An undiscovered paradise in the Indian Ocean, the Mergui Archipelago is the home of 800 islands surrounded by immaculate reefs and pinnacles bustling with life. Along with the abundance of gorgeous scenery and impressive marine life, one of the reasons we love this area so much is its air of exclusivity. Particularly appealing for a photographer, our boat rarely crosses paths with another while we cruise the crystal-clear seas, and being alone on the dive sites makes it so you will never get an unwanted photobomber finning through your frame.
As your research has concluded, the best way to reach these coveted dive spots far from the clutches of civilization is on a liveaboard dive cruise with The Smiling Seahorse. Now that you’ve made the decision to embark on a magnificent adventure with us, you need to think about how to best prepare yourself.
Western Rocky is one of Burma’s most southern dive sites 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.
This is a well-known area where whale sharks can randomly be sighted; we had the extraordinary encounter of a Bowmouth Guitar fish there too, as well as the occasional bull shark. Harlequin shrimp, frogfish, and seahorses are not rare but always well hidden, while the anemone-lined cavity is full of critters like shrimps, nudibranchs, and crabs of all sorts.
The four islets off shore are worth a dive on their own, their walls blanketed with clams and colorful sponges and busy with big reef squid and chevron barracuda.
The highlights are either a breathtaking sunset dive for the schooling fish action or the night dive for its teeming reef with all the nocturnal critters.
The islet of Black Rock is a small rock in the middle of Myanmar’s ocean. The isolation of the Rock makes it a real fish magnet with its own ecosystem attracting all sorts of life from the smallest shrimps to the largest fish in the ocean, characterized by rugged boulder formations and fine soft coral.
For an idea of its splendor, Andrea Marshall, the Queen of Mantas, has said she had the best dive of her life at Black Rock, and the conservation initiative Ray of Hope Expeditions has recorded 52 individual mantas over only 3 days of the yearly mating gathering in March.
The south side of the rock features a 40m vertical wall where the north side’s gentle slope descends to 25m. This difference in topography affects water movement and allows you to choose from a more exposed dive in the current to the south or to relax in the shelter of the north depending on where the current comes from.
A shallow section of tube corals is home to a bevy of miniature sea creatures, where sea urchins bask and busy crabs and shrimps clatter about their business.
Many consider Black Rock to be the finest dive spot in Burma. Its crystal-clear waters offer 35-meter visibility, providing breathtaking views past the rock walls to the ongoing procession of barracuda, tuna, mackerel, rays, reef sharks, whale sharks and eagle rays.
Shark Cave used to be the regular home to a group of nurse sharks, hence its name.
Now as much as the cave remains, it is more of a challenging, colorful path through the rock.
Take the time to look around, you will also see a floor covered in yellow sponges, a ceiling of marigold cup corals, and a whole host of marine delights…
Don’t be fooled by tiny Square Rock, as this site is exceptionally rich in marine life, particularly famous for its seahorse population.
Likewise, when you jump into the water at Submarine, you will find yourself in a fish-nado. We are sure that you’ll agree that this is one of the fishiest places you’ve ever been.
The area is a popular place to spot ghost pipefish and seahorses, but you can also see harlequin shrimp, pineapple fish, marble rays, bamboo sharks and whale sharks.
The limestone formations proudly display their wonders between 50 and 8 m depth.
and are home to many creatures, including giant frogfish, stonefish, seahorses, and nudibranchs and more.
There is also a lovely sandy area bordered by purple soft coral that is a popular spot to see MacCosker’s flashing wrasse.
We have seen whale sharks regularly on Seafan Forest last season, and in particular, groups of adolescents (up to 4 at a time). One was particularly curious about us and our boat and kept circling around, which gave an opportunity for great pictures.
North and South Twin are sister islands crafted by nature out of granite. This creates a fairly unique seascape, as most of the Mergui Archipelago is rich in limestone.
The sea has battered these rocks over time to carve out impressive boulder formations both above and below the surface. This creates beautiful swim-throughs and thriving valleys full of soft corals and sea fans.
