JenM
Contributor
TEERLKAY:
We just got back from Thailand. Unfortunately, we had hideous visibility for the entire 10+ days that we were diving - sometimes just 5-10 ft vis, sometimes 20-30 ft, but never any better than that except for the day that we went to the Burma Banks (visited 3 different banks and had vis ranging from 50-100 ft). It got to be quite a joke - our divemaster would give the briefing and say "good chance of schooling fish on this site", the only problem was that if they were more than 20 ft. away, we never saw them. We have no idea whether there were any mantas in the water, they would have had to have swam right over our heads for us to have noticed them. Honestly, I've had better vis in Monterey, CA in the kelp forests than on this trip. We knew that vis in Burma wouldn't be great, but we were very disappointed that the Similans and Hin Daeng/Hin Muang also had awful vis.
Other than that, we had a great time - after all, how bad can it be when you are diving in warm tropical waters? From what little I could see of the various sites, I think they'd be gorgeous in the 100 ft vis that is SUPPOSED to be the norm in that area. As for Hin Daeng/Hin Muang, I highly recommend it but quite honestly, it is a looooonnnng haul out from land so it is best done on a liveaboard. I think Hin Daeng is as good, if not better than any comparable site in the Similans and if you go on a liveaboard, you'll do 4 dives there (2 on Hin Daeng, 2 on Hin Muang), whereas if you only come out for the day, you'll only do 2 dives there and that's really far to go for just 2 dives.
A few comments on the liveaboards we used. For the Hin Daeng trip, we were on the Mermaid II for a 3 night trip. The boat had a great crew, but it also had roaches (lots of them - they were supposedly going to spray the boat after our trip) and, more importantly, it was topheavy and not stable. I normally never get any kind of motion sickness, but even I (along with everyone else on the boat) got seasick on our trip back from Hin Daeng and although the seas were rough, they didn't seem so bad that the boat should have been that unstable. So, if you take this boat, pray for calm seas but if not, be prepared with bonine, dramamine, scopalamine, etc. I'm actually not knocking the Mermaid. As I mentioned, they had a great crew, a well-laid out dive deck, decent food, and for the price, I think it is a good value.
For the Burma/Similans trip, we took the Ocean Rover - amazing boat, amazing crew, and so stable, we hardly knew that we were on the water. After the Mermaid, we were dreading getting right back on another boat that same day, especially since we knew the seas hadn't calmed down any. However, as soon as we got on the OR, the difference in quality was quite obvious. Of course, you pay significantly more for the comfort. Diving in Burma is different than the Similans. Vis is always lower because of more plankton in the water so you get more critters/creatures/filter feeders along with alot of fish on the regular rocky reef sites, but then on the Burma Banks (huge, underwater mountains that rise up to a depth of about 50fsw) you get great vis and more sharks. We saw a total of 12 sharks on the day we dove there, so that was really fun. I can just imagine how many there were a few years ago, before they started being fished out.
All in all, we had a very good and enjoyable trip. We are just sad that we didn't get a chance to see the Similans/Surins/Hin Daeng at their best.
