Real Diving Thailand and Samae San local dive sites map.

SPECIAL OFFERS

Hin Khao also known as North Rock has the best coral life of all the Pattaya dive sites with staghorn, table coral, sponges and a huge sea anemone bed, the site has lots of rock outcroppings that are homes to bamboo sharks and moray eels, there are also schooling fusiliers and barracuda. This is an excellent site for searching around for the more unusual nudibranchs, pipefish, razorfish and others that like to hide away. The site has good diving down to around 18 metres but again is best dived at slack tide or minimal current.

Hin Ton Mai known as South Rock is a very popular dive spot with with lots of moray eels, cuttle fish, large marble rays and turtles. There are plenty of both hard corals and soft corals, very good invertebrate life such as nudibranchs and feather stars. This site has interesting coral and marine life down to 22 metres but needs to be dived at slack tide or minimal current. Great site for macro photography and videography.

Pattaya has two sets of islands known to the locals as the far islands and the near islands.

We have been diving these islands for the past fifteen years and have seen a lot of changes

with the enviroment and marine life, such as coral bleaching from the late ninties which harmed the corals to the regrowth of the corals ever since. We also had two great shipwrecks scuttled in the last eight years courtesy of the Royal Thai Navy and talk of more in the future.

The great thing about Pattaya diving is we can dive all year round due to the monsoon

seasons not affecting us like it does in the south of Thailand. The dive sites are between

45 min to an hour and a half away from Pattaya by boat, the viz varies between 5m to 20m

depending on the time of year, site and currents.

The Pattaya far islands consist of Koh Rin, Koh Man Wichai,

Koh Klung Badan and Koh Phai (Koh meaning island in Thai)

also it's home to the HTMS Khram shipwreck, so we offer daily wreck and coral dive trips to these islands.

Koh Rin is our premier dive spot with three great sites, the main island with north rock and south rock either side. The main island has a beautiful white sandy beach and is great for both diving and snorkeling. The reef starts from the beach at 2 metres with small corals heads, sea anemone beds and clusters of smaller fish life, the reef slopes gradually down to a depth of 20 metres with both soft and hard corals as well sea whips and sea fans.

On virtually everydive you will see angelfish, puffer fish, stingrays, turtles, bamboo sharks and amass of smaller marine life. When the currents are running it is also a great site for a drift dive.

Koh Man Wichai has two dive spots known as the fingers and the wall. The corals and marine life are similar to Koh Rin but the dive sites are totally different, the fingers get their name from the coral formation which resembles a hand, the first finger starts at a depth of 10m and then the out cropping rocks and corals slope down to the last finger at 16m. On the dive take your time as you look around the fingers theres lots of nudibranches, tiger cowries and feather stars to be seen. This site needs to be dived at slack tide otherwise you will just get wisked away by the currents, usally good viz and always lots of marine life.

On the southwest tip of Man Wichai there is a small wall that goes down to 11m along the wall you will see butterfly fish, angel fish and my favourite the sweetlips harlequin, the area around the wall is also a singular dive site running from the bay along the coral line and down to 18 m with sea whips and sea fans all the way, recently there has been sightings of large marble rays and you always have a great chance to see a large hawksbill turtle, also the wall side is great for fast rapid drift dives when the tide is coming in.

Koh Klung Badan, its best to dive the south end of this island where it slopes down to 18m with rock and coral formations, everywhere else is pretty shallow 8m with interest, great for novice divers and long dive times. On this site there is lots of smaller marine life, theres been sightings of sea horses hanging on to gorgonian fans, they are only small so take your time and have a good look, also another good site for drift diving when currents are present.

Koh Phai and the HTMS Khram, Koh Phai is again like Klung Badan quite a shallow dive site lots of sponges and christmas tree worms on the hard corals also home to some very big star pufferfish, small boxfish and sand rays.

The main attraction of Koh Phai is the HTMS Khram, this WWII landing craft was scuttled in early 2003 to create an artificial reef and it worked. The 60m long Khram lies upright with the conning tower starting at a depth of 15m the bottom of the wreck 27m, it is now teeming with schooling barracuda, huge batfish, rays and its own resident turtle. The wreck can be penetrated with the correct qualification, large holes have been cut into the wreck and are filled with, sweet lips and rays.

Best to dive this wreck at slack tide which is difficult at times because strong currents are present with either the dropping and rising tide, make sure you have a look at the tide charts before diving this site.

Pattaya Near Islands consist of Koh Larn, Koh Sak, Koh Krok and home to HTMS Kood.

Koh Larn has two main dive sites Hat Nuan and Laem Thong. Hat Nuan used to be a very nice shallow dive site with beautiful coral gardens but over the years has been abused by tourist pleasure boats dropping anchors onto the corals. Three years ago the Thai authoritys decided enough is enough and now have mooring buoys so the boats don't need to anchor anymore, hopfully over the next few years the corals will grow back. Even saying this its still worth a dive especially to the east and west points of Hat Nuan where the corals survived the tourist boats, on the west side the marine life in the area is varied and includes the six banded angelfish, butterfly fish, Half ‘n half Wrasse, Parrotfish, turtles, schools of small Barracuda and Long Toms.

Laem Thong is on the North Westside of Koh Larn and in our opinion the best dive on this island, the diver will find an area with a flat sandy bottom and lots of large coral heads and groupings, theres a fairly large coral reef leading to a underwater rock face sloping down to 18 metres. This is an interesting area to explore and great fun can be had swimming in search of the marine life. Here you will find numerous giant sea anemones with their inhabitants as well as a variety of elephant ear anemones with black and white clownfish, these fish make very good photographic subjects. In the deeper areas there are almost always bamboo sharks, blue spotted rays and eagle rays to be found.

Koh Sak The North East corner starts off with clean white sand progressing to the usual range of hard corals as you approach the island. Here the corals are at depths from 1-6m, as you round the corner they progress deeper to a depth of 18 metres. This corner is home to hawksbill and leatherback Turtles as well as numerous bamboo sharks, the sharks are however hard to find as they tend to be very shy and divers need to search for them, usually under the coral heads.

Koh Krok is the nearest island to Pattaya, the corals start on the sand at 12m and extend right up to 2 metres so its great for diving and snorkeling, also an excellent site for drift diving as the prevailing currents run parallel to the island. Large “bommies” are a feature of this site; staghorn, brain, mushroom and table corals are in abundance as well as neptunes, barrel and blue sponges.

The southern point is home to turtles, pufferfish, parrotfish and angelfish are plentiful. One section of the West face has an area covered with giant sea anemones along with the usual anemone and clownfish.

HTMS Kood The Kood is a World War II US landing craft and was scuttled in 2006 off the northeast side of Koh Sak, this ship has been well prepared by the Thai Navy as a dive site and is free from armaments. The Kood lies upright at a depth of 30 metres and the top of the conning tower at 12m, the wreck still doesn't have as much marine life as the Khram but is home to schooling barracuda, rays and turtles.

A sister ship of the HTMS Khram, the Kood is another fine example of a thriving artificial reef offering Pattaya yet another great dive site.