Have you ever wondered where else is good and solid cave diving in the world, Thailand! Yes I know i might seem strange to you as most people know Thailand for good food and beautiful beaches....but there is way more beneath the surface.
We have been exploring cave systems in Thailand since 2006. Ben Reymenants, Cave IT has made a 239 meter dive in one of the caves called Sra Keow.
Thailand has vast limestone formations and one can find throughout the country numerous caves to wander through. Some of them go on for miles. Most have water in them, but still doable without the need of scuba equipment.
Sra Keow Caves
This does not go up for all Thai cave systems though. Some of the deepest caves in Asia have been dived in Thailand. Krabi province offers a variety of limestone caves as well as more towards the South, In Trang Province. Krabi became famous a few years ago when a deep cave was bottomed out after nearly 10 years of exploration; Sra Keow cave system, which consists out of two small ponds, drops down to a mere 240metres/660 feet below the jungle floor.Caves are most of the time formed by water eating away softer stone, like limestone. This process can take thousands of years and usually results in a true piece of art. Caves formed by acidic rainwater carving out soft limestone are called solution caves.There are different cave systems throughout the world, some are huge and very deep. Others are narrow and shallow but continue for miles.This is usually what Lime stone solution caves are about. Quite shallow (meaning, shallower than 40m/120Ft) and they go on for miles and miles. The caves in Mexico, also called cenotes by the ancient Mayan culture, have an average depth of around 12m/40Ft. Explorers have now laid more than 150Km/ 100Miles of line. The underground in the Yucatan peninsula is comparable to a giant Emmentaler cheese.
Song Hong Cave
Another cave system in Thailand, which have had a few previous diving expeditions, was explored mid November 2006 is called Song Hong (2 rooms). Song Hong Cave system is a sinkhole. Sinkholes appear when an underground cave system comes closer to the surface. The ceiling becomes weak and collapses, leaving a small pong or a large lake. This happened in Song Hong, a small village in the middle of the jungle, Trang Province in South Thailand.The Song Hong Cave, meaning two rooms in Thai language, probably because there are two lakes not far away from each other. The main lake spans about 150m in diameter and is surrounded by Jungle. The water temperature is 26 degrees Celsius and the visibility is around 5-10 meters in the shallows and up to 30m at depth inside the caves.The lake drops quickly to 100m straight off the shore. This is one of the reasons Blue Label Diving also runs its Trimix Courses in this lake. On both sides of the lake a large tunnel drops down, starting at 60m of depth. Both tunnels have a gentle flow of water, suggesting that they were connected ages ago when the lake was not formed yet. To date, only a handful of expeditions had gone to explore. The problem with Diving Song Hong cave is the distance from any civilization. There is a small town nearby, but if one needs lodgings and medical care or gas filling facilities, you are looking at a 2-hour drive to Krabi province.Early expeditions laid lines around the lake and several routes in the upstream section. With each expedition pushing further, there were now to be 2 main lines, stretching in as far as 500m/1500Ft inside the cave. Because of the steep drop, logistics offer a real challenge in terms of long decompression, moving through the cave at a fast pace carrying a large amount of gear and cylinders. The end of the line was 110 meters of depth, 800m inside the cave.The last expedition in Song Hong, pushed by Ben Reymenants and Pekka Hartikainen , pushed the line an extra 19m up to a depth of 155m.
KHAO SOK Caves
The most popular cavesystem however is based in the enormous Khaosok National park; here a valley was flooded some 25 years ago , forming a lake, powering a hydrodam.The rising water cause some pristine cave systems to flood, now only accessible to divers. Temple cave being the most famous, but cavern divers can swim through hundreds of stalactites in Phra Daeng cave or squeeze into peters cave.Most of the caves are shallower than 20m/60ft, offering plenty of time to wander through or conduct any cave course of choice.Accommodation is on the lake in floating bamboo houses and local food is served 3 times a day.
