Koh Mak
Koh Mak
Koh Mak
Thailand
Secret Treasures
THAILAND Surrounded by 50 additional small islands, in the marine national park Koh Mak is an ideal destination for all travelers who desire beautiful tropical surroundings unspoiled by mass tourism.
Giants of
檳榔島的巨人
Betel-Nut Island
Above the waterline, a splatter of over 40 archipelago islands dot the Thai coastline near the Cambodian border, below the waters of Koh Mak were surprisingly some of the most pristine corals in Thai waters. 水平線上，有如水花四濺般，超過四十座的群島一點一滴的散落在靠近柬埔寨邊界的泰國海岸線上，我們在麥島下的海底世界裏，驚豔 的遇見了泰國海域中，一處最原始純樸的珊瑚礁脈群。 Text & Photo | Lawrence Alex Wu
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oh Mak (Betel-nut Island) provides a peaceful getaway just a couple of hours flight, land and speedboat ride from Bangkok’s rumbling tuk tuks and concrete jungle to a pearly sandy beach laden with coconut palms in the backdrop of gently rolling hills. The perfect tranquil weekend retreat for the family, friends and lovers of Mother Nature. Landing on the 3 km stretch of the main beach, Ao Kao (White Bay), we expected a horde of hotel ushers to pounce on us like most island getaways in Southeast Asia, but the pace and spread of sparsely populated huts on this island is much like the splattering of islands themselves – idyllic and tranquil. Instead, we were greeted by our bungalow’s hefty tanned driver clad in a Hawaiian shirt, Ray Bans and the relaxed and friendly attitude we found throughout this rustic island. Swiftly, Maui-man taxied us and our diving gear to our reserved doorstep at TK Hut, complete with stereo phonics of lapping waves and only seconds from the clean turquoise water under shady palms of beach pine trees with few inhabitants around and even fewer tourists. So with lots of nothing-to-do to occupy our time, we quickly slipped into the slow motion Time-warp that the island infuses, a perfect refuge from our habitual nine-to-five. However, we did have one commitment to ourselves and that was to explore the diving off the rugged coastline. And to our surprise, the diving around this 16 square kilometer island served up an abundance of friendly fish life (not just on a plate) and some surprisingly breathtaking coral life to make for a great weekend dive-getaway.
Taking The Plunge
“Welcome aboard the ThaiTanic!” greets Steven Holford, owner of Koh Mak Divers, as we climb aboard our dive vessel for the day. Sitting less than two meters under the waterline, and gently slicing through the calm sea and light warm breeze, the ThaiTanic’s 14m wooden hull could hardly compare with the 46,000 ton, 1-2 cm thick steel hull vessel sunk by an iceberg. Apparently it had taken 15 years of diving and living on Koh Mak before her name revealed itself to Steve one night amidst his slumber...perhaps he was dreaming he was DiCaprio on location in the movie “The Beach”? So we set course to the area’s deepest site, Hin Gor (just a name - Gor rock), a site laden with elephant-sized cracked boulders as though pepper sprinkled on to a 30m deep seamount by a giant’s fingers. Boulders that were covered in pastels of coral and fish, painted on heavily by the giant’s brush. Everywhere we turned were gardens of mixed corals with school blossoms of busily feeding reef fish that were completely nonchalant to divers. It seemed an underwater haven not yet tainted by man’s presence. Then on the following dive, we were told to watch out for the large school of fusiliers, but I felt in the end, we misunderstood “watch out” to mean look for them instead of “don’t get in their way”! This huge resident school at Koh Yak (Giant Island) could probably tightly pack a double decker bus from London like sardines in a huge tin can. Fortunately for us, they were free to swim all around us and even schooling directly head-on against the direction of my buddy’s travel. It was almost as though our presence meant nothing to EZDIVE
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