
Scuba Diving in Similan Thailand – Koh Bon is an Island about one to one and half hours north east of the Similan Islands.
Koh Bon Pinnacle
The Pinnacle is a hundred or so metres of the North West Corner of the Island. Not dived by many boats as it is very much and advanced level dive. The top of the pinnacle is at about 18 metres sloping down steeply to 40 metres on the North and 35 metres on the south.
The pinnacle is covered is primarily yellow soft coral, though there is a certain amount of variegation happening. There is plenty of small reef life to watch here but you’re really here for the big stuff. Huge groups of Giant Trevallies circle the rock and you’re often joined by the resident pair of Napoleon Wrasse but the real trick is to hover close to the top of the pinnacle and wait – Manta Rays and Eagle Rays are regularly spotted here.
Koh Bon West Ridge
This site is a submerged ridge sloping down to about 35 metres going west from the northern end of Koh Bon Bay. The start point of the dive is decided by the current. Starting in the bay you go straight to a coral garden on the sloping wall (12 – 20 metres), many Mantis Shrimp can be found here also look out for nudibrachs on the wall. If you start on the north side you’re on a rubble slop(10 – 25 metres) with large coral bommies and massive hard coral beds at around 22metres. Look here for huge Lion Fish and Trigger Fish as well as big groups of Bat Fish.
Either way you will head onto the ridge, careful not to go too deep as this will eat into your dive time. At around 22 metres there are two large areas of bare rock which is a good place to settle down to watch. Around the end of the ridge you’ll often see Blue Fin and Giant Trevallies, Pick Handle and Chevron Barracuda and if you’re lucky Manta Ray cruising along the ridge.
Thailand Liveaboards Fleet
MV Giamani
MV Giamani, owned and operated by Colona Liveaboards and a "Top Boat” in the Thailand Liveaboards Fleet. 10 Divers Only, First Class Service, Experienced Dive Guides, Excellent food and Accommodation in En-suite Cabins. NITROX available & Re-breather Divers (SCR & CCR) welcome.
MV Oktavia
MV Oktavia is a Thailand liveaboard where families are welcome to cruise, dive and simply enjoy the tropical and exotic island destinations. Swedish owned and operated MV Oktavia is a comfortable and affordable scuba diving boat. The diving staff and crew are friendly and helpful in making the cruise a most memorable one.
Deep Andaman Queen
Deep Andaman Queen is a well known Thailand liveaboard to cruise the Andaman Sea. A 28.5-meters long and 7-meters wide, twin-engine steel hull motor boat, with the highest safety standards on board. Andaman Queen Accommodates 21 divers in air conditioned en-suite cabins. Nitrox is available.
The Junk
The Junk or also called June Hong Chian Lee. Spend your Similan Islands liveaboard diving holiday, discovering the most fantastic dive sites around Similan & Surin Islands, Thailand. You will have a great time a on board this authentic Thailand Liveaboard which is a real sailing Junk with a long history.


