Tag: Southern Islands

Hin Muang Dive Site Information – Hin Muang is situated seventy miles south east of Phuket and is many local Divemaster’s and instructors favorite dive site.  On its day, it is quite simply unbeatable, breath taking in fact. The south side is a vertical drop off, impressively deep and the east side is more gradual slope.

• Max depth: 70m
• Level of difficulty: Open water upwards.
• Visibility: 20 – 30m
• Current: Weak to strong.
• An absolute must dive.

The first pinnacle lies approximately 8 meters from the surface and drops down to 70 meters. Many divers have seen their first Manta Ray and or Whale Shark here, as these magnificent creatures are attracted by the deep drop-offs and plankton rich waters.

There is an abundance of soft corals, reds and particularly purples and this is where Hin Muang gets it name: Purple Rock in English, a beautiful site to see. The main feature, being the two large pinnacles you will find yourself diving in a figure of 8 as you admire the wonders around.

Again, this is a large dive site, over 200 meters in length and it’s very deep too, easy to go deeper than you planned for, so monitoring air and depth frequently is recommended.

Hin Muang is a completely submerged ridge, it is connected to Hin Deang, but it would take a foolhardy diver who would attempt this 500 meter swim, at over 70 meters depth, without a fully operational nuclear submarine.

Again, here as on its sister site, there is loads of predatory action here, huge Rainbow Runners hunting beside Giant Trevally. The attacks on the small bait fish can be relentless. Other fish life in the area: Schools of Squid, Large Red Octopus scampering across the reefs, Black Fin Barracuda and Yellow Tail barracuda too.

The amount of macro life here will have the photographer drooling, Pipefish, Blennies, Gobies all hiding among the small cracks and crevices of the rock.  Searching around the huge Gorgonian Sea fans will also yield a fantastic wealth of macro life.

The only downside to this site is there is never enough time to see it all, so at least two dives are needed here. As the minimum depth is 8 meters, it is quite a deep site to tackle and the currents can be strong creating excellent drift diving.

Hin Daeng Diving Paradise – A few hundred meters south of Hin Muang, you will find Hin Deang. Hin Deang is a pinnacle of limestone that breaks the surface by just a meter or two, depending on tides of course.

• Max depth: 60m
• Level of difficulty:  Open water upwards.
• Visibility:  20 40 meters
• Current:  None – strong.
• Season: October to June
• An absolute must dive!

This dive site rivals its neighbor, in fact there really is no separating either site, apart from the landscape differing slightly, both sites teem with life and both make for amazing diving.

On one side there is an almost vertical wall with Gorgonian Sea Fans and soft red corals, as you swim mid water with the bottom sloping off into the deep, keep your eyes peeled for large pelagic fish that cruise these waters very frequently.

Another special feature here is the huge boulders that form swim throughs. There is also a valley that splits from part of the main island; it’s worth exploring this area too. The shallow side is around 15 meters, and then on the other side, it drops down quite deep.

Here you can find Red Tooth Trigger Fish and also Clown Trigger Fish favoring this area too. There is a mooring line which divers use to descend and ascend and usually there to greet them are the resident Bat Fish. These fascinating fish are very curios and seem to come very close to see especially if the diver rubs their fingers together.

Venturing further around the reef, it is quite visible how quickly it drops of into depth of blue; regular depth surveillance is recommended.  The large pelagic fish are a common sighting in this particular part and this great spot to observe them, as they swoop in and gobble up any plankton that is in the area.

The whole rock is covered in absolutely stunning red soft corals, hence its name Hin Deang (Red Rock). The area attracts very small glass fish and bait fish, this attracts the more active Jacks and Trevally’s that come here to hunt and to terrorize the smaller fish.

If it’s possible, find a nice quite area, buoyancy permitting, and observe the show. It is fantastic. Better than any wildlife TV program. There is a huge school of Pickhandle Barracuda, also lone-wolf Great Barracuda’s, as they go lurking and quietly follow the diver, curious as to what the bubble blower is doing.

There is a huge variety of Moray Eels down there, including Honeycomb and Zebra morays, which are rarely seen elsewhere. Snake Eels have also been seen scuttling around the bottom. In fact the variety of macro life at Hin Daeng is unique to the area. Several species can only be found here.

The Harlequin box shrimp are not always easy to see, it takes a shrewd diver to realize that any four legged starfish may have been recent victims to these little critters.

Koh Haa Islands Group – The Thai name for this site is from the name of the island group Koh Haa (literally five islands) and this is the largest (Yai – big or large). The English names comes from the two huge open caves which make up the main part of this site.

Koh Haa Yai (The Cathedral)

You’ll begin this dive on the sloping island wall up current from the caves and spend a bit of time on the hard corals here before going onto the rock plateau in front of the caves at about 14 meters. There area couple of swim throughs here just in front of the caves. Of the two large caves the eastern one is the deepest going about 15 meters in, at the back of this cave is the entrance to a narrow cave system – this should be left to properly trained and equipped cave divers!

The western of the cave is much smaller only going around 4 meters into the island, however both caves are about 10 meters wide and reaching up to the surface at low tide. There is a hole at about five meters joining the two caves. To the west of these caves is a third cave with a much lower roof and a soft sandy floor which is easily stirred up.

Koh Haa Nua (The Chimney)

This is the most northern of this group of islands, hence the Thai name. The chimney is the prime focus of this dive, it goes from a cleft in the base of the island at 14 meters almost vertically up to 5 meters where it opens as a hole in the hard coral reef, the chimney branches at 8 meters and leads into a cave with two other openings to the see. Before you come to the chimney you’ll spend some time on the sloping hard coral reef which is covered in anemones – most with clown fish (these have been placed here as part of a university project). In front of the chimney entrance is a large rock with a swim through. On the sand south of this rock is a lush soft coral garden, some of these corals are over a meter tall.