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- VOL. 8.9
The Andaman Advantage
By Collin Piprell
Washing the shores of western Thailand, and its holiday island of Phuket, the Andaman Sea is and adventurer’s dream. Perfect for sailing, diving and countless other watersports, it also offers some of the world’s most beautiful seascapes.
For many good reasons, Phuket-based diving,
gamefishing and boating has established the Andaman Sea as one of the
world’s finest resort and watersports destinations.
Geographical scope. Phuket-based diving live-aboards, sailing charters and
gamefishing boats range from the border with Malaysia in the south to
India’s Andaman Islands, at the western limits of the Andaman Sea. Within
this vast expanse, hundreds of islands, pinnacles and seamounts and
thousands of reefs await exploration. To preserve as many of these priceless
resources as possible, Thailand has established several marine national
parks in this area, including Koh Similan, world-famous for the rich variety
of dive sites found in this little group of nine islands lying just 50 miles
off Phuket.
Climate and sea conditions. The Andaman provides year-round diving,
snorkelling, boating and gamefishing. The long seven-month November-May
winter season, with its consistently fair skies, calm seas and good winds,
presents ideal conditions. The seas also remain clean and uncongested; and
many other scenic island destinations are easily accessible from Phuket -
including Phang Nga Bay where, protected as it is from both the southwest
and the northeast monsoons, you get fine sailing 12 months of the year. The
scenery throughout the Andaman Sea is superb. Koh Raya, Koh Phi Phi and
other islands off Krabi are all at hand, as are the many more islands and
dive sites found between Phuket and the Malaysian island Langkawi. For
dives, underwater visibility – especially in offshore sites such as the
Similan or Hin Daeng – often exceeds 30m, and it can reach 45 metres. This
opens a generous window on a whole undersea world of exotic mystery and
beauty. The water is so warm you don’t need a wetsuit.
Variety. Two distinct types of island are found in these waters. On the one
hand, there are granitic island groups such as Koh Similan and Koh Surin,
intrusions of magna from deep beneath the Earth’s surface. These little
archipelagos are covered with rain forest, their shores characterized by
white coral sand coves separated from one another by piles of huge boulders.
These islands, weathered by the elements over aeons, have crumbled like
great chunks of hard sugar candy, wind and sea polishing the granular
fragments.
This is what lends these island much of their attraction for visitors.
Underwater, boulders just like these spill in jumbled piles down beneath the
surface of the sea to 35m and beyond; and a similar topography is encrusted
with algae and corals, the many caves and archways providing passages for an
incredible number and variety of fish.
On the other hand, there are islands such as those found in Krabi and in
Phang Nga Bay - sheer limestone cliffs, riddled with caves and fringed with
jungle, rising hundreds of metres from the sea. Koh Phi Phi, only a few
hours sail from Phuket, is among the most beautiful island groups in the
world. Phang Nga Bay, meanwhile, with its 40 spectacular islands set in over
400 square kilometres of shallow, milky-green water, is a sailor’s paradise.
In recent years, sea canoeing in Krabi and Phang Nga has become famous
around the world. The hidden worlds of the “hong” – collapsed cave systems
inside the islands, open to the sky and filled with jungle - are accessible
only by means of tough and stable inflatable canoes through sea caves at low
tide.
The hundreds of islands within easy range of Phuket, many of them deserted,
many of them with their own distinctive character, help to make this a
paradise for cruising and for watersports of all kinds.
Exciting options include the sheer walls combined with extensive soft coral
and anemone gardens at Hin Daeng and Hin Muang, or the rocky pinnacle at
Richelieu Rock. And there’s more than the phenomenally rich marine life
commonly associated with coral reefs. Open-water giants such as whale sharks
and manta rays are common visitors to diving destinations such as Koh Bon,
Koh Tachai, Richelieu Rock, Hin Daeng and Hin Muang. Somewhat less commonly,
they’re seen around the similans, Koh Racha and Phuket itself. Phuket has
also been the main base for diving the Burma Banks, a constellation of
submerged seamounts where divers encounter oceanic sharks such as
silvertips. Some operators have organized regular shark feedings, bringing
these magnificent animals in for photography. (These occasions are carefully
supervised, of course, and there has never been an accident.)
Variety is also the order of the day for sportfishing enthusiasts. Gamefish
are blue-water species. They like deep, clean water with movement and lots
of baitfish. And this is precisely what the Andaman Sea has to offer. The
Racha Islands, a popular destination only a couple of hours from Phuket -
between the two of them alone have just about every species of gamefish
found in the Pacific, including marlin and sailfish.
But what really makes Phuket-based diving, fishing and boating so appealing
is the fact that you get the best of two worlds: Phuket is an island as big
as Singapore. It offers good transportation links including an international
airport and a wide range of accommodation while affording access to
first-class facilities for divers, boaters and sportfishermen alike. At the
same time, however, the region has not been overdeveloped: the waters are
still clean and the local people are warm and welcoming. On top of that,
Phuket-based cruises feature elements of adventure - deserted tropical isles
of astonishing beauty and remote diving frontiers - that few other places in
the world can offer.
Phuket as the base. Phuket provides all the support facilities for diving,
gamefishing and boating. World-class dive shops with equipment sales, rental
and repair as well as scuba instruction from absolute beginner to master
instructor level, a first-rate recompression centre and helicopter
evacuation services, a full range of yachting services including bareboat
sailing charters and Customs and Immigration offices, dinghy and catamaran
sailing, and gamefishing boats.
Phuket also offers a staggering array of other diversions. There’s the full
range of other watersports, of course, including sea-canoeing, windsurfing
and water-skiing. There’s also everything from golfing to mountain-biking
and hiking, climbing, elephant back or horseback riding, motorcycle touring,
bungee-jumping and just plain lying around in the sun with a long cool
drink. Try a traditional Thai massage on the beach, or treat yourself to a
full course of massages and other therapies, including herbal steam and
ointment treatments at one of the island’s spas. Entertainment options range
from classical Thai dance performance with dinner to discos, beer-and go-go
bars. But it’s hard to beat simple seaside dining with only the sunset or
the moon on the water, perhaps the sighing of the breeze in the palm fronds,
to divert yourself from the fine cuisine and your companion.
Phuket is also the hub for secondary bases such as Koh Phi Phi, Krabi and
Ranong, the latter coastal Thai town being the main staging point for
explorations of the 800 island Mergui Archipelago, a diver’s, sailor’s and
forest-walker’s dream.