Dive Similan Islands High light Christmas Point is certainly one of the most dramatic dive sites in the whole of the Similan Islands group. It is attached to island number 9, just west of the probably more famous North Point.
This dive site is completely submerged except for the top of a huge boulder breaking the surface, which then drops down to over 20 meters and beyond. Christmas Point is situated on the North West part of the island facing out into the Andaman Sea.
There are many huge boulders on this site creating fantastic and exciting swim through and the current here can be strong especially during strong tides, so it can also be a little testing for the novice diver.
The bottom is sandy, with very little coral growth, it is very similar to the dive sites on the west of the Similans, corals, and hard ones in particular, tend not to grow this side due to the huge granite boulders not a being great habitat for corals. There are some huge Gorgonian sea fans here and it is well worth a look around to see if there is any macro life on them.
The visibility can vary day to day, but on average, it will be around 20 meters. As you descend down, it soon becomes apparent how huge this site is and it is quite easy if you’re not careful, to easily exceed you’re maximum depth, the site drops down to 50 meters and beyond.
And it is this positioning that can attract the larger pelagic fish, as they come up from the deep; it is their first or last port of call before Koh Bon. Koh Bon is another excellent large pelagic viewing site, further north of the Similans.
Some of the pelagic fish you can see on Christmas point are the Great Barracuda; Giant Trevallies, Black Tip Reef Sharks and White Tips, plus Leopards Sharks too, also seen here are the massive Manta Rays, and on occasion, the elusive Whale shark.
But what makes this site so special is the variety of swim throughs created by the amazing granite boulders. If there is strong currents, the diver can hide among the swim through, in and out making tight turns along the way, it is such a fun site and is often overlooked by a lot of dive schools, so if you dive it as part of your live-aboard trip, it is likely that your group will be alone.
Other interesting critters to look out for on here are, Morays, we have seen Giant, Yellow Edged, White Eyed, Fimbriated and the most strangest of all, the Ribbon Eel. There are large schools of Bait fish and Glass fish here too, this Brings in the Blue Fin Trevallies and Yellow Mackerel’s, Dogtooth Tunas, Spanish Mackerels and Golden Trevallies rain down on these pour little fish regularly with extreme aggression.
Closer to the shallow part of the site, it is not uncommon to see Hawksbill Turtles, rooting around looking for a bite to eat. Also there is an abundance of smaller stuff Scorpion Fish lie in wait for their prey, as do their close cousins the Lionfish, watch were you put your hands. Nudibranchs, Sea Slugs, Cowrie Shells, Crabs, Spiny Lobsters lurking inside rock crevices, Blennies, Gobies, Fusiliers even Coral Banded Sea Snakes; but remember the big stuff won’t come and tap you on your shoulder to introduce themselves: look out into the blue too, you never know who might be just passing by.
Thailand Liveaboards Fleet
MV Giamani
MV Giamani, owned and operated by Colona Liveaboards and a "Top Boat” in the Thailand Liveaboards Fleet. 10 Divers Only, First Class Service, Experienced Dive Guides, Excellent food and Accommodation in En-suite Cabins. NITROX available & Re-breather Divers (SCR & CCR) welcome.
MV Oktavia
MV Oktavia is a Thailand liveaboard where families are welcome to cruise, dive and simply enjoy the tropical and exotic island destinations. Swedish owned and operated MV Oktavia is a comfortable and affordable scuba diving boat. The diving staff and crew are friendly and helpful in making the cruise a most memorable one.
Deep Andaman Queen
Deep Andaman Queen is a well known Thailand liveaboard to cruise the Andaman Sea. A 28.5-meters long and 7-meters wide, twin-engine steel hull motor boat, with the highest safety standards on board. Andaman Queen Accommodates 21 divers in air conditioned en-suite cabins. Nitrox is available.
The Junk
The Junk or also called June Hong Chian Lee. Spend your Similan Islands liveaboard diving holiday, discovering the most fantastic dive sites around Similan & Surin Islands, Thailand. You will have a great time a on board this authentic Thailand Liveaboard which is a real sailing Junk with a long history.


