Route Description - Southern Explorer
Join The Junk on these epic itineraries exploring the very best diving that Southern Thailand has to offer, taking in the highlights of Hin Daeng, Hin Muang, Koh Haa, Koh Phi Phi, King Cruiser and more!
Koh Haa
Possibly some of the most underrated diving in the whole of Thailand, Moo Koh Haa ‘five island group’ sits almost halfway between Hin Daeng and Phi Phi and is part of the Koh Lanta National Marine Park. There are actually several dive sites around Ko Haa but the highlights are Ko Haa Lagoon, Ko Haa Neua, and Ko Haa Yai.
Around these amazing islands you can see pinnacles, walls, boulders, caverns, and swim-throughs. Ko Haa lagoon is ideal for night dives, courses, and snorkeling, while The Chimney and The Cathedral offer things that you cannot see on other Thailand liveaboard itineraries with caverns, swim-throughs and chambers all over the sites. Ko Haa has varied marine life too, with ornate ghost pipefish, morays eels, octopus, hawksbill turtles, sea horses, marble rays, and sometimes even leopard sharks.
Hin Daeng and Hin Muang
These two sites are pinnacles (translating directly as Red Rock and Purple Rock) in the open ocean, reaching down to over 70m, and are best known for manta ray and whale shark encounters. Whether these are sighted or not, the sites also offer giant moray eels, pharaoh cuttlefish, schooling rainbow runners and snappers, barracudas, groupers, fusiliers, and bluefin trevally. On the pinnacles, there are fields of Magnificent Anemones, walls of Hemprics soft corals, and huge gorgonian sea fans. Almost perpetual good visibility and dramatic topography combined with huge fish numbers makes for excellent liveaboard diving.
Koh Phi Phi
Laying in Phang-Nga bay about 45km east of Phuket and 30km southwest of Krabi, two breathtaking limestone islands make up the greater part of Moo Koh Phi Phi; the largest island of Phi Phi Don being a few kilometres north of Phi Phi Lae. Limestone cliffs rise vertically into the sky, where the trees take over. There are many beaches, coves, and bays which make for dramatic scenery to enjoy during surface intervals.
There are many, many dive sites around the Phi Phi island group, many consisting of wall dives, the limestone dropping to depth ranges between 10m and 25m. The walls can have gorgonian fans, soft corals and coral bushes and interesting rock formations and swim throughs. At the base of these walls there are often hard coral gardens to explore. You can expect a great amount of fish life, including lionfish, wrasse, Moorish idols, angelfish, rays, trevallies. Also keep an eye out for leopard sharks sleeping on the sandy bottoms or blacktip reef sharks cruising the reefs. Turtles can also quite commonly be seen here. Lastly, check the fans and bushes for tigertail seahorses and harlequin ghost pipefish.
King Cruiser
The King Cruiser was a car ferry that used to travel between Phi Phi and Phuket. In 1997, ‘the cruiser’ hit Anemone Reef on her crossing and sank a short distance away. No lives were lost, but divers were left with a great wreck dive! While she is largely broken up now, she is covered in soft corals and hides some wonderful gems, as well as being home to several large schools of snappers. While currents can be strong and visibility sometimes challenging, this is a great site to dive as part of an Advanced Open Water course.