// Koh Lipe Diving Highlight

Koh Lipe is a part of Tarutao Marine National Park, located in Satun Province and it is a boundary of Thailand and Malaysia. The Langkawi, Malaysia is within a sight when you look at it from Koh Lipe.

Koh Lipe is the only inhabited island where has absolute crystal clear waters, pure white sand beach and local people who always has sincerity.

Koh Lipe located in among the warm waters of Andaman, 50 kilometers from the mainland. It is not a single island but it a part of Butang group of islands with more than 20 main island. By the way, there are at least 7 renowned places where we call them the underwater pinnacles.

Koh Lipe and surrounded island have ability to call as a large inter-related reef system in Thailand. There are variety of marine life, mammal, reptile, bird, etc.

More than the pure white beach and powder sand beach. Some island around Koh Lipe also has waterfalls from mountain such as Koh Adang and Koh Rawi. Some place was named as an animal such as Monkey Bay and Baby Shark Bay. Each place has its own personality but the main point of view is all places are unbelievably beautiful.

Koh Sawang

This island located on southwestern part of the island group. There is a granite dome stands right in the ocean. The big and tall granite rocks is another hot spot for visitor and underneath the rocks is big and busy marine life community.

You can easily find Lionfish, Sweetlips and Crayfish in this area.

Honey Island

This place is like a fun park especially during the full moon period because the drift dive here can be extremely fast as a roller coaster. It is a small islet between 2 big islands so it is like a large funnel with tidal flow. This place has loaded of hard and soft corals and big fish feeding. This is another cool dive site you shouldn’t miss.

Koh Dong

Many people call this place as “The best dive sites” and it is truly right once I experienced this place by myself for many times. It combines of 4 diving spots which are South, West, North and East.

- Southern Koh Dong: This side is like a city of Stingray. The area is a gently slope from 4 – 14 meters. You can see beautiful coral in the shallows and hardly to see after 15 meter depth. You have a good chance to see the Blue Spotted Stingray. Divers will normally spend 1 hour for this site and they can take a break for lunch at Kamnan Beach, another virgin beautiful beach.
- Western Koh Dong: The site feature is a magnificent rocky reef. This site is one of my favorite as it is a long and high stones stand on underwater white sand bottom. It is a pinnacle dive site. Some people said that they feel like this place is like a church or house of God. Diving on this site will release you with its peace. The depth is from 2 – 18 meters. 1 hour is a proper time to spend on this side.
- Northern Koh Dong: The Monkey Bay is on this side of Koh Dong. There are plenty of monkeys on the beach. The divers can also see a lot of Stingrays at this spot. It is similar to the Southern side but much more steep and dramatic. You will see endless rows of tall coral heads. What you can see more than Stingray are turtle, ornamental ghost pipefish. Sometimes, you can see sleeping shark under the corals.
- Eastern Koh Dong: This side has large space of shallow corals. It has small island called Koh Lo Koi.

The 8 Mile Rock

This diving spot named from its distance from Koh Lipe to the dive site. This spot is another world class dive site you must come and it is one of the favorite. You can often see Whale Shark and Manta Ray here. Moreover, you will also see Big Fish feeding action at all times.

Hin Daeng

This dive site is 40 miles up to the North of Koh Lipe. This is a deep site with 16 meters down and descends like a large pyramid to 50 meters of the depth. It has both of soft and hard corals which is home for large number of baitfish. The divers used to see eye to eye with giant Barracudas. You can easily see Manta Ray swimming around in a group formation. Some has seen Pygmy Devil Ray and Leopard Shark here too.

This site is a completely wicked at peak and it is not for inexperienced diver.

Stonehenge

The name can tell you the feature of this site. It is a tall massive stones where is only 15 minutes away from Koh Lipe. This site is also cool place to dive around.

Pakaseem Pinnacle

This site located in the western edge of the Tarutao Marine National Park. The average depth is 15 meters down to 50 meters along the edge. You will find Eagle Ray, turtle, Cuttlefish and many marine animals around this area. This place is called as a home for them.