Diving in Similan Islands – Breakfast Bend skirts the entire eastern side of Similan Island No. 9 (Koh Bangu) though the northern half of the dive site is often called Three Trees or Bat Fish Bend. This is another classic example of how the scuba dive sites were named in the early years of Similan Islands. It was first dived at breakfast time, it’s a bend around the side of the island, hey presto there’s the name.
The actual reef is made of of a sandy slope starting at about 10 metres of depth and going down to 25 metres covered in rocky outcrops and coral bommies. Large patches of Stag horn coral are broken up by patches of colourful soft coral – blue, yellow, pink and purple. At the southern end of the dive site, search the reef and look for Garden Eels and Stingrays on the sandy bottom.
At the northern end watch for the resident Turtles feeding on corals and sea grass. As well as the normal reef fish this site has schools of snapper, fussillier and the small Forster’s Barracuda
More Similan Diving Sites
Thailand Liveaboards Fleet
MV Giamani
MV Giamani, owned and operated by Colona Liveaboards and a "Top Boat” in the Thailand Liveaboards Fleet. 10 Divers Only, First Class Service, Experienced Dive Guides, Excellent food and Accommodation in En-suite Cabins. NITROX available & Re-breather Divers (SCR & CCR) welcome.
MV Oktavia
MV Oktavia is a Thailand liveaboard where families are welcome to cruise, dive and simply enjoy the tropical and exotic island destinations. Swedish owned and operated MV Oktavia is a comfortable and affordable scuba diving boat. The diving staff and crew are friendly and helpful in making the cruise a most memorable one.
Deep Andaman Queen
Deep Andaman Queen is a well known Thailand liveaboard to cruise the Andaman Sea. A 28.5-meters long and 7-meters wide, twin-engine steel hull motor boat, with the highest safety standards on board. Andaman Queen Accommodates 21 divers in air conditioned en-suite cabins. Nitrox is available.
The Junk
The Junk or also called June Hong Chian Lee. Spend your Similan Islands liveaboard diving holiday, discovering the most fantastic dive sites around Similan & Surin Islands, Thailand. You will have a great time a on board this authentic Thailand Liveaboard which is a real sailing Junk with a long history.


Similan Scuba Diving Site – Shark Fin Reef is a long granite ridge extending south and east from Similan Island #3 (Koh Payan). This is as close as we get to the Turtle Sanctuary on Islands 1 & 2 (Koh Huyong & Koh Payang). Towards the center of the ridge the rock breaks the surface in a series of peaks looking like a shark – hence the name. In Thai this site is known as “Hin Phae” which means floating rock.
You will normally start the dive on the southern side of the ridge which is a steep slope drop into the sand at about 25 meters, beside the slope are a number of large boulders which provide hiding places for Moray Eels, Lion Fish and Scorpion Fish also the sandy patches between the boulders are a good place to find Khul’s Stingrays and Leopard Sharks (please do not get too close to these sharks as you will spook them and the rest of your group will miss out).
Normally, current permitting you will head north west along the ridge climbing to about 12 meters where there is a plateau with a number of rocks and coral bommies.
Both Napoleon Wrasse and Hump Head Parrot Fish can be seen here, also keep an eye out for a Banded Sea Krait or a Hawksbill Turtle. As you pass the last of the surfacing peaks the top of the rock is at about 12 meters, sit here for a few minutes watching the shoals of fish, marauding group of parrot fish ripping into the coral and fusiliers and snappers hiding from the current, look out also for Tuna coming in for a feed.Now you turn back but cross to the North side of the ridge stay at between 12 and 18 meters, here there are a number of Channels and swim through’s often full of fish hiding from current sand predators.


This Similan Islands Diving site is on the west side of Similan #7 (Koh Payu). It’s name has two possible sources,on the east side of this island is a dive site (currently closed by the National Park) called East of Eden (which was named as the beautiful coral reef was compared to the Garden of Eden and the line from Milton’s Paradise Lost which became the title of a Steinbeck novel stated that the garden was planted in the East of Eden), the dive site on the west named much later and so if the east coast site is East of Eden the west coast site must be West of Eden.
The other stories that it was originally named by the first divers here West of Sweden (guess where the divers came from), geographically this is incorrect – but funny, then over the years west of Sweden became west of Eden due in some part to the sister site on the east coast of the island. The southern part of the dive site is known by many as squeaky rock due to one of the large granite boulders that breaks the surface moving due to tidal motion and makes an eerie creaking noise.
The dive site itself is two contrasting areas. The southern area stretching from the mooring to the southern tip of the island is a hard coral garden at between 8 and 12 metres. This garden is teeming with reef fish, Bat Fish close to the mooring, group of brown Parrot Fish constantly feeding, Moorish Idols and Banner Fish patrolling the reef and Trumpet fish hunting.
Head north and west from the mooring and you reach some massive boulders, there is some beautiful soft corals and sea fans around the base of these rocks between 20 and 30 metres,on top of these boulders are coral gardens made up of hard, soft and leather corals. Between the boulder are a number of channels where you have a chance of seeing mantis shrimp, nudibranchs and shrimp. Follow the rocks out into the deep to find a whip coral garden at 29metres, here you often see Ribbon Eels and Frog Fish.
One thing to be aware of on this site is Thermoclines, though the average water temperature is 28-30°C thermoclines as cold as 14°C have been encountered. This is believed to be the reason why the shallow corals are healthier here than else where as they have kept the water temperature down in the summer months.


