Burmese Daze
Dive International (UK, 1998)
Text by: Paul Lees and Michael Aw
Photo by: Mark Strickland
One of the world’s most
exciting diving destinations has just opened up after being shut to foreigners for more
than half a century.
For more than 50 years the Mergui Archipelago has been
closed by the Burmese government to outsiders. Only the nomadic Moken (Burmese sea
gypsies) could enjoy one of the world’s last wildernesses. Hundreds of low-lying
islands and rock-outcrops are scattered across the ocean, the skies are full of sea eagles
and brahminy kites, the islands are covered with rain forest buzzing with parakeets, and
the warm waters are alive with marauding sharks.
Last year the Burmese authorities gave permission for the
first dive boats and now six liveaboards regularly offer trips to the area.
 Kipling wrote: "This is Burma and it will be quite
unlike any land you know about." The diving at Mergui is definitely unlike anywhere
else. You feel as if you have stepped back in time. The sea gypsies, the only inhabitants
of the area, come to investigate your boats with open curiosity. You will probably be the
first foreigner they have ever seen.
In the 17th century the port of Mergui was the
main gateway to the Gulf of Siam and beyond; all passing boats had to come into the port
to off-load cargo or replenish supplies. Piracy was rampant.
Today the sea gypsies are far less fierce. The myriad of
islands where the pirates hid are now home to an incredible wealth of wildlife. In the
rain forests small green parakeets bounce from bough to bough, and wreathed, pied and
great hornbills patrol the skies in flocks 40-strong.
Ferret badgers, otters, ground squirrels and crab-eating
macaques stalk out their territory on the white beaches. At night, civets and fishing cats
prowl. Elephant and rhinoceros live wild. It is hard to believe you are in the 20th
century.
The diving
This is about as good as it gets in this part of the world.
Walls of soft corals (though not that much hard coral), memorable swim-throughs and
caverns to explore, tons of reef fish and a lot of sharks. And we mean a lot of sharks:
gray reefs, white-tips, nurse, bull, leopard, silvertip, hammer and whale sharks. And
don’t forget the other pelagics, as the rays are a treat – 40 devil rays on one
dive. But the currents can be fierce and computers and surface buoys are a must. Not for
novices.
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