Several miles off shore, North Twin is a Burma dive site that offers a unique dive experience within the archipelago, typified by large granite boulders covered in gorgonian sea fans and soft corals. This is the place to spot schools of goatfish, batfish, and snapper in the shallow waters and a popular manta cleaning station at around 22 meters, giving way to yellow-tailed barracudas, big-eye trevally, tuna and eagle rays appearing from the deep blue depths.
When you reach the Burma Banks, there won’t be another boat or piece of land.
As far as the eye can see. The fact that it’s so far off and exposed does make it so currents are no longer tidal but oceanic, which makes them rather unpredictable here.
But this creates the perfect conditions for encounters with massive pelagic animals and schools of thousands of fish.
The Burma Banks are a collection of underwater mountains with sloping sand dune-like sides covered with massive bommies and barrel sponges.
Sitting roughly 100 nautical miles (180 km) west of Kawthaung, the Burma banks are enormous.
The visibility is often close to 40 m, and being so exposed, there are often strong currents, making it a great spot to experience drift dives.
This is known as a nursery ground for nurse sharks and other rarer kinds of sharks and rays.
coming up from the depths.
Beside the sharks, the Burma banks are also home to beautiful
tropical creatures such as the honeycomb moray eel and the clown triggerfish and
the leopard blenny, which is seldom encountered in the rest of the Mergui Archipelago.
One of the closest dive sites to Ranong, High Rock, and neighboring sites hide treasures that will set the tone for the rest of the trip: caves, coral, sharks, and a very special “Spanish Garden” where we find Spanish Dancers and rare crab species on most night dives.
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 it’s the only diving destination of this quality where you can be alone on every dive site…
Western Rocky is one of Burma’s most southern dive sites 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.
This is a well known area where whale shark can randomly be sighted, we had the extraordinary encounter of a Bowmouth Guitar fish there too as well as the occasional bull shark. Harlequin shrimp, frogfish and seahorse, are not rare but always well hidden while the anemone-lined cavity is full of critters like shrimps, nudibranchs and crabs of all sorts.
The four islets off shore are worth a dive on their own, their walls blanketed with clams and colorful sponges, and busy with big reef squid and chevron barracuda.
The highlights are either a breathtaking sunset dive for the schooling fish action or the night dive for its teeming reef with all the nocturnal critters.
Type of Dive: wall dive, cave dive, coral garden
Depth: 5 – 35 meters
Visibility: 15 – 25 meters
Marine Life: +++
Difficulty: Intermediate
Lens Recommendation:
Day: Wide-angle
Night: Macro
All our Myanmar dive cruises pass by Western Rocky…
The islet of Black Rock is a small rock in the middle of Myanmar’s ocean. The isolation of the Rock makes it a real fish magnet with its own ecosystem attracting all sort of life from the smallest shrimps to the largest fish in the ocean, characterized by rugged boulder formations and fine soft coral.
For an idea of its splendor, Andrea Marshall, the Queen of Mantas, has said she had the best dive of her life at Black Rock and the conservation initiative Ray of Hope Expeditions has recorded 52 individual mantas over only 3 days of the yearly mating gathering in March.
The south side of the rock features a 40m vertical wall where the north side’s gentle slope descends to 25m. This difference in topography affects water movement and allows you to choose from a more exposed dive in the current to the south or to relax in the shelter of the north depending on where the current comes from.
A shallow section of tube corals is home to a bevy of miniature sea creatures, where sea urchins bask and busy crabs and shrimps clatter about their business.
Many consider Black Rock to be the finest dive spot in Burma. Its crystal clear waters offer 35-meter visibility, providing breath-taking views past the rock walls to the on-going procession of barracuda, tuna, mackerel, rays, reef sharks, whale sharks and eagle rays.
Type of Dive: wall dive, cave dive, coral garden
Depth: 5 – 35 meters
Visibility: 15 – 30 meters
Marine Life: +++ for Mantas
Difficulty: Intermediate / Advanced
Lens Recommendation: any lens for any dive.
We only go to Black Rock during our 7D6N cruise, 8D7N cruise, 9D8N cruise, very popular Myanmar cruises.
Shark Cave used to be the regular home to a group of nurse sharks, hence its name.
Now as much as the cave remains, it is more of a challenging, colorful path through the rock.