Elephant Head is a must for all Similan Diving Safaris. The dive site name that makes you wonder exactly what gas blend the divers were breathing when they named this sites in the Similan Islands.
It was named for the part of the site which breaks the surface, a series of rocks, when viewed from the northern side, these rock resemble, it was said, the head of an elephant as it is swimming (not the entire elephant as many books web sites and even dive guides will tell you). The most western rock is said to be the top of the head, as if the eyes are just below the waterline, the eastern rock is said to be the trunk looping out and back into the water and the central rock is the tip of the trunk breaking the surface.
This dive site is very much a boulder rather than a coral or fish dive, though there are plenty of both they are outweighed by the sheer majesty of the granite boulder formations which create many swim throughs, channels and valleys. Much of the dive site is at around 26 metres before coming up to the top of some of the smaller rocks at 12 metres and then onto the slope of the main ‘head’ rock which has a long horizontal crevice at 7 metres full of fish. On the deepest swim through at about 29 metres there’s often a White Tip Reef Shark resting and sometimes Leopard sharks.
Similan Diving Safaris that visit Elephant Head Rock
- MV Giamani
- SY Diva Andaman
- MV Pawara


Dive Similan at Donal Duck Bay, located on the northern side of Similan Islands #8 is named after the highest boulder on the ridge making the east side of the bay which looks, from the right angle like a shoe. The English named is derived from a large boulder just below which when viewed from side on looks just like a cartoon duck’s head (though whether it’s Donald or Daffy is always a talking point).
This bay is a common site for night dives in the Similan Islands as it gives a safe anchorage for sleeping and gives access to the beach. Just behind the beach is a tent village for tourists as well as a restaurant and National Parks office. There is a hiking trail leading up to a viewpoint underneath the ‘shoe’ rock.
The dive site itself is fairly shallow (7 – 15 meters). The prime area of interest is the rocky ridge coming off the island forming a barrier on the north side of the bay. These rocks are home to Painted Spiny Lobster, Slipper Lobster, Sponge Cutter Crabs and Decorator Crabs as well as the more common Big Red Crab and various species of cleaner shrimp. It’s quite common to see a Giant Moray out hunting – they may even follow you to use your light. The sandy area can offer up surprises – hermit crabs, flounder and even Khul’s Stingrays.


Koh Tachai Pinnacle also known as Twin Peaks ( because there are in fact two pinnacles) this site is so good you could dive it twice as we often do. Its located south of Koh Tachai Island, which is part of the Similan Islands National Park.
As said above this site is two pinnacle, the main focus of the dive is the first, shallower pinnacle starting at about 12 meters, meeting the sand at about 20 metres and continuing down to about 25 metres. This is basically one huge rock with some smaller rocks on it and then it is ringed by a mix of small and large boulders. The majority of the coral is around the north end of the pinnacle and in a number of bommies on the center of the main rock. This site is absolutely covered in macro life, nudibranchs, Ghost Pipe Fish, Coral Crabs. Snails and shrimp, but keep your eyes peeled Giant Barracuda and Trevally are regular visitors as well as the occasional Manta Ray and Whale Shark.
The second pinnacle is much deeper with the top being at 18 meters, in the area you have probably you’re best chance of seeing Leopard Sharks, also octopus and turtles are often seen here.
Koh Tachai Reef
There are in fact three reefs on Koh Tachai, weather conditions permitting we will normally dive on the north eastern reef (starting from the north end of the beach to the Northern tip of the island), however if there are strong winds we will hide from them either on the south eastern reef (from the southern tip to the headland south of the beach) or the western reef (from the headland between the two small bays to the northern tip). However the conditions on the three dive sites are very similar. The reefs are made up of coral blocks and bommies scattered over gently sloping sand until you get close to the northern tip where there are enormous boulders similar to those which make up the pinnacle to the south, the maximum depth on these reefs is about 20 meters. If you are very lucky you will encounter Leopard Sharks or Black Tip Reef Sharks, certainly in the sandy patches there is a good chance of seeing blue spotted Kuhl’s Stingrays. The reef itself is populated by all types of reef fish, Damsels, Parrot Fish, Red Tooth Trigger Fish, Snappers and Wrasse just to name a few. In the shallow areas look in the sandy patches for Peacock Flounder and the juvenile Razor Wrasse.
A note of caution this dive site is often subjected to strong currents, so listen to your dive guides instructions and stay calm, there are plenty of places to hide from the current during the dive.


