MV Hallelujah Liveaboard

The Hallelujah liveaboard dive boat based in Phuket, Thailand, offers four-day and four-night diving trips to all of the best sites in Thailand from October until May each year. Her itineraries include the Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock in Thailand.

Dive Overview

The Thai islands and the Andaman Sea are known for widely varied underwater terrain, friendly fish, and diverse marine life, with warm water throughout the year. Marine life includes soft and hard corals, fields of anemones, nudibranchs, harlequin shrimp, cuttlefish and seahorses, plus regular sightings of mantas, zebra sharks, and the legendary whale shark.

[See: Similan Islands Guide &Thailand Dive Travel Guide]

Check Out This Great Video from MV Hallelujah!

Accommodation Overview

The main deck has 2 Master queen-sized bed cabins located at the bow, and 10 Standard twin bunk bed cabins. There is 1 VIP Single bed cabin located on the upper deck.

MV Hallelujah Cabin Amenities

• Air conditioning
• Toilet and shower with hand basin, towels and toiletries
• Sea view windows
• Reading lights
• Cabinet and mirror
• Bedding
• 3 pin mains outlet 220 Volts AC - 24 hours per day
• Life jackets
• Space for luggage

Dive Information

Itinerary Overview

The MV Hallelujah will be doing four-day, four-night and some five-day liveaboard safaris and cruises from December through April each high season in Phuket. These trips will visit the Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, and Richelieu Rock.

Similan Islands

• What to look for: Unusual granite formations, dramatic scenery, swim-throughs, large sea fans, gorgeous beaches.
• Wildlife includes monitor lizards, various snakes, squirrels, and bats, along with birds like Pacific reef egrets, Nicobar pigeons, Brahminy kites and white-breasted sea eagles.
• Corals excellent; unbelievable variety of both hard and soft. Multicolored, some of the best old hard coral growth in the world. Well protected.
• Many species of nudibranchs and other mollusks, colorful sponges and tunicates, as well as crustaceans like crabs, reef lobsters, and a wide variety of shrimp.
• Fusiliers and surgeonfish are common, as are groupers, wrasses, at least four species of lionfish.
• Home to a number of exotic, seldom seen fish, including frogfish, ghost pipefish, blue-spotted jawfish, firefish, and Andaman sweetlips. Jacks, mackerel, and dogtooth tuna harass the ever-present thick schools of baitfish.
• Reef type: Huge granite boulders, coral sloping walls, pinnacles, sandy areas. Sand blinding white, looks and feels like sugar.
• Distance from Phuket: 55-60nm or 110-120km.
• Visibility: Great, averaging 20 to 30m, on good days over 40m.

Koh Bon

• What to look for: Hard corals are sparse, but pretty. Soft corals are especially pretty as they are wildly-colored. When the current is strong, the soft corals are full and bulbous.
• Sea fans are less common than they used to be, but still very pretty and healthy and multicolored.
• Fish life is abundant, with schools of jacks and snappers charging through clouds of glassfish that hover around large fan corals and barrel sponges. This is a favorite manta spot on ridge and in the bay.
• On deeper dives, rays and leopard sharks are seen. Sometimes nurse sharks on the northern bommies.
• If swell running, water cascades through an opening from the other side of the ridge, creating large clouds of bubbles that come surging down to greet you during your safety stop.
• Reef type: Walls and a ridge on the main dive site. A pinnacle to the northwest of the ridge, not dived as often due to the depth from the surface to the top of the rock (18m). The main ridge can be dived in almost any current and has plenty to keep you occupied for several dives.
• Distance from Phuket: 75nm or 150km. About 12nm north of Island #9 in the Similans.
• Visibility: Usually great, from 15 to 40m

Koh Tachai

• What to look for: Can be fantastic or disappointing. Not to everyone's liking depending on what you see and how the current is. Either you love it or you hate it.
• Excellent growths of sea fans, whip corals, barrel sponges and other filter feeders, particularly in deeper areas. This is also a good area for leopard sharks and stingrays, as well as trumpetfish.
• Batfish will swim above the rock under the boat. Schooling fish are common, including dense mobs of snapper and chevron barracuda. On the main boulder where most people end up, not much coral.
• Manta cleaning station at certain times. Good deep dive if the current is not too strong, you swim well, and your guide knows the site.
• Reef type: An underwater ridge runs along at 18-23m, with a southern and northern pinnacle. Most dive boats drop at the southern or biggest pinnacle. If the current is with you, you can swim along the ridge, but it's hard to find a shallow spot to do your safety stop.
• Distance from Phuket: 95nm or 190km. About 20nm north-northwest of Koh Bon.
• Visibility: Variable, from 5 to 30m.

Richelieu Rock

• What to look for: Home for porcelain crabs, harlequin shrimp, other bizarre shrimp and at least four different varieties of clownfish.
• Tigertail seahorses are seen commonly. Nudibranchs numerous.
• Scorpionfish, snappers, and a number of eel species including giant, white-mouth, fimbriated, snowflake, bar-tail and zebra morays. Lionfish everywhere, often "schooling".
• Excellent coral, dense colonies of sea anemones in shades of green, beige and brilliant purple cover many of the shallower rock surfaces, soft corals come in many shades of red, purple and blue.
• Octopus and cuttlefish, the latter of which are often seen mating and laying eggs among the rocky ledges.
• Whale sharks, manta rays, guitar sharks, soft corals in a rainbow of colors, schooling pelagic fish.
• Everything is possible here. This dive is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get.
• Reef type: A series of pinnacles and peaks, starting at 40+m, ending just below the surface. One of the best dives in Thailand.
• Distance from Phuket: 130nm or 260km. 9nm east of the Surin Islands.
• Visibility: Extremely variable, from 2 to 40m! Visibility depends on tides and runoff from shore. It's closer to freshwater rivers than the Similan Islands, thus the water clarity is not as consistent. But here it's not about the vis, it's about the marine life.