Have you ever met a whale shark? It’s probably the most moving and spectacular encounter you can have during a dive, ever. It happened to us for the first time – quite a few years ago - at Richelieu Rock, a legendary submerged outcrop located between the archipelago of the Surin islands and the Similans one, west of Thailand’s coasts. For a strange reason this place seems to attract these rare and docile animals as a beacon in the night.

During one of our dives we suddenly heard the noise of an air tank being repeatedly hit by a dive knife (that was the conventional signal established with our Dive Master in case of a really spectacular sight) and we frantically swam towards the origin of the sound.

Although it was very difficult to see through (these waters are very turbid because they are so rich in plankton) we turned behind a big sharp rock and… there it was: Rhincodon typus, this huge creature, elegantly gliding the Andamans sea currents. Its massive, gigantic shape against the deep green-blue of the sea resembled that of a fantastic dirigible or one of those spectacular spaceships in a Steven Spielberg movie.

It swam deceptively slowly and majestically above us, amongst the streaming bubbles produced by our prolonged “ooohs” and “aaahs” of utter delight, its grey-blue back dotted and striped with silver-grey and its stomach bright white, its enormous mouth gaping in a huge, toothless grin (whale sharks feed mostly on plankton). What a sight! We have seen several more whale sharks since, but the magic of that first encounter still lingers on.

This encounter wasn’t the only amazing one of our trip. During our ten days liveaboard cruise to the Burma Banks we also saw several species for the first time, and many others we had already encountered during our diving career, such as melon-headed pilot whales, blue ribbon eels Rhinomuraena quaesita, as thin as a pencil with a fluorescent blue body and a yellow head, several peacock mantis shrimps Odontodactylus scyllarus, a big bowmouth guitarfish (not to be mistaken with the giant guitarfish, which is a ray and not a shark), frogfishes, batfishes, lots of beautiful bright fuchsia sea anemones with their clownfish community, plenty of moray eels, octopuses, a few big broadclub cuttlefishes Sepia latimanus, lots of invertebrates of any shape and colour and, most of all, a ridiculous amount of completely harmless leopard (or zebra) sharks Stegostoma fasciatum, which rapidly became the symbol of our diving in Thai waters.

Close to Phuket there even is a local “shark point” where seeing them is guaranteed on every dive. Last but not least, near the Burma Banks we also dove with several quite big nurse and silvertip sharks Nebrius ferrugineus and Carcharhinus albimarginatus, which were obviously very happy to accept the chum offered by our liveaboard’s Dive Master.

It has not often happened to us to encounter so many rare and spectacular species in such a short period. Indeed ours was a very engaging cruise; at least three dives per day, sometimes four, on bottoms often lashed by strong currents. Underwater visibility is average, often mediocre, very rarely excellent: these waters are very rich in nutrients, truly a plankton soup – that’s why whale sharks and big mantas are around! Our boat was really comfortable, robust and efficient: it is not sailing anymore, but in the meantime several better equipped and more comfortable ones have come into service.

Thai food is great, and service is usually perfect. Before the dives there’s the usual briefing in English to give general information on the site. Dives are normally done in couples (buddy system) even if most of the times all the divers get together just for fun.

The use of wrist computers is obviously mandatory, as once you’re underwater you’re on your own. Navigation is usually done mostly at night but in some places it is possible to do night dives. The usual route also touches some above-water localities of absolutely enchanting beauty (the Similan islands archipelago has been declared National Park by the Thai Government): another good reason to love the Andaman Sea and its extraordinary inhabitants.