This Similan diving site is on the north tip of Similan Islands #7, again the name needs explaining. When the Islands were first given numbers islands five and six were considered one island so what is now island seven was island six, Hin Pusar (Elephant Head Rock) was at the time Koh Pusa and numbered as island seven, however a law was introduced in Thailand stating that and island had to have vegetation growing on it, this meant island seven was no longer an island. This caused a problem as Similan (in old Thai/Malay) means nine islands, so they had to find another island hence island five (the centre of which is submerged at high tide) was split into five and six and six was renumbered seven – however it was too late, the dive site had already been named.
The site itself is a pinnacle just a few metres off the northern tip of the island, a small part of the pinnacle breaks the surface, the base of the pinnacle on the northern end is at 30 metres sloping down from 12 metres at the south end. The central part of the dive site a huge boulder with other smaller but still very large boulders on top creating a number of swim throughs. More boulders around the central pinnacle create a series of channels which create homes for various corals (especially Green Tree Coral) and critters (Moray Eels, Lion Fish and Scorpion Fish). It is possible to see White-Tip reef Sharks, Travellies and Tuna coming into the rocks to hunt as they are a magnet to schooling fish.
The current will decide the route you take towards the end of the dive, heading south west you come into a sloping hard coral reef and then onto more boulders as you head onto West of Eden. Heading south east you have a terraced stag horn coral reef leading into a sandy bay. On the reefs you’ll find many small reef fish such as Neons and Chromies and there’s a good chance of finding Peacock Flounder in the sand.


This Similan Diving Sites is a popular dive spot for Thailand liveaboard cruises. Located on the east side of Similan Island No. 5 & 6 (Koh Ha & Koh Hok), stretching to the southern tip of Island 5.
This reef consists of a gently sloping sandy ridge starting at about 5 metres going to about 30 metres out in the blue. This sandy slope is dotted with coral and rock patches all the way down the eastern side of the dive site, the coral is a mixture of hard and soft varieties with some large sea fans. These coral patches are home to many small reef fish such as Damsels, Anemone fish, Angel and Butterfly fish, these in turn attract large schoals of Gold Stripe Fussilier and Five Line Snapper. Large groups of Forsters Barracuda are often seen here as well as small Tunas and Trevallies. Also look out for Octopus hiding in holes in the coral.
Between the coral patches the bare sandy slope is alive with Garden Eels, also keep an eye out for Bent Stick Pipe Fish and the blue spotted Kuhl’s Stingray in the sand.
Towards the southern end of the dive site is a large coral mound rising from 20 metres up to 12 metres. This pinnacle is covered in life, clouds of fish and loads of macro critters such as Nudibranchs, Durban Dancing Shrimp, Banded Boxer Shrimp and Coral Crabs. Because of this the bommie has been named “Hin Muan Deaw” which translated is “whole roll rock” (as in roll of film – in the old days that’s what we used to take picture, perhaps is should be renamed 16 gigabyte rock!!).
To the south of Hin Muan Deaw the sandy reef finishes in a group of enormous boulders which are home to many types of Moray Eel and Napoleon Wrasse, there is often a turtle or two in this area.
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