Adventure Cruise to Burma (Myanmar)
10 days/11 nights

This new Scuba Quest adventure cruise is a combination of diving, snorkeling coral reefs, and sea kayaking around remote, pristine tropical islands. We explore the rain forest, rivers and mangroves, discovering an abundance of marine life and wildlife. Our Sea Kayaking liveaboard tours operate in the remote, pristine Mergui archipelago, Burma, Myanmar, offering wonderful opportunities for kayaking, trekking and bird watching including the collection of myanmar swallows' nests in a huge cave- and there's plenty of time to relax on the deserted white sandy beaches.

The modern-day Mergui Archipelago is as it was in days gone by, bar the piracy! Due to the archipelago's virtual isolation, the islands and surrounding seas are alive with an amazing diversity of wildlife, flora and fauna. Parrots, hornbills, sea eagles, Brahminy kites and herons fill the skies, whilst on land the animal population includes wild cattle, elephants, monkeys, deer, wild pigs, tigers, crocodiles and rhinoceros.

The only human inhabitants in the area are the sea gypsies, a nomadic seafaring race whose lifestyle has changed very little over the years, they have been the sole inhabitants of the Mergui Archipelago over the years and still practice the same fishing and boat building techniques used for generations.

The gateway to the archipelago is Kawthaung (Victoria Point) on the southern tip of Myanmar, a 25 minute boat trip from the Thai fishing port of Ranong.

Diving opportunities (optional escorted diving ):

The area closest to Myanmar's shore is very scenic but has no decent diving. The middle area is more interesting.

Visibility is varies from only fair to excellent, but there is plenty of interesting marine life. Different species of sharks and stingrays as well as a good assortment of small and semi-rare creatures such as ghost pipefish and razorfish were spotted here. The reefs are mainly rocky with hard corals although some areas have sponges, fans and soft corals as well.

The westernmost region of the Mergui Archipelago is where the water gets deeper and clearer. This is where the sharks roam. Silvertips, grey reef, whitetip, bullsharks a wonderful variety.

Some of the best dive sites (so far) in the Mergui Archipelago are Western Rocky Island, 3 Islets, Black Rock, Orange Rock and West Canister (this is where we are still alone). "Unique" is the best way to describe the Mergui Archipelago.

If you are not yet a certified diver, escorted scuba diving (PADI DSD) near nice shallow coral gardens is part of our Sea kayaking cruise. If you don't want to dive, you can snorkel.

We were also the first dive operator ever to dedicate a diving Live-aboard to solely visit this remote and extremely beautiful area (most others choose to combine Thailand and Burma).

Since then we have been operating live-aboard trips exploring the delights of this truly unspoiled area below and above since 1998. We had the whole area almost to ourselves for a many months, but inevitably a few others have followed in our footsteps.

Comprising over eight hundred islands and covering an area of ten thousand square miles, these pristine islands are almost totally untouched by modern development.