Diving in Phuket

I have been diving for 5 years and never experience such a different diving structure in Phuket. Every diving centers in Phuket have their own timetable which is fixed to the same similar dive sites trip everyday. The dive sites trips in Phuket are just 3 which are Racha Yai & Racha Noi, King Cruiser & Anemone Reef/Sharks Point & Koh Doc Mai and lastly the most popular dive sites of all is the Phi-Phi Island. There are just this 3 dive trips. Unlike at any other diving places, you cannot be choosing specific dive sites you wish to go.

Not sure how they cooperate with each other, every dive centers is working with a specific boat company to take the divers and non-divers to those dive spots. Most of the dive spots will include hotel transfer and meals in their diving package. The meals are inclusive of breakfast, lunch and tea time. Drinking water is refillable and they do provide sea sick pills onboard too. This package is cost roughly around 3700 baht onwards per day trip. Phi-Phi Island trip will cost slightly more than others.

Not just diving but fishing trip is departing from this pier too. This pier is always so busy and full of people from morning till late evening. Everyone is lining up to rush on the bus transfer to take them across the 1km bridge. Watching every tourists rushing on to the bus is quite a scenic view in a bizarre way. Take note that this diving trip will take up your whole day. You will always reach your hotel after 6.00pm.

This is where all the boats are parked and waiting for tourists to get onboard. You are required to take off your slippers/shoes before you get in the boat. Do not worry about it, they will arrange your shoes nicely at the end of the trip. 

Off we go and the journey to each dive sites may takes from 90 minutes to 2 hours journey. Phi-Phi Island is the furthest of all. I will not cover any Phi-Phi Island trip in this post because I have been there before during my Krabi trip which you can check it out more here. FYI, the trip was bumpy and if you are prompt to seasick, please remember to eat one tablet of seasick pill 2 hours prior departure.

Ko Racha Yai and Ko Racha Noi, also known as Ko Raya Yai and Ko Raya Noi, are twin islands off the southeastern coast of Phuket. Known for their crystal clear blue waters these islands have been an almost exclusive paradise for divers for years. With Racha Yai's white sand beaches and expanding accommodations.

Lionfish is very common here and some come really large in size. If you like lionfish, here is the best dive site for you to go. A lot of different species of lionfish which you can discover here.

When it is too many lionfishes like this, it is not healthy for the ocean life. Lionfish poses a great threat to the underwater environment. This arrogant fish carries poisonous venom on their spikes which kills the other marine life. To be honest, Racha Yai dive is not as great as Racha Noi

At Racha Noi, there is a dive site where there are a lot of artificial wreck to be found here. So you will see all kinds of colorful fishes having their meals here.

There are two diving boat wrecks and the most attractive wreck is this motorbike. Cool huh? 

The next dive site is the King Cruiser Wreck where you can see the Yellow Fimbriated Moray Eel sneaking within the wreck. MS King Cruiser was a car ferry of that sank off the West Coast of Southern Thailand on 4 May 1997. The ferry was operating between Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands in southern Thailand when she hit a submerged collection of rocky pinnacles at Anemone Reef, 10 miles off Phi Phi Island. The impact tore a large hole in the hull, and the vessel sank within two and a half hours. All 561 passengers – including both Thai locals and foreign tourists – were rescued. They were picked up by the two police patrol boats and four or five fishing boats which had raced to the rescue in response to an emergency call. One elderly woman sustained a broken back and several others suffered shock.

The ferry was on a regular crossing in normal conditions, and the Anemone Reef was charted and well known by captains in the area. This has led to various unproven theories as to why the accident occurred. Theories include insurance fraud due to the owners experiencing financial difficulties on the unprofitable route, and also that local dive companies paid the captain to sink the vessel as, up until that time, there were no wreck dives around Phuket. The captain was found to be negligent. Anyway, right now it has become one of the famous dive sites in Phuket. Do not miss the stone fish here!

Anemone Reef is not really the popular one but it is optional where you can choose between Anemone Reef or Shark Point. By the way, Anemone Reef is the reef that sunk the MS King Cruiser.

Shark Point maybe sound very exciting to diver who loves to see sharks but I am so sorry to disappoint you that this shark point no longer has sharks. However, this dive site has the best coral garden compare to any dive sites in Phuket.

The last dive sites will be at the Koh Doc Mai. It is a wall dive and there are 2 caves here. One of the caves will required torch light because it is deep and dark. Moray Eel and macro creatures can be found here.

In this trip, I do not manage to capture a lot of nice pictures. I spent most of the time on video recording. So I have compiled it for you to enjoy by the end of this post. I hope you will like it. I am sorry because I am still a newbie in video recording and editing. Anyway, let's enjoy some of my favorite photoshot.

The most fruitful thing I had throughout my 2 days diving trip is to able to see the Reef Octopus. I have been diving for more than 5 years and this is the first time I see it. However, it is hiding quite well under the rock. I have seen 2 of them in this dive.

Pufferfish and Porcupinefish are very common in Phuket too. However, this is the first time I see a yellow color Giant Pufferfish. 

Mantis Peacock Shrimp is really a shy creature. It is so hard to get them on close up. But at least they do face the camera unlike the Blue Spotted Stingray which I always got his tail shots.

Cleaner Shrimp is another common creature to be found here. If you are lucky like me, you can see 3-4 of them staying together. Seems like a lot of cleaning up work to do here.

At least 6 Scorpion Fish I saw that day. It was amazing and scary sometimes when I know there are a lot of scorpion fish lying around somewhere which I might touch it when I am trying to stabilize myself to get a good shot.

Flounder is found in Racha Noi dive. There are quite a few but my eyes just seems quite able to spot them as easily as my dive master did.

Giant Moray Eel is a lot here! They are just a teenagers thou. I was hoping to see an adult Giant Moray Eel which can grow up to 1.8meters long!

There are no great school of fishes in Phuket during my dive. The higher possibility will be at King Cruiser Wreck but the fishes are the common ones which is the Yellow Tail Fish. I was hoping to see school of Giant Barracuda. That will be awesome!

Finally I am able to see a slightly bigger version of reef crab.

Two headed White Eyed Moray Eel? No way...hahaha. It was just two eels hiding in the same rock. I was able to get a moray eel to nibble my finger. It was ticklish. You can see it in my video below.

The Macro life in Phuket is more exciting at Koh Doc Mai dive. At least you can see more than one nudibranch in one place. The best part for me is to see them move!

Here are some of the nudibranches which I caught them in a still image. The rest of their actions can be seen in my video below.

Overall diving experience was pretty good. All divers know that every dive will be a totally new experience. However, if you are asking me if I would like to revisit here again, I would say no. There is nothing here which makes me want to revisit again. However, if you have never been here, I would advise you to make the point here. You need to be here at least once. The diving price here is pretty reasonable for me especially with all in package and with great service. For me a great service is without me to fix my diving gear while the boat is moving. I hate it! Haha...last but not least, keep on diving and you might not able to imagine what you will be discovering under that water.