The Kled Kaew Wreck is a purposely sunk Royal Thai Navy ship east of Koh Phi Phi Leh. Now covered in coral and huge schools of yellow snapper, it’s one of the best dive sites accessible from Koh Lanta in Thailand’s Andaman Sea.
Yellow snapper surrounding the Kled Kaew Wreck, Koh Lanta © [email protected]
The wreck sits between Phi Ley Bay and Viking Bay on the east side of Phi Phi Leh, within the Hat Noppharat Thara – Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park. It’s regularly dived by day boats from Koh Lanta, typically paired with a second dive at the Bida Islands.
What makes Kled Kaew such a good dive is the sheer amount of life that has colonised the wreck in the decade or so since it was sunk. The star attraction is a huge resident school of yellow snapper that engulfs the superstructure – when you approach the wheelhouse at around 14 metres, the snapper often completely obscure the wreck behind a shimmering wall of gold.
The whole Kled Kaew Wreck on the sandy bottom, Koh Lanta © [email protected]
Visibility can sometimes be quite green and murky at Kled Kaew – that’s just the nature of the site’s location and the nutrient-rich water that sustains all the life here. On a clear day you can get up to 20 metres of visibility, but don’t let a murkier day put you off. Even in low vis, the snapper school is easily spotted and the wreck itself acts as a magnet for marine life.
Snapper surrounding the rails on the Kled Kaew Wreck, Koh Lanta © [email protected]
History of the Kled Kaew Wreck
The Kled Kaew began life in Norway as the RNoMS Norfrost in 1948. The 47-metre long, 382-ton vessel was sold to the Royal Thai Navy in 1956 and redesignated as 861 HTMS Kled Kaew (also spelled Kled Keaw, Klad Kaew or Kled Gaeow depending on who you ask), spending the next several decades as a transport support vessel with a maximum speed of 12 knots.
In March 2014, the vessel was deliberately sunk to create an artificial reef. Before sinking, the ship was stripped of engines, wiring, doors, hatches and anything else that could pose a hazard to divers, and several holes were cut through the hull to allow safe penetration.
The Kled Kaew settled upright on the flat sandy bottom at a maximum depth of around 26 metres, and nature did the rest. In the years since, the wreck has been colonised by corals, sponges and an astonishing amount of fish life.
Wreck superstructure, Kled Kaew Wreck, Koh Lanta © [email protected]
Diving the Kled Kaew Wreck
There’s usually a mooring line running from the surface down to the wreck, which makes the descent straightforward. Even if the water looks green from the surface, once you’re on the wreck the life is right in your face and visibility matters less.
A good approach is to drop to the sand at 26 metres first and circle the hull at the base, where you can see how the wreck meets the seabed and check out the propeller at the stern. From there, you can shallow up over the front deck where schools of porcupinefish tend to gather – an unusual and slightly comical sight. Moving aft to the upper deck and superstructure is where things get really interesting, because this is where the massive school of yellow snapper hangs out. The school can be so dense that it completely blocks your view of the wheelhouse behind it.
Wheelhouse and snapper, Kled Kaew Wreck, Koh Lanta © [email protected]
Because the wreck was properly prepared before sinking, penetration is possible but obviously needs to be discussed with your dive operator beforehand. Below the wheelhouse there are two further decks to explore, with enough light filtering through the cut-out holes to keep things from getting too dark. The wheelhouse itself is at around 14 metres, so you can spend a good amount of time poking around the upper structure without worrying about your no-decompression limits. Given the depth at the sand, Advanced Open Water certification or equivalent is recommended.
Pook exploring the bow of Kled Kaew Wreck, Koh Lanta © [email protected]
Macro Life on the Kled Kaew Wreck
Beyond the big schools of fish, Kled Kaew is actually a surprisingly good macro site. The rusty steel plates and handrails are home to a wide variety of nudibranchs, and scorpionfish are scattered all over the wreck, camouflaged against the encrusted metal. Lionfish lurk under overhangs and in the recesses of the structure. If you’ve got sharp eyes or a good dive guide, frogfish have been spotted here too. It’s the kind of wreck where you could easily do two very different dives – one focusing on the overall structure and the big fish, and another just noodling around looking for macro creatures on the metalwork.
The back of the wheelhouse on the Kled Kaew Wreck, Koh Lanta © [email protected]
Getting to Kled Kaew from Koh Lanta
Koh Lanta is the best base for diving Kled Kaew. It’s also the gateway to several other world-class dive sites including Hin Daeng and Hin Muang, Koh Haa, and the Bida Islands. There are several well-established dive operators on the island, and the trip to the wreck is a straightforward trip on dive boat or speedboat.
Dive operators from Koh Lanta typically combine the Kled Kaew dive with a second dive at Koh Bida. Some operators can only dive the wreck during half-moon periods when tidal currents are less fierce, so it’s worth checking availability when you book.
Koh Phi Phi is also a starting point, with the wreck only about 25 minutes away by boat. But Lanta gives you the best overall access to the full range of Andaman Sea dive sites in the area.
Encrusted corals on the rails of the Kled Kaew Wreck, Koh Lanta © [email protected]
When Can You Dive the Kled Kaew Wreck?
The Andaman Sea diving season runs from November to May. This is when the weather is calm, visibility is at its best and all the dive operators on Koh Lanta are open for business. Water temperatures during the season sit between 28 and 31 degrees, so a 3mm shorty or even just a rash vest is usually plenty.
Outside of these months, the southwest monsoon brings rough seas and poor visibility to the Andaman coast, and most Koh Lanta dive shops close up for the season. The wreck itself can have quite strong currents, particularly around full moon periods, so the best conditions for diving Kled Kaew tend to be during half-moon tides when the water is calmer.
Yellow snapper engulfing the Kled Kaew Wreck, Koh Lanta © [email protected]
Kled Kaew vs King Cruiser
The other well-known wreck in the area is the King Cruiser, an 85-metre passenger ferry that sank in 1997 after hitting Anemone Reef. While the King Cruiser is a bigger wreck, it sits deeper at 32 metres, limiting bottom time, and parts of the upper structure have collapsed over the years. Kled Kaew’s shallower depth – 14 metres at the top, 26 metres at the sand – means significantly more bottom time, and because it was purpose-sunk and properly prepared, the structure is intact and safe to explore. Kled Kaew is safer and more accessible and so has become the more often dived wreck.
Kled Kaew Wreck, Koh Lanta © [email protected]