Take the time to look around, you will also see a floor covered in yellow sponges, a ceiling of marigold cup corals, and a whole host of marine delights…
Don’t be fooled by tiny Square Rock, as this site is exceptionally rich in marine life, particularly famous for its seahorse population.
Likewise, when you jump into the water at Submarine, you will find yourself in a fish-nado. We are sure that you’ll agree that this is one of the fishiest places you’ve ever been.
The area is a popular place to spot ghost pipefish and seahorses, but you can also see harlequin shrimp, pineapple fish, marble rays, bamboo sharks and whale sharks.
Type of Dive: wall dive, cave dive, coral garden
Depth: 5 – 25 meters
Visibility: 15 – 30 meters
Marine Life: +++ for Macro, seahorses guaranteed
Difficulty: Intermediate / Advanced
Lens Recommendation:
Day: Macro lens
Night: Macro or wide-angle lens
The limestone formations proudly display their wonders between 50 and 8 m depth
and are home to many creatures including giant frogfish, stonefish, seahorses, nudibranchs
and more. There is also a lovely sandy area bordered by purple soft coral that is a popular spot to see MacCosker’s flashing wrasse.
We have seen whale sharks regularly on Seafan Forest last season and in particular, groups of adolescents (up to 4 at a time). One was particularly curious about us and
our boat and kept circling around, which gave an opportunity for great pictures.
Type of Dive: wall dive, cave dive, coral garden
Depth: 5 – 40 meters
Visibility: 10 – 30 meters
Marine Life: +++ for schools of fish
Difficulty: Intermediate / Advanced
Lens Recommendation: any lens for any dive
North and South Twin are sister islands crafted by nature out of granite.
This creates a fairly unique seascape, as most of the Mergui Archipelago is rich in limestone.
The sea has battered these rocks over time to carve out impressive boulder formations both above and below the surface. This creates beautiful swim-throughs and thriving valleys full of soft corals and sea fans.
Several miles off shore, North Twin is a Burma dive site that offers a unique dive experience within the archipelago, typified by large granite boulders covered in gorgonian sea fans and soft corals. This is the place to spot schools of goatfish, batfish, and snapper in the shallow waters and a popular manta cleaning station at around 22 meters, giving way to yellow tail barracudas, big eye trevally, tuna and eagle rays appearing from the deep blue depths.
Type of Dive: wall dive, cave dive, coral garden
Depth: 5 – 30 meters
Visibility: 15 – 30 meters
Marine Life: +++ for pelagic
Difficulty: Intermediate / Advanced
Lens Recommendation:
Day: wide-angle
Night: macro or super-macro lens
When you reach the Burma Banks there won’t be another boat or piece of land.
As far as the eye can see. The fact that it’s so far off and exposed does make it so currents are no longer tidal but oceanic, which makes them rather unpredictable here.
But this creates the perfect conditions for encounters with massive pelagic animals and schools of thousands of fish.
The Burma Banks are a collection of underwater mountains with sloping sand dune-like sides covered with massive bommies and barrel sponges.
Sitting roughly 100 nautical miles (180 km) west of Kawthaung, the Burma banks are enormous.
The visibility is often close to 40m and being so exposed, there are often strong currents making it a great spot to experience drift dives.
This is known as a nursery ground for nurse sharks and other rarer kinds of sharks and rays.
coming up from the depths.
Beside the sharks, the Burma banks are also home to beautiful
tropical creatures such as the honeycomb moray eel and the clown triggerfish and
the leopard blenny, which is seldom encountered in the rest of Mergui Archipelago.
Type of Dive: wall dive, cave dive, coral garden
Depth: 20 – 35 meters
Visibility: 15 – 30 meters
Marine Life: +++ for sharks
Difficulty: Intermediate / Advanced
Lens Recommendation: Wide-angle
One of the closest dive sites to Ranong, High Rock and neighboring sites hide treasures that will set the tone for the rest of the trip: caves, coral, sharks, and a very special
“Spanish Garden” where we find Spanish Dancers and rare crab species on most night dives.
Not sure about Myanmar yet? Read more about diving in Burma
Explore the Surin Islands, Richelieu Rock and the Similan Islands.
Prices in Thai baht (THB), per diver. The 10% discount is already applied.
