Diving with sharks in Bangkok

Diving with sharks in Bangkok

How is that possible, diving with sharks in Bangkok? It's not that difficult actually, Planet Scuba, the dive company I work with, their office in Bangkok runs the aquarium dives at Siam Ocean World and it's a great experience.

First I met with Toby, one of my former and also one of my very first IDC candidates at the Planet Scuba Bangkok shop on Sukhumvit, near BTS station Phrom Phong and we made our way over to Siam Paragon, where Siam Ocean World is located.


A view outside of the tank with some ragged tooth sharks swimming by, in a moment I'll be in the midst among them!


The entrance fee for Siam Ocean World is included in the fee for the shark dive and it's well worth checking out the various tanks and fish that are on display. There's a also a section where a lot of yet to be identified species are displayed and amongst those species is this rather rare longnosed stargazer.

The actual dive, a ragged tooth shark or grey nurse shark swims within inches from me, on various occasions. Currently there are 11 of them in the tank! The tank itself is really big and you can easily dive around for a good bit, sit down for a while and enjoy the view of these great predators cruising by and take the environment in. There are also leopard sharks, tawny nurse sharks and a couple of blacktips.

An Eagle ray, cruising by in a section of the aquarium. The animals kind of split up the areas in the aquarium so each has it's own territories, more or less. These eagle rays can change color and turn completely black which is an amazing sight. There are also blotched marble ray's and various other ray species. It's also great to interact with the spectators outside of the tank, who seem to be waving non stop and are seemingly almost more excited about seeing divers than I was seeing the sharks and rays! Besides the sharks and rays there are also plenty of trevallys and snappers.

After the dive, Toby and me with big smiles on our faces. Thanks Toby, it was a great 40 minute dive and I enjoyed it very much! The instructors that take you on the shark dives are all very experienced and will make sure that you have a good time.

Here's my logbook, with some shark tooth that Toby picked up.

It's official, I dived with the sharks in Bangkok!

To top it off, here's my first uploaded video on my blogs, with footage of a ragged tooth shark.

It's a real great experience and I enjoyed every moment of it and time flew by when you're in the aquarium. If you're interested, you can book online or just sign up at the spur of the moment whilst visiting Siam Ocean World at Siam Paragon, an instructor will be there all day long and you can pretty much jump in at any time, except during feeding times although Toby recommended the morning as the best time of the day to dive with the sharks in Bangkok and Discover Scuba Diving is also on offer, what better way of taking your breaths underwater can you think of, than doing it with some real life sharks!

Camille