Happy New Year everyone!!!

The Smiling Seahorse team wishes you all the best for 2019 ...

​We had a fantastic celebration for this New Year's eve with a funny group of people: Nina, Alexander and Ashley from USA; Serge, Anne-Claire, Conny and Kurt from Belgium; Ken, Dixon and Mick from Hong-Kong; Marianne, Claire, Bruno and Jean from France; Kamal from Germany and Sofia from Sweden.

We had a delicious barbecue cooked with love by our chef Chewi and his help Youb!

​While the customers were enjoying the last 2018 sunset ...

​... we were preparing the cocktails ...

​... that satisfied all of the us ;)

It was just a warming up, everybody was already in the mood !!!

​Even Sharky had a great party ;)

It was followed by amazing fireworks at midnight in the middle of the Mergui Archipelago, that were so astonishing that everybody was too busy watching, instead of taking pictures of it :) !!! Unforgettable experience ...

But let's go back to the beginning of the cruise !
Nice weather ...

Perfect to chill on the sun deck, relax in the hammocks, read or nap on the sofa ...

And down there, it was a delight ...
​Life everywhere ...

So many schools of different fishes ...
​Batfishes, jacks, barracudas, rainbow runners ...

Look at that ...

Corals, shells ... so much perfection and beauty!

​From big ones ...

​To the smaller ones ...

All kinds of flat worms, nudis and spanish dancers ...

​A multitude of different shrimps ...

​Tiny little crustaceans ...

​Ghost pipefishes ...

​Lovely frogfishes ...

And a lot of other stuff: cuttlefishes, cowries, stonefish ...

And our sweet little mascot ;)

​Happy faces on the boat!

​And under water ...

​For our pleasure, some nice shots of the outside surroundings ...

​And the breathtaking sunrises ...

​As well as the 2019 first sunset!

" Wonderful Burma diving trip on a lovely boat with lovely people for a couple of lovely days! " 

My Finnish is not that good but I can guess they were happy from the " Thank you" and as it was their second time ;)

" The Smiling Seahorse impresses again!"
Sofi is already missing you Jeff and can't wait to dive with you again very very soon! (Evil laugh!!!)

2018 has been a fantastic year with a new boat and some fantastic diving!
Bring it on 2019!
The whole team at  Smiling Seahorse wishes you a fantastic new year!

Incredible trip in Burma for Christmas! We must have been very good guys during the whole year ;)
The lucky ones were having a lot of fun under water as you can see on the picture above.
Welcome to: Aapo and Kaisa from Finland; Rainer from Germany; Ed from Netherlands; Yiwen and Hao from China; Jeff and Jordin from USA, and Phanom from Thailand.

​Starting with the big, we had mantas ...

And as if was not enough, we had an amazing surprise during a safety stop, looking below us and witnessing this huge one swimming peacefully, surrounded by his rainbow runner friends.

​The visibility was great and the currents brought huge schools of fishes everywhere.

From the first night dive, we had the pleasure to meet these cuties ...

​Spanish dancers had invaded the reefs ...

Among the beautiful surprises of this trip were the frogfishes!
​A giant one ...

​And a smally one ...

Plenty of ghost pipefishes trying to camouflage :)

All kind of nudis with unbelievable colors ...

Cowries ...

​It was also crabs fiesta down there!

Seahorses where there too, how can you not fall in love with this baby one!

And so many more amazing stuff have been found!
​
Marbled ray ...

​Spearing manti shrimp ...

​Turtle ...

Zanzibar shrimp, can you see it?

​Fimbriated moray eel ...

Spotted boxfish ... and so much more!

​The flora was astonishing too!

​On board, it was kind of a Christmassy atmosphere :)

​Smiles everywhere!

Delicious barbecue night for Christmas dinner ;)

The sunsets were splendid ...

​And the outdoors scenes always interesting ;)

" Where to start? Top team! Top organization! Top boat! Top food! And of course top dives!"

"Thank you  for two fantastic and fun trips. Taking my whale shark, eagle ray, manta ray and harlequin shrimp virginity was nice ;)"

Yes i know, you're gonna tell me that I should be more original but what a TRIP!
We have been literally spoiled from the Surin Islands to Richelieu Rock, via Koh Bon and Koh Tachai :)
There was no nice dives, only awesome ones!
Don't know where to start actually!

Let's introduce the people on board ... we were happy to welcome Jeppe and Will that were already with us on the previous Burmese cruise; Aurélie, Aurélien, Alena, Richard, Robert, Cameron, Yuki and Sophia.

The first day in the Surin Islands was peaceful and away from the crowds! A great visibility, flat water and funny currents. Lots of fishes, black and white tip sharks, an eagle ray, beautiful corals and nice drift dives. Ending a nice day with a quiet night dive in South Surin bay.

Second day, starting with a beautiful dive in Koh Bon Pinnacle. Full of fishes ;)
And then, in the middle, a huge eagle ray appears from the deep and plays around getting closer and closer.
It was already something ...

