Fol­low­ing my 10 most favor­ite places in South­east Asia I decided to post my favor­ite dive spots. I haven’t been to many of the world class dive sites in the area, like Riche­lieu Rock or Sipadan, so this list reflects merely my per­sonal top 10.

1. Hin Daeng & Hin Muang, Koh Lanta, Thai­l­and
   These are my abso­lute favor­ites. There’s the big stuff, like Mantas and Whale Sharks, and little crit­ters, like the Har­le­quin Shrimp. Because of the depth and the some­times quite strong cur­rent both those sites are not really suited for green­horn divers.
2. Batu Bolong, Flores, Indone­sia
   I had a fant­astic dive here with three octopus. They were fol­low­ing and hold­ing on to each other while weird pat­terns were pulsat­ing down their bod­ies. Looked like an octo­poda three­some to me. Just awe­some!! The cur­rent was just unbe­liev­able; in places so strong that our bubbles went straight down…
3. Shark Point, Gili Trawan­gan, Indone­sia
   Prob­ably the only dive site on earth, where you are sur­roun­ded by 15 turtles when doing your safety stop. Loads of dif­fer­ent kinds of sharks and a gor­go­nian fan at around 20 m pop­u­lated by pygmy seahorses. There can be some cur­rent, but here you always dive with the flow, so no worries…
4. Tulam­ben USS Liberty, Bali, Indone­sia
   Loads of nud­ibranchs, scor­pi­on­fish, hun­dreds of garden eels wav­ing in the slow cur­rent and extremely nosy par­rot­fish all within the rem­nants of a WWII freighter. Loads of little swim­throughs with fant­astic light shin­ing through holes in the hull.
5. Koh Haa Lagoon, Koh Lanta, Thai­l­and
   This is an easy dive, but can nev­er­the­less be breath­tak­ing. Dir­ectly in the lagoon there are a few very curi­ous and very cute por­cu­pine­fish, quite a few boxfish, and some garden eel. On the outer edge of the lagoon with it’s two pin­nacles there’s barney, the hawks­bill turtle and, if you look closely, a ghost pipefish hid­den somewhere!
6. Sail Rock, Koh Tao, Thai­l­and
   I did eas­ily 50 dives here. If I would dive there now, I’d prob­ably still know every fish by name. Great pin­nacle dive with a chim­ney start­ing at 7m and going down to about 20m and a chance to see some big fish.
7. Tulam­ben Drop Off, Bali Indone­sia
   I haven’t seen that much fish here to be hon­est, but the col­ors are just stun­ning. There are loads of huge gor­go­nian fans all over the site. Their col­ors made all the more brighter and vivid by the black vul­canic sand that’s everywhere.
8. Chumphon Pin­nacles, Koh Tao, Thai­l­and
   Chumphon, Koh Tao’s premier dive site, is a sub­merged rock form­a­tion covered in all dif­fer­ent kinds of coral. There’s grey reef sharks around and the chance to see whale sharks. Loads of small crit­ters as well. Can be quite crowded with divers, even for Koh Tao standards.
9. Simon’s Reef, Gili Meno, Indone­sia
   This is a huge site start­ing at 14 m, going down to like 45 m, so it’s an advanced site. This is the place where I man­aged to cap­ture three beau­ti­ful cut­tle­fish on film. Can be fant­astic with vis­ib­il­ity reach­ing 50–60 m. I once missed the whole dive site, due to cur­rent and bad vis­ib­il­ity and promptly saw a huge stin­gray, eas­ily 2,5 m long…
10. Temple of the Sea, Palau Per­hen­tian Kecil, Malay­sia
    Vis­ib­il­ity wasn’t good, when I went diving here, but I could see the poten­tial. There’s bam­boo and nurse sharks and loads of bar­rak­uda and jacks. The Temple is a pin­nacle covered in soft and hard coral. When you’re in the area and you dive, then this spot shouldn’t be missed!

There are so many more dive spots I want to go to, most of all a live­a­board trip to the Burma Banks near Myan­mar and to Alor in East­ern Indone­sia. And I haven’t even been to the Phil­ip­pines yet. If you’re not a diver yet, but would like to learn, then you should check out Koh Lanta, Koh Phi Phi or, for the more adven­ter­ous, Koh Lipe in Thai­l­and, the Per­hen­tians in Malay­sia and the Gilis in Indone­sia. There’s loads of dive sites for begin­ners there, loads of stuff to see and courses are not too expens­ive.
What’s your favor­ite dive sites?