With no technical training, indigenous fishermen of Thailand Andaman Sea have successfully treated nearly two-thirds of those who suffer decompression illness through in-water recompression.

The Urak Lowoi, better known as Thailand’s “sea gypsies,” make their living fishing using surface supplied air on the islands of Phuket, Phi Phi, Lanta, Lipe, Jum and Adang. While the opening of the Tarutao National Park and the encroachment of the market economy has rapidly changed their lives, the traditions of women running their society while men journey far from home to fish lives on. (more…)

In the previously mentioned article on the development of technical diving in Thailand, the Tourism Authority of Thailand gives a good, if basci, overview of not only reef and wreck diving, but the increasing prominence of cave and cavern diving in the Land of Smiles.

Divers experienced in the use of tri-mix can enjoy some major challenges here. Indeed two of the largest caves so far discovered in Asia are in the vicinity of Krabi province, on the mainland near the island province of Phuket.

Sre Keow was one of the first to be explored. It is accessed through a pond of about 15 metres in diameter that was once mainly used for washing elephants. A small entrance at a depth of ten metres leads into one of the deepest caves so far discovered in Thailand. (more…)