khao nivet, Mueang Ranong District, Ranong 85000​
Phone: +66860110614​
​Mail: [email protected]

www.thesmilingseahorse.com
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  • When & Where
    • Schedule and Prices
    • Destinations >
      • North Andaman Thailand >
        • Similan Islands
        • Surin Islands >
          • Richelieu Rock
        • The essential Underwater photo Guide to diving Thailand
      • South Andaman Thailand >
        • Phuket & Koh Phi Phi National Parks
        • Koh Lanta National Park
        • Koh Lipe and Tarutao National Park
      • Mergui Archipelago >
        • Liveaboard diving holiday in Myanmar
        • Burma's best dive sites
        • The Ultimate Underwater photo Guide to diving Burma
  • ABOUT
    • Our Boat >
      • DELICIOUS FOOD
    • Diving in Thailand in 2024-2025
    • Diving in Myanmar/Burma in 2024-2025
    • Blackwater diving in Thailand and Myannmar
    • Marine life in Thailand's Andaman Sea
    • Marine life in Mergui Archipelago
    • Dive Courses >
      • Learn to Dive
      • Continue diving education
      • Rescue diver
      • Professional Dive Courses
      • Hone your dive skills with a specialty course
      • Photo coaching in Thailand on the Smiling Seahorse
    • Guest Book
    • FAQ
  • Plan your trip
    • Our hotels recommendations
    • Khao Sok National Park
    • Taxi services >
      • Taxi services to and from Ranong
      • Taxi services to and from Phuket
      • Taxi services to Tap Lamu and Khao Lak
    • 10 things to do around Ranong
  • PROMO
    • HOT DEALS
    • Special Expeditions >
      • 8D Special Marine Bio with Gavin Miller - 10 Nov 2025
      • 8D Whale shark expedition - 20 March 2026 - North and South
  • gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • CONTACT
  • BLOG
    • Most popular posts