Unspoiled, for choice (Part 1)
Diver (UK, 1998)

As sport diving increases in popularity apace with leisure travel to far-flung places, the buzzwords among diving holiday operators this season are "new and untouched". While the number of such destinations diminishes on a daily basis, Mark Webster tried a group of islands, which clearly qualify, off the coast of Burma.

How often, returning from a dive trip, can you report that you tried several previously un-dived sites, with countless remaining to be explored? In the Mergui Archipelago, even in those sites that have seen a couple of dozen divers, you can tell by the reactions of the fish life that you are more than usually alien to their environment.

This is also an area in which both elephants and rhinoceros have recently been sighted swimming between islands, so be prepared for the unexpected!

On most sites here, the density of coral growth and invertebrate life means that there is little room to rest a finger, but if you do, watch out that you don’t choose a scorpion fish instead of the rock surface – they are present in vast numbers. The macro life is stunning, and it is all too easy to become absorbed in a small patch of reef and miss what is happening around you, or in the open water off the reef.

Keeping an eye on the open water is essential to see what has come to investigate these strange new noisy creatures on the reef. Sharks, large bull rays, eagle rays and dense shoals of fish can be expected on every dive, although sightings of the big creatures are sometimes fleeting, as they depart rapidly in a state of shock.

Yet this is not one of those "new and untouched" dive destinations so beloved of travel operators where convoluted flight connections and often an extended sea cruise are required to reach your idyll. This is an area that has been inaccessible since sport diving began, but is within responsible traveling distance of an established tourist destination. The Mergui Archipelago lies of the southern coast of Burma, which opened its border to a handful of licensed live aboards only last summer. It offers the thrill of exploration and some truly "untouched" diving.

The archipelago comprises more than 800 islands. It stretches 200 miles north from the southern Burmese border with Thailand. The diving south of this area, in Thailand’s Surin and Similan islands, is well established and the potential of the Mergui Islands has been apparent to local operators for some time.