All the cave diving courses in the Blue Label Diving curriculum can be run almost anywhere on the globe, a body of water is all that is needed. If you like traveling to exotic places, we can highly recommend joining a course at one of our prime technical diving locations in Thailand. Cave Training can be done in Phuket, Phi Phi, Khao Sok or Krabi.We like to maintain a steep learning curve at Blue Label Diving. The diving agencies specific academics are partly completed through home study and finalized early in the course. This allows us to offer you more hands-on information, time for practical dive planning and workshops.Because these divng locations are very remote, Blue Label Diving ALWAYS carries oxygen and an extensive First Aid Kit around and our instructors are all fully qualified DIVE MEDIC TECHNICIANS.
Looking forward to show you the different side of diving; the DARK side.
We have been exploring cave systems in Thailand since 2006. Ben Reymenants, Cave IT has made a 239 meter dive in one of the caves called Sra Keow.
Thailand has vast limestone formations and one can find throughout the country numerous caves to wander through. Some of them go on for miles. Most have water in them, but still doable without the need of scuba equipment.
This does not go up for all Thai cave systems though. Some of the deepest caves in Asia have been dived in Thailand. Krabi province offers a variety of limestone caves as well as more towards the South, In Trang Province. Krabi became famous a few years ago when a deep cave was bottomed out after nearly 10 years of exploration; Sra Keow cave system, which consists out of two small ponds, drops down to a mere 240metres/660 feet below the jungle floor.Caves are most of the time formed by water eating away softer stone, like limestone. This process can take thousands of years and usually results in a true piece of art. Caves formed by acidic rainwater carving out soft limestone are called solution caves.There are different cave systems throughout the world, some are huge and very deep. Others are narrow and shallow but continue for miles.This is usually what Lime stone solution caves are about. Quite shallow (meaning, shallower than 40m/120Ft) and they go on for miles and miles. The caves in Mexico, also called cenotes by the ancient Mayan culture, have an average depth of around 12m/40Ft. Explorers have now laid more than 150Km/ 100Miles of line. The underground in the Yucatan peninsula is comparable to a giant Emmentaler cheese.
Another cave system in Thailand, which have had a few previous diving expeditions, was explored mid November 2006 is called Song Hong (2 rooms). Song Hong Cave system is a sinkhole. Sinkholes appear when an underground cave system comes closer to the surface. The ceiling becomes weak and collapses, leaving a small pong or a large lake. This happened in Song Hong, a small village in the middle of the jungle, Trang Province in South Thailand.The Song Hong Cave, meaning two rooms in Thai language, probably because there are two lakes not far away from each other. The main lake spans about 150m in diameter and is surrounded by Jungle. The water temperature is 26 degrees Celsius and the visibility is around 5-10 meters in the shallows and up to 30m at depth inside the caves.The lake drops quickly to 100m straight off the shore. This is one of the reasons Blue Label Diving also runs its Trimix Courses in this lake. On both sides of the lake a large tunnel drops down, starting at 60m of depth. Both tunnels have a gentle flow of water, suggesting that they were connected ages ago when the lake was not formed yet. To date, only a handful of expeditions had gone to explore. The problem with Diving Song Hong cave is the distance from any civilization. There is a small town nearby, but if one needs lodgings and medical care or gas filling facilities, you are looking at a 2-hour drive to Krabi province.Early expeditions laid lines around the lake and several routes in the upstream section. With each expedition pushing further, there were now to be 2 main lines, stretching in as far as 500m/1500Ft inside the cave. Because of the steep drop, logistics offer a real challenge in terms of long decompression, moving through the cave at a fast pace carrying a large amount of gear and cylinders. The end of the line was 110 meters of depth, 800m inside the cave.The last expedition in Song Hong, pushed by Ben Reymenants and Pekka Hartikainen , pushed the line an extra 19m up to a depth of 155m.
The most popular cavesystem however is based in the enormous Khaosok National park; here a valley was flooded some 25 years ago , forming a lake, powering a hydrodam.The rising water cause some pristine cave systems to flood, now only accessible to divers. Temple cave being the most famous, but cavern divers can swim through hundreds of stalactites in Phra Daeng cave or squeeze into peters cave.Most of the caves are shallower than 20m/60ft, offering plenty of time to wander through or conduct any cave course of choice.Accommodation is on the lake in floating bamboo houses and local food is served 3 times a day.
Looking forward to show you the different side of diving; the DARK side.