Second dive on the north ridge ... Mantas day!

​Not to forget, an enormous marbled ray on the ground!

What could be better after this ...
Maybe dolphins joining us for the ride :)

Last day and what a day ... It started not so well as we were not sure to be able to join the dive site due the weather conditions ...
But with our fantastic captain, no problem!
It was challenging at the surface and breathtaking underwater :)
The best way to describe it: a wonderful aquarium, alive and free!

Very interesting encounters there!
​Harlequin shrimps ...

​And ghost pipefishes !!!

Other nice ones along the way!

Special congratulations to Sophia with her thirteen years old, who dived like a pro!

​​And thanks to this great group for such a nice trip!

Still not fluent in German but I think that the hearts and smiles speak for themselves ;)!

​" The professionalism, the sympathy, the proximity, the happiness, the craziness, the kindness, the willing to help, etc ... from all the crew, made me feel super comfortable, confident, safe and very very very happy!!"

​"I really appreciated how much effort everyone put into ensuring we'd have a great time - which I certainly did!"

​"... loved the experience. Awesome food and company ... BBQ night was out of this world."

How lucky we were on this cruise! Our first whale shark of the season spent a whole dive with us ...
You can imagine that we were all in heaven ;) As part of the group this time: Jeppe from Denmark; Inès from Austria; Irune from Spain; Stefan and Jannik from Germany; William and Amanda from the US; Keri from UK and Dirk from Belgium.

The weather was nice and the challenging currents brought a lot of life.
Over the surface, the landscapes were as breathtaking as always.

From the first day, we have been lucky with sharks encountering a huge nurse one in our secret spot! Here are some amazing close shots of the beast :)

On top of our small and beloved bamboo sharks, we finally met the biggest and most peaceful one ...

We have also been spoiled with the spanish dancers on several night dives!

Another very good news, the harlequin shrimps are back !!!

​Ghost pipefishes starting to appear at every corner ;)

​The nudis were in the place too ...

As well was the extra small, so cute!

​More usual but still as beautiful!

Our favorite grumpy one ...

Cuttlefishes, turtle ...

Our mascots were also present ;)

One of the best things about diving in Burma is that underwater creatures aside, you already have a blast just with the incredible surroundings ... Astonishing corals ...

​Extraordinary patterns and colors ... Try to guess what it is ;)

With us, it's not only underwater, the fun is everywhere !!!
As you can see with these smiling faces!

​Fun outdoor activities!

Delicious food ... yummy !!!

A nice picture that reflects perfectly the cruise atmosphere ;)

This week was a special week for the Smiling Seahorse. We welcomed our first group of the season ! 
Directly arrived from Barcelona we were happy to have the Xaloc dive Centre on board for an awsome trip in Burma.

They spent 7 days with us all around the Mergui archipelago and we had a blast ! 

A usual day is always starting with an early morning dive. Our Spanish team met some beautiful creatures like those cute cuttlefishes. 

After a breakfast of champion and a small nap, let's get ready for the second dive of the day. All the groups were working together to find the small colourful worm called nudibranch. We always love to spot them !!

It's now time to have the lunch together. Our chef, Chewy is taking care of us with this fried rice, a Thai speciality. Even Sharky, our mascot love that.

Diving is exhausting and our spanish guest were enjoying their nap on the sundeck. The sofa looks confortable too ;)

Have a look on what we can find on the third dive !! These Ghost pipefish and Seahorses were hidden pretty well but our team have eagle eyes !

It's now time for our spanish team to enjoy the burmese sunset and ending the day with a beautiful night dive. Those spanish divers met the spanish dancer swimming around, What a show !! 

Finally after a good day of diving it's always time for drink with everybody. This night was our famous BBQ night and all our guest enjoyed it. Sharks was invited too !! ;)

Thank you to all the divers from the Xaloc Dive centre and we hope to see you again soon. 
​Hasta Pronto !

Yep, you read it right!

We saw a beautiful guitar fish in Surin Island on our last trip 1: Best of Thailand cruise.

It was a night dive and it passed on top of one dive group and next to the second one. We are so lucky!!!

Guitare fish in the Rhinobatis Genus, are a rare sight nowadays.

​Interesting facts about the Giant guitarfish:

In Latin, "Rhine" means "Shark" and "Batis" means "Ray",

Like Sharks:
- They have an elongated shark-shape and can reach 3 meters in lenght
- They swim with their shark-looking-dorsal-fin and tail rather than flipping their pectoral fins as most rays do.

Like Rays:
- they have Ray-like-wings and actually belong to the ray family.
- they are ovoviviparous (the embryo matures inside an egg inside the mother until it is ready to hatch and swim away).
- Their mouth is placed under their head and they feed on the seabed
- They like to burry themselves in the sand/ mud for camouflage

Unfortunately we couldn't get a good shot of this beauty so I'm sharing here a photo from the web, thank you Brian.