DIVE HAPPY

The Hong Kong Standard newspaper provides an excellent, in-depth overview about scuba diving in Burma

I've mentioned Myanmar Diving a couple of times before - and this morning I've just found this superb article from the Hong Kong Standard about diving in the Burma Banks. The piece provides a great overview of the evolution of diving in Burma and how the industry has coped with having to cirumnavigate one of the most repressive political regimes in the world.

"Expansive walls of hard and soft corals are teeming with activity. From the smallest clown fish to schools of large grouper, barracuda, sea turtles and moray eels, the water is alive with a colorful spectacle of life.

This is why divers choose the Mergui Archipelago. The biodiversity and the sheer volume of aquatic life here is unmatched in the region. The area is not over-fished or over-dived and one rarely finds the type of damage to the reef that is caused by anchors, fishing nets or abandoned fish traps common to resort sites.

These clear waters afford the opportunity to experience "frontier diving" rarely seen by others.

As the days and dives unfold in this scuba paradise we are treated to large aquatic life - manta rays and many species of shark are not uncommon. At the appropriately named Shark Cave Island, our team makes its way into a cavern that passes from one side of the island to the other. Inside, we happen upon a 3-4 meter nurse shark resting in the comfort and security of its underwater abode. This is a truly another world."

Read more at the Hong Kong Standard.